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
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 Bath – opens 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.
VIC
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.
WA
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Life in the third person – opens 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
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
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
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
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
A part Of It All – until Tuesday 31 October
The first solo exhibition on Larrakia Country in the Northern Territory by Yugambeh-born Bundjalung artist Shaun Daniel Allen (Shal), the pieces are a synthesis of Shal’s Balun line-work paintings of spiritual riverine topographies with new techniques, materials and experiences imparted to him by teachers of all visages during his in-field immersion.
TAS
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.
