Arts / Culture

Art in October: Your guide to the Australian exhibitions taking place this month

Art in October: Your guide to the Australian exhibitions taking place this month

October ushers in a vibrant array of art exhibitions across Australia, each offering a unique window into the creative pulse of the country.

From the sweeping landscapes of the outback captured in new contemporary works to bold installations challenging the norms of urban life, the month is set to celebrate both emerging talent and established icons. Whether it’s the immersive digital experiences lighting up Sydney’s galleries or the intimate, handcrafted pieces filling Melbourne’s cultural hubs, Australia’s art scene is alive with innovation and imagination, making this the perfect time to explore the transformative power of art in all its forms.

For the best in Australian art in October 2024, keep scrolling.

 

NSW

Install view of Wilder Times at Bundanon.

 

China Heights

Yaam ngaya ngaarlu’ - I am water until Sunday 6 October

Painter Otis Hope Carey creates moments of calm escape, mesmeric auras and refuge from turbulence, both internal and external, in this new and vivid exhibition.

 

Ngununggula

The Art World Came to Us: Macquarie Galleries 1938-1963 – until Thursday 17 November

Focuses on a 25-year period between 1938 and 1963 and celebrates Treania Smith, Lucy Swanton and Mary Turner, women at the helm of Australian art who carved out a new way of working and representing artists during this period of significant global and social change.

 

Bundanon

WILDER TIMES until Sunday 13 October

Group exhibition bringing together over 60 works by seminal Australian artists from the same time as Arthur Boyd created this momentous Shoalhaven landscape paintings.

 

Olsen Gallery

Internal Logic – until Saturday 19 October

Richard Morecroft refers to his fascination with biological, geological and astronomical systems, drawing connections with certain processes of Nature.

 

Rainbow Studios

Bird Bathopens Thursday 24 October

The first solo exhibition on Australia’s east coast for Western Australian artist Reif Myers, who draws inspiration from some of Sydney’s most celebrated artists, including Ken Done, Brett Whiteley, and Mambo, while adding a fresh Australian twist to his collection of signature icons.

 

Sullivan + Strumpf

The Self Portrait and the Masks – until Saturday 12 October

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran extends his explorations of religious iconographies connected to his Sri Lankan ancestry by nodding self-consciously to the politics of self-representation.

 

Joyride – opens Thursday 17 October

An exhibition in two parts, centred on a six-panel panorama that traverses Marion Abraham’s hometown in Tasmania, and a quiet counterforce, composed of a series of intimate still life works.

 

N.Smith Gallery

Queen Mother of the West – until Friday 5 October

Louise Zhang reclaims the aesthetics of oriental chinoiserie, conscious of how cultural symbols have been exoticised by Western cultures, transforming them again into a powerful medium of healing and self exploration.

 

Murray Art Museum Albury

Hold the world to its word – until 16 March 2025

Featuring works by Hoda Afshar, Matthew Harris, Spence Messih, Stephen Ralph, Sandra Selig, this exhibition recognises the notion of an inherently good and just world is a fragile one.

 

Ames Yavuz

Techno Dreaming – from Thursday 10 October

André Hemer’s new series of paintings and video works capture lush floral landscapes that play with the false naturalism of forms that have been ‘dreamt’ by generative AI tools.

 

VIC

Install view of Beings at ACMI.

 

National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)

Pharoah – until Sunday 6 October

Partnering with the British Museum, this is a landmark exhibition that celebrates three thousand years of ancient Egyptian art and culture.

 

ARC ONE

Summer Fruits – until Saturday 9 November

Dani Marti’s latest solo exhibition sees his signature melted plastics and nylon ropes bulge from the walls, using fruit as an ancient metaphor for human flesh.

 

ACMI

Beings – Sunday 6 October

This groundbreaking exhibition by Universal Everything allows you to move, dance, and play with a vibrant array of larger-than-life digital creatures, each reacting uniquely to your movements.

 

Flinder's Lane Gallery

Lifelines – until Saturday 12 October

Margaret Ackland’s large scale still life watercolours, featuring glassware, flowers, and tablecloths, have been imbued with a deeper, subtle meaning.

 

No Vacancy

LAND, SEA AND ME – until Friday 5 October

Brigita Lastauskaite evokes a feeling and a sense of place through her painted landscapes, and organic forms and textures.

 

Buxton Contemporary

The same crowd never gathers twice – until Sunday 13 October

Spanning moving image, sound, sculptural intervention and performance, this group exhibition tests the limits of the arena.

 

MARS Gallery

Once more and then again – from Saturday 12 October

Sydney born, Melbourne based, artist Kate McKenzie Lewis’ work is steeped in the Australian landscape, each painting a memory of time spent in this liminal place, the bush between, and where the bay and ocean come to meet on the Peninsula.

 

THE GRUDGE. THE MISFIT. THE RESOLUTION. – from Thursday 10 October

Born from a sketch made over 8 years ago, Jud Wimhurst pushes the boundaries and conceptions of contemporary sculpture, brought to life through technically challenging craftsmanship.

