The best art exhibitions in Melbourne this month

Heide Museum of Modern Art is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Joy Hester’s birth with a huge survey of the artist’s work. Joy Hester: Remember Me encompasses more than 130 works from the Melbourne artist, spanning her earliest drawings as a student to her famously emotive ink paintings. Joy Hester: Remember Me also features works from some of the artist’s most renowned series such as ‘Incredible Night Dreams’, ‘Faces’, ‘Lovers’, and ‘Girls’. 

London artists Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar – aka the Otolith Group – are presenting their first major Australian solo exhibition at Buxton Contemporary. Xenogenesis brings together five selected works created by the Otolith Group between 2013 and 2018. Through film, photography and audio, the works create worlds that tread the line between reality and science fiction, with the exhibition name stemming from sci-fi author Octavia Estelle Butler's Xenogenesis book trilogy. 

The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, comes to Bunjil Place Gallery as part of the Photo 2020 International Festival of Photography. With photographers hailing from London to Lagos, the exhibition challenges the idea of blackness as homogenous, and explores ideas around beauty, race and gender. 

You can see highlights from the National Portrait Gallery's magnificent collection in The Look, at Geelong Gallery featuring 68 photographic portraits of Australians from all walks of life – a range of ages, genders, occupations, races and levels of fame – captured by some of our country's most celebrated photographers. The photographs stretch over five decades, back to an early 1970s portrait by Ivan Gaal of actor (and Play School presenter) George Spartels. 

It’s difficult to believe that it’s been 15 years since Destiny Deacon has had a solo exhibition. The Torres Strait Islander artist’s work offers a darkly funny and frequently poignant look at contemporary Australian life. Deacon is best known for her photography, but there’ll be more than 100 multidisciplinary works on show, including video, sculpture and installation, drawn from 30 years of work. 

Just over two hours north of Melbourne is Shepparton’s Kaiela Arts Centre, one of the busiest and most influential Aboriginal art centres in the state. Founded in 2006, the centre represents around 80 artists from the Kaiela-Dungala (Goulburn Murray) region, working across an eclectic range of styles and media. The Koorie Heritage Trust is celebrating their work with this exhibition.

After the success of a joint exhibition of work by Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei in 2016, the NGV is bringing together another pair of art legends for its 2019/20 summer blockbuster. Who doesn't love a two-for-one deal? Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat's careers burned bright and fast in the 1980s, rocking the New York art establishment. 

Iranian-born, New York-based artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat has been exploring the relationship between women, identity and Islam for more than 20 years. In Dreamers, her trilogy of black and white video installations, Neshat examines the world of the subconscious from the perspective of three women.

The National Gallery of Victoria has always been quite forward-thinking in its integration of design and fashion into its exhibition program, but it also has a hugely impressive collection of design, including a heap of pieces from Japanese label Comme des Garçons.

Venetian glass is known across the world for its vibrant colour, elaborate designs and exquisite craftsmanship, honed over centuries by traditional glassblowers on the Venetian island of Murano. In Liquid Light, the National Gallery of Victoria brings together their extensive collection of glass pieces.

Even if you don't know his name, you're almost certainly familiar with Brian Donnelly's (aka Kaws) larger-than-life sculptures and paintings. Kaws take icons from cartoons and pop culture and reimagines them in vulnerable and unexpected situations.