Emily The Painter
“They are just six pieces of white paper with black lines on them. Why are they so good?”. Now that’s a question that many a viewer of Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s Read More
Ancestors as Art
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney has challenged the whole ethos of contemporary Blak art-making with a marvellous Maori exhibition just opened. ‘Robyn Kahukiwa: My Ancestors Are Always With Read More
Major and Ned
The brilliant new Nolan show at the Art Gallery of NSW - NOLAN Origins – actually begins with an overture as you enter the Old Gallery/Naala Nurra that’s a tribute Read More
Great Emu in the Sky
“This project goes beyond road-building. It shows how infrastructure can honour Country, and uplift the communities we build in. The ‘Great Emu in the Sky’ is more than a marker — it’s a legacy.” Read More
Lily Karadada c1927-2026
Sad news – the last of the first generation of Kimberley Wanjina painters has died. Lily Karadada was probably approaching her hundredth birthday, having been born near the Prince Regent Read More
Sydney Contemporary 26
The broad sweeping claim by Sydney Contemporary Art Fair’s Director, Zoe Paulson that there are 100 galleries and 500 artists on display at this year’s 10th art fair didn’t quite Read More
Emily Kngwarreye c1910-2 September 1996
Rodney Gooch had been asked to take over the Utopia Women's Batik Group early in 1987, and managed to convert what had been a community effort into one of the Read More
NATSIAAs 2026
Would it be fair to say that the 43rd annual National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (the Telstra NATSIAAs) are underwhelming? Not that I’m reporting from Darwin. But Read More
Red Ochres and Other Awards
It was back at the end of May that Creative Australia announced the recipients of the 2026 First Nations Arts and Culture Awards at a ceremony held at the Museum Read More
Is the Past Another Country?
“It’s all in you now, brother”, declares the spirit of Bennelong to Sebastian, a contemporary actor who’s conjured him while preparing to audition to impersonate the historical man in a Read More
Opera Noir
A sideline of mine is reviewing opera for a European website called Bachtrack, and, linking that interest with my enthusiasm for Indigenous culture, I went to Brisbane in May to Read More
Michael Leslie’s Politics
He may never have heard of Winston Churchill before, but Kamilaroi/Mandandanji man, Michael Leslie’s award of a Churchill Fellowship taking him to New York and training with the Alvin Read More
Albert’s Aboriginalia
Tony Albert is reputedly the nicest Blak artist in the country despite his association with Brisbane’s proppNOW mob of activists. As he told The Australian newspaper, “Richard Bell (the proppaNOW Read More
NATSIAA Finalists Chosen
94 First Nations artists have been named as finalists in the 2026 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, the NATSIAAs, highlighting the strength, diversity and innovation of Read More
Missed Wynne
What an opportunity lost! The unanimous choice of Richard Lewer’s portrait of Amata artist, Iluwanti Ken as the Big One – the Archibald Prize winner – could surely have encouraged Read More
Archie Wynnes Again
It’s that time again. The Art Gallery of NSW’s Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes are just a week away, but the hang is up, so the Gallery’s Trustees capacities in Read More
Nangara at 30
“These are Old Testament works”, extolled Geoff Henderson, himself a long-time dealer in Aboriginal art, and now the master of Sydney’s Kate Owen Gallery in Rozelle. He’s talking about a Read More
Rhoda Roberts 1959-2026
A great leader of First Nations and Australian culture in the person of Rhoda Roberts AO has died far too young after a brave fight against a rare ovarian cancer. Read More