As we lean into the warmer months of the latter half of the year, creative juices – often lying dormant over colder months – tend to resurface. After enduring winter ennui, spring awakens fresh ideas that blossom in sync with the season, allowing creative momentum to unfold.
Mark your cultural calendars, October is shaping up to be a month abounding with artistic hum across the Australian landscape. Spanning from emerging artists who are carving out creative spaces on their own terms to names who have solidified their artistic reputation and are continuing to evolve their craft, this month is offering up a rich tapestry of artistic talent.
NSW
White Rabbit Gallery
David Williams: Tender Comrade – until 9 November 2025
Curated by David Williams, this exhibition champions the endurance of queer communities in the Republic of China, who define themselves as Tongzhi or ‘comrade’ – underscored by a sentiment of autonomy. This thematically charged display of unspoken desire and mutual recognition spans across four floors and oscillates between voyeurism and representation, with a protection of queer identity at the forefront.
China Heights
Sam Stephenson: You Can’t Miss What You Never Heard – 17 October 2025
Sam Stephenson (Samoh) is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work unfolds primarily within the medium of photography. Playing out at China Heights, this exhibition serves as a documentation of cultural movements unfolding within Sydney’s rich skate scene.
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Thomas Demand: The Object Lesson – until 11 January 2026
Leading contemporary artist Thomas Demand unveils his latest project, transforming the Isaac Wakil Gallery into a unique setting for almost 60 artworks selected by the artist from the John Kaldor Family Collection.
VIC
Brunswick Street Gallery
Cecilia Jacobs: Oxide – 2 until 19 October
Through this exhibition, Cecilia Jacobs seeks inspiration from the patina that marks construction surfaces with the stamp of time, alluding to a subtle – albeit powerful – unfolding of the everyday. Jacobs offsets this natural decay onto Japanese print paper, juxtaposing decay and permanence, alongside fragility and strength.
Heide Museum
Maria Kontis: And I would say these things to no one but you – until 23 February 2026
Kontis has a penchant for ephemera by the likes of discarded photographs, letters and torn paper by which she collects and displays, in the hope of immortalising the intimacy of fleeting moments. Through this approach, she champions the past, whilst utilising tropes of Albert Tucker’s modernist vision as a point of inspiration to bring this exhibition together.
Heide Museum
Man Ray and Max Dupain – until 9 November 2025
This exhibition brings into dialogue for the first time the contemporaneous work of American-born artist Man Ray and eminent Australian photographer Max Dupain, with a focus on their experimentation with surrealist imagery and innovative photographic techniques.
QLD
QAGOMA
Archie Moore: kith and kin – until 18 October 2026
Moore’s work 'kith and kin' is composed of a celestial map of names spanning across tens of thousands of years, displaying a call to action for the widespread dissemination of First Nations legacies and rich narratives. Moore displays his work in a single continuum, inviting viewers to adopt a Kamilaroi understanding of past, present and future.
Queensland Museum
Make a Scene: Fashioning Queer Identity and Club Culture in the 90s – until 19 July 2026
This exhibition coincides with the 35th anniversary decriminalisation of homosexuality and serves as a tangible tribute to queer resilience and representation in the cultural zeitgeist of the ‘90s. Steeped in lived experience, this exhibition recounts untold stories of the queer community, unfolding in cathartic spaces where movement and music dominate.
Outer Space
Subversive Threads – until 22 November 2025
Rae Haynes presents a powerful exploration of feminist and ancestral legacies through embroidery, blending archival research, auto-theory, and participatory practice to highlight textile work as a form of resistance.
ACT
NGA
Lindy Lee: Collection Display – until February 2026
One of Australia’s most influential contemporary artists, Lindy Lee, centres this exhibition around the state of impermanence. Lee fleshes out this vision through a conceptually rich ancestral lens which explores the cyclical notions of existence, migration, transformation and hope.
WA
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Second Generation Collective: Valley of Love – until 21 December 2025
Vádyé Eshgh وادی عشق (Valley of Love) is a new body of work by the Second Generation Collective, which was founded by Iranian-Australian video artist, Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson and film-maker-slash-musician, Asha Kiani. Through overlapping Persian and South-Asian aesthetics, this exhibition traces journeys of fleeing homelands, surrendering to the mysteries of the human experience whilst allowing space for divine love. Valley of Love leans heavily on motifs of remembrance, grief and lineage.
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Sam Contis: Moving Landscape – until November 9 2025
In an Australian first, US photographer Sam Contis displays three corpora of work at the Art Gallery of WA. Contis has solidified her name in the international ranks, and in this exhibition, she unpacks the complicated relationship between individuals and our attachment to environments through the medium of photography.
TAS
MONA
Arcangelo Sassolino – until 6 April 2026
Italian sculptor Arcangelo Sassolino uses technology and mechanics to reveal the inner life of his raw materials. As you move through the exhibition, you will see various industrial materials put through their paces.
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
The Jackies: Marching into NBL26 – 19 September until 9 November 2025
Celebrating the Tasmania JackJumpers, the state’s National Basketball League (NBL) team with a display featuring the 2023/24 NBL Championship trophy, team jerseys and the 2024 Intercontinental Cup bronze medal.
NT
Outstation Gallery
Jenni Kemarre Martiniello: OAM – until 20 December 2025
Martiniello delicately constructs glass sculptures as a visual vessel to carry Indigenous heritage, identity and narratives. Martiniello derives inspiration from the complexity of our natural landscape and aims to mirror this through her craft.
