Art Almanac

Art Almanac Australia's Monthly Briefing on Art | www.art-almanac.com.au John McDonald
The Sydney Morning Herald

Each month, Art Almanac publishes its renowned and comprehensive Gallery and Art Services Listings in a compact and easy to digest magazine. It also features extended Exhibition Reviews, the latest Art News and Events, as well as a selection of Exhibitions in Brief. Digitally, the website is a dynamic offering based on the monthly print journal but enhanced by real-time updates of what’s happening in the Australian art community, as well as where and when to see it. The eAlmanac – a weekly newsletter – provides a snapshot of art, exhibitions, news and special events from around the country to an extensive email subscriber base.

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"There is no doubt as to Australia's most valuable art publication... This small, independent, monthly publication bills itself as the essential guide to Australia's galleries, and this is the simple truth. For a long time I've been in the habit of marking up each new issue as though it were the form guide, carrying it with me from one gallery to the next."

Desert Mob returns Thursday 10 September - Sunday 25 October in Mparntwe / Alice Springs! Presented by Desart, Desert Mo...
25/08/2026

Desert Mob returns Thursday 10 September - Sunday 25 October in Mparntwe / Alice Springs!

Presented by Desart, Desert Mob is one of the nation’s oldest and most extraordinary celebrations of Aboriginal art and culture. Accompanied by the Vincent Lingiari Art Award in 2026, Desert Mob offers a significant program in the Australian art calendar with the renowned Desert Mob opening night and exhibition, a captivating day of Artist Talks, vibrant Art Market, workshops and more all to be held at the Araluen Arts Centre.

See the full program of events at www.desertmob.com and plan your journey to the heart of Australia this September!

Image:
Andrea Pungarta Rontji and Hayley Panangka Coulthard of Hermmansburg
Potters at the Desert Mob Opening 2025. Photo by Sara Maiorino (Sara Maiorino).
Courtesy of Desart.

Art Gallery of South Australia Monet to Matisse - 8th Nov 2026Defying Tradition traces a ground-breaking era in art hist...
20/08/2026

Art Gallery of South Australia
Monet to Matisse - 8th Nov 2026

Defying Tradition traces a ground-breaking era in art history through iconic works by the most influential European and American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Exclusive to AGSA, experience 57 masterworks as they tell the story of artists defying tradition and transforming modern art, from Impressionism to Cubism and Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism.

Images: Claude Monet, 1926, Water Lilies, oil on canvas, 200.7 × 213.4cm,
Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, Yellow, Black, and Gray, 1922, oil on canvas, 41.9 × 48.6 cm,
Henri Matisse, Dancer Resting, 1940, France, oil on canvas, 81.3 × 64.8 cm,
Paul Signac, Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice, 1905, oil on canvas, 73.5 × 92.1 cm
Courtesy of Art Gallery of South Australia

Select exhibition for Sept issueCelia Gullett : Spirit into matter Jan Murphy Gallery - 5th AugInfluences in Sydney-base...
16/08/2026

Select exhibition for Sept issue
Celia Gullett : Spirit into matter
Jan Murphy Gallery - 5th Aug

Influences in Sydney-based painter Celia Gullett's work include abstraction, colour field painting, and minimalism, as well as ancient Asian philosophies.

Works of Spirit into matter recognise that while there are paintings that tell stories, there are also paintings that ask to be inhabited - like a piece of music, they resist immediate explanation, unfolding instead through pause, repetition, and rhythm. The works here belong to this quieter tradition, inviting a slower form of looking, where meaning emerges gradually through sustained attention.

Images:
Soft light, 2026, oil on linen, 168 × 137cm

Variation VII 2024, oil on linen, 183.0 × 168.0 cm
Two panels (183 x 84 cm each)

Courtesy the artist and Jan Murphy Gallery, Queensland

Select exhibition for Sept issue Celia Gullett : Spirit into matterJan Murphy Gallery - 5th Aug Influences in Sydney-bas...
16/08/2026

Select exhibition for Sept issue
Celia Gullett : Spirit into matter
Jan Murphy Gallery - 5th Aug

Influences in Sydney-based painter Celia Gullett’s work include abstraction, colour field painting, and minimalism, as well as ancient Asian philosophies.

Works of Spirit into matter recognise that while there are paintings that tell stories, there are also paintings that ask to be inhabited – like a piece of music, they resist immediate explanation, unfolding instead through pause, repetition, and rhythm. The works here belong to this quieter tradition, inviting a slower form of looking, where meaning emerges gradually through sustained attention.

Images:
Variation VII
2024
oil on linen
183.0 x 168.0 cm
Two panels (183 x 84 cm each)

Celia Gullet Artist

Soft light, 2026, oil on linen, 168 × 137cm

Courtesy the artist and Jan Murphy Gallery, Queensland

The Percivals painting and photographic portrait prize. Townsville at the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in North Queensla...
13/08/2026

The Percivals painting and photographic portrait prize.
Townsville at the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in North Queensland Townsville City Galleries - 30th Aug

How relevant is painted portraiture in 2026? Some time ago, painted portraiture seemed on the nose; it was something deemed obsolete and old fashioned and in a digital age where each day more photographs are snapped than in the entire twentieth century, what’s the point of a painstaking oil, acrylic, or watercolour painted portrait? I feel that at a moment when human identity is being eroded digitally, through deep fakes and AI – it is the painted portrait that can try to restore dignity to the human semblance. The great writer Maksim Gorky once said, “‘I am a human being’ should be pronounced with pride.” Many of the fifty-four paintings at the Percivals Painting Prize exhibition explore what it means to be human, and, in art, this is something that may be difficult to achieve in art forms other than portraiture.

