Artist

Telstra NATSIAA Award: Elizabeth Mbitjana Pitijana

2025, Artist, Exhibition, Prizes / By / , , ,

Congratulations Elizabeth Mbitjana Pitijana, finalist in the 2025 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards Finalist. Her work is currently showing in the finalist exhibition at Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin.

Anmatyerr artist Elizabeth Mbitjana Pitijana was born in 1970 in the Urapuntja (Utopia) region of the Northern Territory, northeast of Alice Springs. Her painting journey started from a young age, inspired by her family’s dreaming story of Arnwekety (bush plum). Encouraged by notable family members including her mother Kathleen Ngale, her father Motorbike Paddy Ngale, and her aunts Angelina Pwerle (Ngale) and Polly Ngale, Elizabeth draws on traditional techniques, with the development of her own distinctive style of white mark making upon stark black backgrounds. She subtly incorporates tones of red, yellow, and orange to represent the Arnwekety story. The story of Arnwekety has been passed on and continues in Elizabeth’s paintings today. 

2025 Telstra NATSIAA
Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin
until 26 January 2026

Deakin University Small Sculpture Award: Euan Heng & Steven Rendall

2025, Artist, Exhibition, Prizes / By / , , , , ,

Congratulations Euan Heng and Steven Rendall – finalists in the Deakin University Small Sculpture Award 2025. In its sixteenth year, this annual acquisitive award and exhibition is organised by the Art Collection and Galleries Unit at Deakin University. The award celebrates contemporary sculpture with an exhibition of finalists’ work at the Deakin University Art Gallery.

Deakin University Small Sculpture Award 2025
Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne
27 August – 10 October 2025

The Potter: Mabel Juli & Julie Dowling

2025, Artist, Exhibition, publication / By / , , , , , ,

The Potter Museum of Art (The Potter) has now reopened after an extensive redevelopment with the landmark exhibition 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art, featuring works by Mabel Juli and Julie Dowling. The exhibition is curated by Associate Provost and Distinguished Professor Marcia Langton AO, Senior Curator Judith Ryan AM, and Associate Curator Shanysa McConville—in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and custodians of art traditions.

65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art celebrates the significance and brilliance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art created from time immemorial and throughout Australia’s colonial history and beyond into the twenty-first century. The artistic and design traditions that began 65,000 years ago and thrived despite the disasters that befell the first peoples after 1788 remain the distinctive and unique creations of this country.

65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art
The Potter Museum of Art (The Potter), The University of Melbourne, Parkville
until 22 November 2025

Julie Dowling: ARTIST PROFILE

2025, Artist, Exhibition, publication / By / , , , , ,

In addition to 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art at The Potter Museum, Julie Dowling‘s work is currently showing in Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia at the National Gallery of Australia, Lines in the Sand: Women from the West at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and Balancing Act at Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.

65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art
The Potter Museum of Art (The Potter), The University of Melbourne, Parkville
until 22 November 2025

Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
until 24 August 2025

Lines in the Sand: Women from the West
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth
until 30 August 2025

Balancing Act
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
ongoing

Griffith University Art Museum: Fiona Foley & Ken Whisson

2025, Artist, Exhibition, publication / By / , , ,

Contributing to Griffith University’s 50th anniversary celebrations this year, Griffith University Museum of Art presents the exhibition Collecting the Future: 50 Years of the Griffith University Art Collection. The exhibition of over 190 works, including examples by Fiona Foley and Ken Whisson highlights significant acquisitions and donations made over the last five decades and includes key collecting areas: early video art, political posters, painting, contemporary Australian Indigenous art, and contemporary photography.

Collecting the Future: 50 years of the Griffith University Art Collection
Griffith University Art Museum, South Brisbane
until 16 August 2025

Brenda L. Croft: ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

2025, Artist, Exhibition / By / ,

Brenda L. Croft‘s series Naabámi (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me) is currently showing in On Country: Photography from Australia at the prestigious festival Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France. This major exhibition is curated by PHOTO Australia’s Pippa Milne and Brendan McCleary and highlights the work of twenty Australian artists.

Croft’s important series Naabámi (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me) features portraits derived from tintypes, then printed large-scale of contemporary Australian First Nations women and girls, honouring Barangaroo, the Cammeraygal woman known for her staunch position as an unceded sovereign First Nations woman during first settler-colonial contact. Read more in The Guardian here.

In addition, Brenda L. Croft’s work is included in Protest is a creative act at Museum of Australian Photography, Melbourne.

Protest is a creative act brings together work of Australian women artists that calls out inequality and seeks to disrupt the status quo. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the UN-declared International Women’s Year (1975), the exhibition charts the relationship between art, protest and social change over that 50-year period, while also showing that taking a stand means more than waving a placard at a protest rally. Courtesy of Museum of Australian Photography.

On Country: Photography from Australia
Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France
until 5 October 2025

Protest is a creative act
Museum of Australian Photography, Melbourne
until 31 August 2025

Fiona Foley: ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

2025, Artist, Exhibition, publication / By / , ,

In addition to Collecting the Future: 50 Years of the Griffith University Art Collection, Fiona Foley‘s work features in the exhibition Taking Back Language at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre. Curated by Sarah Werkmeister and Katie Ryan, Taking Back Language showcases a selection of works by acclaimed Aboriginal artists who engage with text to reclaim language.

Collecting the Future: 50 years of the Griffith University Art Collection
Griffith University Art Museum, South Brisbane
until 16 August 2025

Taking Back Language
Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne
until 4 Oct 2025

Angela Brennan: ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

2025, Artist, Exhibition, publication / By / , , , , , , ,

The Archibald Prize 2025 exhibition, which features Angela Brennan‘s painting Bridget in my painting closes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales next month. The touring exhibition begins at Geelong Gallery on 30 August.

Archibald Prize 2025
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
until 17 August 2025

Archibald Prize 2025
Geelong Gallery, Geelong
30 August – 9 November 2025

 

Helen Maudsley & Ken Whisson in ‘What Artists See: Essays’ by Quentin Sprague

2025, Artist, Exhibition, publication / By / , ,

Helen Maudsley and Ken Whisson feature in Quentin Sprague’s compelling new publication What artists see.

The twelve essays in this collection offer glimpses into the lives of some of Australia’s best contemporary artists, exploring the impetus for creativity and the role of art in making meaning. Tied together by an enduring curiosity for how artists practice – what motivates them, what confounds them and what compels them to keep creating – these pieces span the islands of Carpentaria to suburban Perth, the streets of Malaysia to the deserts of the Northern Territory. What emerges is art as an act of wilful vision – of alternative ways of seeing that illuminate the otherwise invisible. – Courtesy of Monash University Publishing.

Order your copy here, or pick one up at your local bookstore.

Julie Dowling: ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

2025, Artist, Exhibition, publication / By / , , , ,

Julie Dowling‘s work features in two important exhibitions. Following a national and international tour, Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia returns to Kamberri/Canberra for its final showing at the National Gallery of Australia until 24 August. This survey of historical and contemporary works of art by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from across Australia is curated by Tina Baum, drawing from the national collection and Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art.

In addition, Julie Dowling’s work features in the recently opened exhibition Blak In-Justice: Incarceration and Resilience at Heide Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition calls attention to the pressing issue of Indigenous incarceration in Australia and is curated by Kent Morris, Barkindji artist, curator and Creative Director of The Torch and consulting curator Tina Baum, Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, National Gallery of Australia.

Blak In-Justice: Incarceration and Resilience
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
until 20 July 2025

Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
until 24 August 2025

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