The Art Diary: 8 new exhibitions on now around Oz

What does a COVID-19 superhero look like? Ceramicist Vipoo Srivilasa has created a collection of superheroes inspired by the dreams of people in the Ballarat community.

These are intimate paintings that contemplate our anxieties around contagion and a health response that seeks to separate and demarcate.

While she takes places of political and physical conflict as her subject matter, her drawings attend more to the aftermath than the battle – the emotional scars and consequent suffering, which are expressed in beautiful drawings and sculptures. (Lesley Harding)

The exhibition examines how objects inspired by traditional arts and crafts were used in Persian society, focusing on seven themes: Joy and Happiness; Purification and Cleansing; Spirituality and Devotion; Poetry and Calligraphy; Rituals and Performance; Patronage and Craftsmanship; Nature and Design.

Map out Johnson’s trajectory as a painter from one of his earliest exhibited works through to the emergence of the style with which he is now identified.

Religious iconography, Indigenous culture, spirituality, religion in colonialism, tributes to loved ones, Insta-tourists and self-worship, the cycles of life, animal symbols in ancient culture, queer identity, sex and love, among various perceptions and concerns for the human spirit are just some of the themes explored in the Blake Prize exhibition.

Explores the subjectivity, privilege and hidden cost of our safety.

When acts of genocide that have occurred in Australia since colonisation are routinely overlooked or disregarded, The Image is not Nothing (Concrete Archives) ultimately looks here and elsewhere in order to grapple with traumas that Australia as a nation has not processed.