Enigmatic artist’s journey from the sensual to spiritual
Mystery surrounds the transformation of Mervyn Napier Waller from painter of seductive nudes to leading religious artist.
Visual Arts
Bookstore turns page with daring display
A new Vernon Ah Kee mural celebrates Brisbane writers as it wraps around independent bookstore Avid Reader.
Descent into genre folie a deux
Grace Crowley seems to have drawn by Ralph Balson into genre so incompatible with her sensibility that it extinguished her inspiration.
Paul Gauguin a pedophile? Let’s be clear about the facts
This important survey of the French post-impressionist’s work is mercifully free of irrelevant ideological posturing.
‘It’s a gift’: popular independent theatre set to be given away
After 36 years, Gail Wiltshire is offering her theatre, and its legacy, to the people – much to the frustration of developers.
Children of the Sun
Carl Sagan, the great American astronomer, was fond of pointing out that our bodies are “made of star-stuff”. It’s literally true.
‘First contact’ artist wins $100k prize
An artist who was one of Australia’s last traditional hunter-gatherers has won the $100,000 Telstra Art Award, the nation’s most prestigious prize for Indigenous artists.
Archibald People’s Choice awarded to portrait of Marcia Langton
The portrait is by Sydney artist Angus McDonald, a seven-time Archibald Prize finalist, who previously won the People’s Choice award in 2020.
Close encounters of the drone kind
How does Dani Watson create this otherworldly, sci-fi vibe in her landscape photographs? The answer will tickle you…
Secrets of the past
An exhibition from the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, now at the National Museum of Australia, offers a more scholarly examination of ancient Egypt.
How to stage a revolution
A new cast of stars is set to make history as one of the world’s biggest musicals, Hamilton, returns to Sydney.
![Zoe Grey claims the coveted $100,000 Hadley art prize. [Credit: Jessica King]](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/a99d1061aaf280ca66f30faa0ef9b344?width=650)
Connecting to wild with a story on canvas
Young artist Zoe Grey grew up scaling rugged cliff faces and surfing through wild waves – painting the untameable landscape has earned her a lucrative $100,000 purse.
Starmer rolls out marbles diplomacy
The Elgin Sculptures could return to Athens as part of the new British Labour government’s charm offensive aimed at resetting relations with Europe.
NGA nabs country’s first Gauguin for $9.8m
A major new acquisition will help deepen conversations over Paul Gauguin’s troublesome legacy, says National Gallery of Australia director Nick Mitzevich.
Essence of sensibility
Works by Wendy Sharpe and Peter Kingston display equally distinctive, if very different, aesthetic personalities.
Music meets dance in passion project
A spectacular collaboration between Rafael Bonachela’s Sydney Dance Company and Richard Tognetti’s Australian Chamber Orchestra celebrates the music of Arvo Part and JS Bach.
‘The last life lesson Mum ever gave me’
When photographic artist Aletheia Casey made this image of her mother, she didn’t realise how special it would turn out to be.
Brutal regimes shaped from noble ideas
She fled the Soviet Union with her family for a new life in Australia — and now a major survey of her sculptural work is on at the NGV. What drives artist Nina Sanadze?
![[Four children in fancy dressfeaturing the products, Jelline andSilver Drop Flour] 1910-30photographer: George Henry Hawkins,Sydneydigitised from glass negative, half-plateChau Chak Wing Museum, TheUniversity of Sydney, HP88.21.165](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/1039c60869c1b2515358a3cbbf3a0587?width=650)
Every picture tells a story, even those manipulated
Images have been manipulated since the earliest days of photography, as this University of Sydney exhibition highlights.
The hunt continues for Kahlo’s lost painting
The Wounded Table was an act of post-divorce revenge, but it went missing in the 1950s. Is all hope of recovery lost?
New exhibition offers heartwarming glimpses into this Australian life
The finalists for the Australian Life 2024 photography competition are in. Their images will make you do a double take.
Deep geological time on the canvas
A new exhibition, Stonework at Castlemaine Art Museum, takes a deep dive into the overbearing reality of geological time in 19th and 20th century landscapes paintings.
‘Fraud’ or fun? MONA displays Picasso fakes for three years
Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art has revealed it has been fooling the world — ‘Picasso’ paintings it has displayed for three years are fakes.
Artist unmasks gallery’s cultural confusion
The quirky, vibrant masks artist Liz Parkinson creates are lauded and loved worldwide but in regional NSW it’s a different story.
Artful meeting of East and West
This exhibition shows how leading artists Cressida Campbell and Margaret Preston melded Japanese printing techniques with an Australian aesthetic.
Felling William Crowther’s statue wasn’t the way to right a historical wrong
Not all civic statues are appropriate for all time, but common public space needs to be respected – not vandalised.
Fashion’s mad scientist reveals the formula
Beloved by eccentric and icons such as Bjork and Lady Gaga, polymath Iris van Herpen reveals how her synaesthesia – including ‘seeing’ music – informs her out-of-this-world designs.
How you can ‘party like its 1599’ at the Illuminate festival
The festival’s eclectic program this year will involve almost 150 artists who draw on everything from deepfake technology to 3D NASA photographs and the primal power of fire.
Gauguin exhibition begins at his lonely end
The National Gallery of Australia’s Gauguin blockbuster is the first exhibition to focus on the French master’s Oceania period.
Raising the temperature
Melbourne’s Rising festival of art, music and performance has plenty to amuse and provoke.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/visual-arts/page/5