The best art exhibitions in Sydney this month

Australia’s most prestigious arts prizes are back in a big way after being postponed by you-know-what. The show-stopping Archibald Prize, first awarded in 1921, is always a huge event on Sydney’s cultural scene. The finalists have been announced, and you'll psot the likenesses of Adam Liaw, Adam Briggs and Magda Szubanski in the mix. PLus you can see Meyne Wyatt's Packing Prize-winning self-portrait, the only time a First Nations Australian has been recognised in any category.

Oft-compared to the bright hued worlds British painter David Hockney, Japanese illustrator Hiroshi Nagai is an outstanding artist in his own right. Starting out designing record sleeves, he was California dreaming from the start, depicting the clean-cut lines of beachside Los Angeles and surrounds with a vibrant panache that ensured his work went pop culture crazy in ‘80s Japan. Now you can explore for yourself thanks to this fabulous retrospective hosted by the Japan Foundation in Chippendale. Nagai is as prolific as ever, so you can see neon nights and sunburnt vistas from all stages of his career, right up to now. 

The Biennale of Sydney may be mostly shuttered, but there's a very local alternative opening up this month. We're all about loving local, so get along to the Bankstown Arts Centre and show your support for the smaller but perfectly formed inaugural Bankstown Biennale. A celebration of 20 Sydney-based artists, several of them from the immediate vicinity, there's a ridiculous wealth of creativity on offer from the likes of Machiko Motoi, Alia Parker and Nicole Monks.

The physical evnt may be postponed until next year, but that wasn't going to stop them from bigging up Australian artists. Opting for an immersive digital iteration instead,it  will run for the whole of October. The line-up of visual excellence includes more than 450 new works from 380 artists, all responding to these intertsing times in their unique fashion. Major names include Ben Quilty, Lisa Reihana, Brook Andrew, Isabelle de Kleine and Jelena Telecki.

The Powerhouse Museum continues to bring the arty goodness to Sydney’s heart with brand-new exhibition taking a look at what homes might look like ten years from now – because seriously, we’re so over 2020 already – it promises to be a forward-thinking dream for Grand Designs watchers.

We’ve all got one eye on our health at the moment, though it’s very rare that we think of the science behind life-saving equipment and the beauty of art going hand-in-hand. Reality is, creativity hums in every machine we make. That’s the thinking behind new Powerhouse exhibition exploring the central role of design in the health and medical sector, it’s all about celebrating the oft-overlooked intersection between innovation and art.

With UNSW Galleries reopened, you can check out this fabulous queer art exhibition IRL. Featuring the work of 15 artists (and collaborations), as well as a series of films and material borrowed from the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, the show has been compiled by curators José Da Silva and Kelly Doley.  

The Art Gallery of NSW braves the digital realm with this kaleidoscopic trip. Part of their ongoing Together in Art series, Hyper-linked assembles seven exciting contemporary Australian artists pushing the envelope on how we engage with art from wherever we are in the world. From Heath Franco’s trippy, dystopian 'Home Videohome' to JD Reforma’s dreamy drone imagery in ‘I Want to Believe’that explores fraught ground, it's an online playground of the weird and wonderful.

The Art Gallery of NSW’s latest travelling exhibition goes west in more ways than one

Bringing together Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, Under the Stars highlights our shared understandings of the night sky. Highlighting the commonalities and connections in our shared attempts to understand the sky above our place in relation to it, the exhibition has a particular a focus on Indigenous knowledge. It presents an opportunity to explore, engage and educate at a time when discussions surrounding the 250 years since Captain Cook’s arrival have sparked great debate, further highlighted by the Black Lives Matter marches. The free exhibition includes the work of artists like Lindy Lee, Mick Kubarkku and Shaun Gladwell and centres the idea that the night sky is an expanse that's not owned, and that connects us all. 

Awesome Western-Sydney artist Khaled Sabsabi gets the solo show treatment at Art Gallery of NSW from July 18, in partnership with the Campbelltown Art Centre. Sabsabi headed to Sydney with his family in the 1970s to escape the Lebanese civil war. Regularly returning to the Middle East, his incredible body of work draws on belief, politics and conflict in the region. A Promise presents major works exploring the complex relationship between self and other and includes large-scale works like ‘Organised confusion’ (2014), putting Western Sydney Wanderers football fans under the lens.

Under Southern Skies at the newly reopened Australian National Maritime Museum includes new collections from Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, telling the story of Indigenous Pacific navigation around Oceania. Ranging from bark paintings that depict Makassan fishermen trading with Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, to modern indigenous art to historic portraiture, it includes objects recovered from infamous Dutch shipwreck the Batavia and James Cook's HMB Endeavour, model ships and digital touchscreen technology. This fascinating exhibition travels across history. 

Here: Kupe to Cook focuses on art from leading Aotearoa/New Zealand, Pacifica and Australian First Nations artists. The work delves into the history of sailing and voyaging around the Pacific – from the legendary Polynesian Kupe over 1,000 years ago to the arrival of Cook. Intended to dismantle misconceptions about European ‘discovery’, you can reflect on the ancient knowledge sources that predate colonial navigational history. 

Please note, the museum will be limiting visitor numbers. 

[Sponsored] Sydney is taking temporary custody of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition (WPY). On loan from London’s Natural History Museum, this world-class collection of 100 mesmerising images will be housed at the Australian National Maritime Museum from March through to October.