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Ibrahim Mahama's stunning art din Cockatoo Island Turbine Hall
Photograph: Zan WimberleyIbrahim Mahama's stunning art decks the Turbine Hall.

Art exhibitions to see in Sydney this weekend

Here are the art exhibitions and events to check out this weekend – from inner city blockbusters to the outer burbs

Stephen A Russell
Alannah Le Cross
Written by
Stephen A Russell
&
Alannah Le Cross
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Art lovers, your weekend is sorted. Here's our plan of everything you need to check out, from ticketed blockbusters to small-scale freebies. If you're looking further ahead, consult our list of art exhibitions to see in Sydney this month.

RECOMMENDED: The best art galleries in Sydney.

  • Art
  • price 0 of 4
  • Sydney

Are you ready to chase artistic escapades around the city? The Biennale of Sydney is back for its 24th edition from March 9 to June 10, 2024. Whether you’re a dedicated arts fanatic or a casual culture buff, you’ll find something to inspire and provoke you along this epic art trail. The largest contemporary art event of its kind in Australia, the Biennale is taking over six different locations with awe-inspiring installations and intriguing exhibitions. Titled Ten Thousand Suns, this year the festival explores a multiplicity of global cultures, taking on a transgressive spirit as it leans into the origins of Carnivale. As always, the Biennale is free for everyone to visit for a total of 16 weeks.   Of all the locations, White Bay Power Station is absolutely the main character of the Biennale’s 50th year anniversary (and 24th iteration – it takes place every second year). This is the first time the revitalised industrial site will officially open its doors to the public in more than 100 years – and what they’ve accomplished is pretty spectacular. Years of accumulated pigeon poop has been cleared out of the enormous factory spaces, making way for art installations that tower multiple storeys high, and more works hidden in various nooks and crannies. Pop-up bars and brand new bathrooms also set the stage for a packed program of live performances and music curated by Phoenix Central Park. Think of White Bay as a replacement for the role that Cockatoo Island has played in Sydney’s

  • Art
  • Street art
  • Sydney

Sydney’s summer of blockbuster exhibitions is about to get a whole lot bigger from January 24, when the highly-anticipated Banksy exhibition will open in Sydney Town Hall. The Art of Banksy: Without Limits has already wowed more than 100,000 people across the nation, with its impressive collection of works by the famously anonymous king/queen of street art. We're the third lucky Australian city to host this mammoth exhibition, which arrives fresh off the back of successful runs in Brisbane and Adelaide. Before landing Down Under, it toured across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States, where it attracted more than 1.6 million visitors.  The Art of Banksy: Without Limits Sydney edition will feature more than 150 of the artist’s works, including certified originals – like ‘Flower Thrower’, ‘Rude Copper’ and, of course, ‘Girl with Balloon’. Visitors – along with murals, sculptures, photos and mapping shows (in plain speak: images or animations projected onto irregularly shaped surfaces).  The exhibition is famed for creating several custom-built experiential installations that fit the venue of each location and in Sydney, visitors can explore an ‘Infinity Room’ of mirrors, a simulation of ‘Dismaland Bemusement Park’ (for those who’ve never heard of it, it’s a dark and twisted theme park that was created by Banksy in 2015), and a ‘Murals’ room that houses seven new murals Banksy created in war-torn Ukraine. There’s even a space dedicated to former the MV Louise Mic

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  • Art
  • Photography
  • Darling Harbour

There’s something so intriguing about exploring the depths of the ocean, because we don't get much chance to check out what's down there. If you’re not a diver but you’ve always wanted to see what happens underneath the ripples of the water's surface, check out the world premiere of an ocean photography exhibition that's coming to the Australian National Maritime Museum.  From November 16, the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2023 exhibition will feature all of the winners and finalists of the of the prize, which is led by Oceanographic Magazine.  Marvel at more than 100 of the most awe-inspiring wildlife shots ever snapped. Particular highlights will no doubt be getting your peepers on the winning image from photographer Jialing Cai. Her incredible photo of a female paper nautilus riding on a stick was taken at night while scuba diving in the Philippines. There are award-winning photos across 10 categories, including the Ocean Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Ocean Adventure Photographer of the Year and the Ocean Fine Art Photographer of the Year.   Australian National Maritime Museum Director and CEO Daryl Karp said she was thrilled to be welcoming such esteemed wildlife work to Sydney, and she hopes the exhibition will shine a light on the work that needs to be done to protect our oceans. “As Australia’s museum of the sea, we have embraced the opportunity to display these amazing images from ocean photographers globally, creating an immersive exhibition experience, while e