Writes Emeritus Professor Sasha Grishin AM

Images:
Cutler Footway, Person With Painting #1 – Robin Forster, 2024–5, acrylic on canvas, 150 × 100cm / Highly Commended in the 2026 Percival Portrait Painting Prize / Portrait of Robin Forster / Courtesy the artist and Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Queensland

Cassandra McMahon, Empty Vessel, 2025, archival digital photographic print on Platine Fiber Rag, 63.5 × 51cm / Winner of the 2026 Percival Photographic Portrait Prize / Self-portrait / Courtesy the artist and Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Queensland

Exciting new artist opportunity with Kingston Arts !Emerging and established artists are invited to submit an Expression...
12/08/2026

Exciting new artist opportunity with Kingston Arts !

Emerging and established artists are invited to submit an Expression of Interest to exhibit in the Kingston Arts 2027 exhibition program.

Exhibition spaces include:

🖼️ Indoor galleries

💡Outdoor Lightbox Gallery

🌉Nightly Skybridge projection space

Expressions of Interest are now open!
Closing on Mon 7 Sep 2026

🔗Find out more via link in Kingston Arts bio

📸James Henry

Potter Museum of Art Melbourne 10 July — 21 November 2026.Gum trees are scattered all across Australia.That's what makes...
07/08/2026

Potter Museum of Art Melbourne
10 July — 21 November 2026.

Gum trees are scattered all across Australia.
That's what makes this exhibition, Ngarn Wa'ngal: Art of the gum tree so special.

Located at the Potter Museum of Art in Melbourne, the exhibition takes a closer look at how the iconic eucalypt has inspired artists across centuries.

Curated by Alisa Bunbury and Sophie Gerhard.

Image 1: Installation view of Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. Photography by William Hamilton-Coates.

Image 2: Installation view of Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. Featuring Dean Cross, SCORE/SCAR 2022-2026 and There are 1000 ways to change the world, but you only need one2026, courtesy of the artist and Station Gallery, Sydney. Photography by William Hamilton-Coates.

Image 3: Installation view of Ngarn Wa'ngal: Art of the gum tree, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. Featuring Lin Onus, Floodwater 'Woorong Nucko' 1995. Photography by Gabrielle Capes.

Image 4: Installation view of Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. Featuring Lewis Wandin-Bursill, Dagan biik 2023, courtesy of the artist and Murrup Biik Public Art, Melbourne. Photography by Christian Capurro.

Image 5: Installation view of Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. Featuring megan evans, Gust 2026, courtesy of the artist. Miegunyah Creative Fellowship commission, 2026. Photography by Christian Capurro.

COMING SOON: WORLD PRESS PHOTO - opening this Saturday 8th Aug. The Art Gallery of Ballarat will bring the World Press P...
03/08/2026

COMING SOON: WORLD PRESS PHOTO - opening this Saturday 8th Aug.

The Art Gallery of Ballarat will bring the World Press Photo exhibition to Victoria for the first time in a decade this August. It is the first time the global photojournalism exhibition has come to Ballarat.

Each year, the contest highlights the outstanding work of photojournalists and documentary photographers from across the globe. The exhibition offers broad perspectives and intimate insider views on conflicts, crises, resistance, resilience and tradition.

World Press Photo will be held at the Ballarat Mining Exchange from 8 August to 20 September 2026.

The World Press Photo Foundation is supported by the following corporate sponsors: the Dutch Postcode Lottery and FUJIFILM.

The Art Gallery of Ballarat thanks local media partner Gawk Outdoor and wine partner Black & Ginger Wines.

Featured images:

1. 'Farīsāt: Gunpowder’s Daughters' © Chantal Pinzi, Panos Pictures: Ghita Jhiate manages her unruly stallion. Long forbidden by her father to participate in Tbourida, she finally realised her dream of riding alongside pioneer Zahia Aboulait in 2025. Sidi Rahal, Morocco, 6 August 2025.

2. 'A Daughter’s Grief in Kashmir' © Yasir Iqbal, Outlook India Magazine: Sanam Bashir (21) collapses with grief at her mother’s funeral. Nargis Begum (45) died from shrapnel wounds after a mortar shell struck while the two were fleeing their home. Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, India, 9 May 2025.

3. 'Emma the Social Robot' © Paula Hornickel: Waltraud talks with Emma, a social robot that recognises faces and remembers past conversations. Though skeptical at first, Waltraud says she felt connected to Emma over time. Albershausen, Germany, 3 July 2025

August issue out now! Australia’s monthly guide to exhibitions and awards. Features: Facing Modernity Shepparton Art Mus...
02/08/2026

August issue out now!
Australia’s monthly guide to exhibitions and awards.

Features: Facing Modernity Shepparton Art Museum (SAM)
Tony Garifalakis + Hari Koutlakis Hugo Michell Gallery
The Percivals Townsville City Galleries
Edouard Vuillard Art Gallery of South Australia

Cover:
André Derain (French, b.1880, d.1954), Paysage à l'Estaque (Estaque Landscape), 1906, oil on canvas, 54 x 65.5cm /
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tämaki, gift of Julian and Josie Robertson through the Auckland Art Gallery Foundation, 2023

Read more in later issue.

Read about this exhibition

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