 

WA

Install view of Indian Ocean Craft Triennial at Freemantle Arts Centre.

 

Art Gallery of Western Australia

Life in the third personopens Friday 5 October

Gutman unveils her first solo exhibition on the West Coast this month at Art Gallery of Western Australia, with her larger-than-life new work Life in the third person.

 

Japingka Gallery

Ngarrangkarni - Dreamtime Stories – until 20 November

Madeline Purdie’s family is one of the most respected and artistically renowned families in the East Kimberley, and guided by the great Shirley Purdie, daughter Madeline has produced a suite of works that respond to the sites and stories of their Ancestral Lands.

 

Freemantle Arts Centre

Indian Ocean Craft Triennial – until Sunday 27 October

IOTA24 showcases the work of international craft artists and groups from six Indian Ocean countries – India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, South Africa, and includes First nations Australians and Australians of diverse heritages.

 

ACT

Install view of Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao at NGA.

 

TarraWarra Museum of Art

(SC)OOT(ER)ING around – until Thursday 10 November

An exhibition of new and existing works by Su san Cohn, craft artist and Eugenia Raskopoulos, visual artist, that explores how the human body wears lived experience both on its skin, and within.

 

National Gallery of Australia

Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao – until Monday 7 October

 

QLD

Install view of Ground Work at Edwina Corlette.

 

Home of the Arts (HOTA)

Kingdom of Kindness – until Monday  7 October

Artist Abdul Abdullah invites you to visit his Kingdom of Kindness, a special place where everyone belongs and you can make friends with the rock characters in his paintings and help to bring them to life with your creativity.

 

Edwina Corlette

Ground Work – until Tuesday 15 October

Bridie Gillman’s mark-making is an intuitive response to the memories and emotions evoked from her cross-cultural experiences, this exhibition beginning with a familiar experience – looking out of a plane window at the ground below.

 

Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)

Iris van Herpen Sculpting the Senses – until 7 October

Exclusive to Brisbane, this exhibition is an immersive sensory exploration of her practice with 130 garments and accessories in conversation with contemporary artworks, natural history specimens and cultural artefacts from which the designer draws inspiration.

 

Outer Space Gallery

Running Rivers: People of Place – until Saturday 26 October

This multi-sensory installation from Kuweni Dias Mendis utilises the river as a symbol to explore the feminine expressions of the Sri Lankan 64 Mayam, embodying spirituality as a journey and destination.

 

SA

Install view of Wash and War at Adelaide Festival Centre.

 

Art Gallery of South Australia

Surrender & Catch – until Sunday 20 October

Moving between figuration and abstraction, Brent Harris deploys both humour and the grotesque to examine psychological subject matter and visualise his complex and contradictory feelings.

 

Adelaide Festival Centre

Wash and War – until Tuesday 31 December

The historic railway phone booths exhibition showcases all five remaining ceramic artworks in the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Works of Art Collection by Olive Bishop entitled Wash and War. A play on the words 'wash and wear', the title suggests the cycle of use and re-use and the endless cycle of war.

 

NT

Progress shot of I CAME YANYU THROUGH THE JIRI (I came here through the sky) at Laundry Gallery. Photo by Nina Fitzgerald.

 

Araluen Arts Centre

Desert Mob 2024 – until Friday 20 October

Curated by Hetti Perkins (Arrernte and Kalkadoon) and Aspen Beattie (Luritja, Warumungu and Yawuru), Desart is proud to present the Desert Mob 2024 exhibition, featuring a curated selection of works from hundreds of artists across 32 art centres.

 

Laundry Gallery

I CAME YANYU THROUGH THE JIRI (I came here through the sky) – until Tuesday 31 October

Tiarna Herczeg is a proud First Nations and Hungarian woman living on Gadigal lands whose exhibit features new work that responds to her time on Larrakia Country. Herczeg's works are defined by loose, large, gestural brush strokes with vibrant colours and organic compositions highlighting the familiarity, richness and vitality of Country. You can also read gallerist Nina Fitzgerald's conversation with Tiana Herczeg about the show on our site.

 

TAS

From <em>One For Sorrow, Two For Joy</em> at Despard Gallery.
From One For Sorrow, Two For Joy at Despard Gallery.

 

Salamanca Arts Centre

Living Ghosts: Above and Below the Waves – until Friday 27 October

Tasmanian artist Wendy Steinberg invites you to embark on a journey into the ethereal realm of Tasmania’s threatened marine species through an art experience that connects you with their world.

 

Despard Gallery

One For Sorrow, Two For Joy – until Thursday 12 October

In her fourth solo exhibition with Despard Gallery, Chew presents a new body of paintings which map an ongoing exploration into our understanding of dwellings, both as a physical structure as well as a symbol of sanctuary.

 


Looking to invest in art of your own? Here are some pieces the RUSSH editors have welcomed into their own spaces.

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