  • Art
  • Sculpture and installations
  • Sydney

A fascinating sight has appeared on the forecourt of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ original South Building, and heads are turning. A monumental spider, which stands more than nine metres high and ten metres wide, made of bronze, steel and marble, is the unmissable first encounter gallery visitors will have with the work of trailblazing French-American artist Louise Bourgeois. The world-famous and seminal arachnidian sculpture, ‘Maman’ (1999), is an ode to the artist’s mother, who she described as “deliberate, clever, patient, soothing… and [as] useful as a spider”.  The colossal sculpture is in Australia for the first time ever as part of the largest and most comprehensive display of the artist’s work ever seen in the Asia Pacific – Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? – which opens on Saturday, November 25, as part of the 2023 Sydney International Art Series (closing on April 28, 2024). Her work maintained – and still delivers – a charge of intimacy, urgency and piercing peculiarity... The exhibition spreads across a considerably large footprint, weaving through the Art Gallery campus with the eerily beautiful force of a wave of spiders wrapping the institution in a silken, cobwebbed nest. This is also the first major solo exhibition to be staged in the Art Gallery’s world-class modern North Building, the centrepiece of the Sydney Modern expansion, almost one year since it opened to the public in December 2022.  Moving from

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  • Art
  • price 0 of 4
  • Sydney

If we didn't tell you these artworks were done by teenagers that are probably less than half your age, you wouldn't have a clue. Sorry, we didn't mean to make you feel old, but we're sure all will be forgiven when you're revelling in the new generation of talent. Returning for its annual visit to the Art Gallery of NSW (Feb 8-Apr 21) plus other galleries around the state, ArtExpress proves that great art knows no age limit. Our state's shining showcaser of art is hosting the talents of Year 12 artists from across NSW who laboured rigourously for their Visual Arts course during the HSC.  Amongst the pressure of essays, readings and classwork, Year 12 students studying Visual Arts need to produce a ‘Major Work’; a piece of art that represents and explores the many social and political issues that are close to their hearts as young Australians. Students may approach this major work in whatever media form they prefer, with the ArtExpress exhibition ranging from textile and fibre to photomedia to ceramics – and everything in between. A prized spot on the walls of our state's gallery within this exhibition is possibly one of the greatest forms of recognition for young NSW artists following all the blood, sweat and tears of their art-making process during the HSC. Of the 8,660 Visual Arts major works submitted for examination this year, only 50 have been chosen for the showcase. The artists hail from high schools all over the state, with students from cities, regional suburbs and a

  • Art
  • Galleries
  • Chippendale

A state-of-the-art temple to contemporary Chinese art hidden on a Chippendale backstreet, we always look forward to what White Rabbit Gallery has in store for us. And it looks like the gallery is heading into 2024 with a bang, with A Blueprint for Ruins set to explore the fallout of rapid urbanisation across the gallery’s four floors from December through to May. Summoning apocalyptic images of cities tearing themselves apart to make way for towering skyscrapers and gleaming high-rises, this exhibition reverberates with the shadows of the dispossessed within China’s urban metamorphosis. As the nation’s cities race to embrace modernity in a never-ending dance of renewal, buildings are designed to be demolished even before their completion. The casualties of development are left to drift through the ruins of their ruptured world. Displaced individuals and their stories echo through abandoned spaces, once home to ancestral sites and legacies of long family lineages. The artworks in A Blueprint for Ruins guide us toward the remnants of memories woven into the very fabric of each structure, even as the walls crumble. As the artist Hu Weiyi poignantly writes: “It’s as if every abandoned building, about to disappear, is attempting to sing its last note, and eventually they will come together to form a requiem for an era.” As always, a trip to White Rabbit isn’t complete without pots of freshly brewed tea and plates of steaming dumplings under the canopy of empty birdcages in the caf

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  • Art
  • Paintings
  • Sydney

With a distinctive art style that probes at the veil between myth and reality, Western Sydney-based Filipina-Australian artist Marikit Santiago’s paintings are a love letter to her family and her culture. It’s not hard to see why Santiago has been named the winner of the 2024 La Prairie Art Award, and you can see her impressive work for yourself now at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Now in its third year, the prestigious La Prairie Art Award is all about championing Australian women artists. A partnership between the Art Gallery of NSW and Swiss luxury skincare house La Prairie, the prestigious award comprises the acquisition of artwork for the Art Gallery collection, as well as an international artist residency in Europe.  Santiago was selected for her two paintings ‘A Seat at the Table (Magulang)’ and ‘A Seat at the Table (Kapatid)’. These tender portraits portray two generations of Santiago’s family – her parents and her sister – with magulang translating to ‘parents’ and kapatid to ‘sibling’ in Tagalog. These award-winning paintings are on display as part of the Making Worlds exhibition on lower level 1 of the Art Gallery’s newer North Building (the star of the Sydney Modern expansion) until late July. (Hot tip: entry is free, and the gallery is open late on Wednesdays.) Encompassing new acquisitions and much-loved collection highlights, the Making Worlds exhibition brings together artists whose work reflects on the complex worlds we create and share, both real and i

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