Want to see some new art in Sydney? You’re in luck because the city is currently immersed in paintings, artworks, murals and sculptures. These striking art exhibitions challenge and inspire and include everything from classic works to more contemporary pieces. Ready to get your culture fix? These are the best art exhibitions happening in Sydney this year.
1. A Blueprint For Ruins
A Blueprint For Ruins focuses on the effects of China’s rapid urbanization on nature. Beneath the facade of progress, a haunting question arises about the missing people, with empty streets and abandoned apartment blocks serving as silent reminders of an unfulfilled dream. Displaced individuals and their stories are scattered amid the ruins of ancestral sites. Created by artist Hu Weiyi, this exhibit focuses on the shadows of the dispossessed, guiding viewers through the remnants of memories woven into each crumbling structure.
🗓️ When: Now – 12 May 2024
📍Where: White Rabbit Gallery
2. The Art Of Banksy: “Without Limits”
Visitors will be able to view over 160 Banksy artworks, expertly curated at Sydney Town Hall. From January 24 2024, this highly anticipated exhibition promises to take guests on a comprehensive journey through Banksy’s astounding career. The Art Of Banksy: “Without Limits” exhibition, includes an assortment of Banksy’s stencilled images, his sculptures and various drawings and paintings. A significant portion of Banksy’s iconic stencilled works has also been meticulously reproduced, accompanied by detailed explanations and captivating backstories. The exhibit will also include some of his most well-known installation pieces, which are divided into four main sections. The Infinity Room, Dismaland Experience, Murals, and Louis Michel.
🗓️ When: 24 Jan – March 2024
📍Where: Sydney Town Hall, Lower Town Hall
3. Jonathan Jones: Untitled (Transcriptions Of Country)
Jonathan Jones’s exhibition, “untitled (transcriptions of country),” delves into the themes of colonial transport, trade, and the assimilation of Indigenous flora, fauna, and artifacts, intertwining them with the colonization of local knowledge. The showcase is inspired by the remarkable collections amassed during Captain Nicolas Baudin’s French expedition to New Holland in the early nineteenth century. Baudin’s expedition, one of the most extensive scientific undertakings in Australia, resulted in the ‘discovery’ of over 2,500 new species. His team brought back a multitude of living plants and animals, alongside a collection of objects from the Sydney Aboriginal community, forming the focal point of Jones’s exploration.
🗓️ When: Now – 11 February 2024
📍Where: The Gunnery
4. Has The Day Invaded The Night Or Has The Night Invaded The Day
In the largest exhibition of her work ever seen in Australia, Louise Bourgeois invites you to enter a world of emotional extremes. Renowned for her fearless exploration of human relationships, the exhibition, titled “Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day?,” spans seven decades of her relentlessly inventive career. Displayed in two contrasting spaces—’Day’ on lower level 2 and ‘Night’ downstairs in the Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales—the show unveils over 120 works, including previously unseen pieces in Australia, such as The Destruction of the Father (1974) and Crouching Spider (2003).
🗓️ When: Now – 28 April 2024
📍Where: Art Gallery of New South Wales
5. The Lab
The Lab is a multimedia exhibition space with a rotating program of immersive experiences. The latest Powerhouse commission by Junior Major has taken inspiration from a range of demonstration models, including references by Australian aviation pioneer, inventor and explorer Lawrence Hargrave.
🗓️ When: Now – TBC
📍Where: Powerhouse Museum
6. Kandinsky
Experience this showcase of the life and work of one of the most influential and best-loved European modernists. Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944) broke new ground in painting during the first decades of the 20th century. This comprehensive exhibition, curated with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, draws from the Guggenheim’s rich holdings to reveal Kandinsky’s work in depth. From his beginnings in Munich, to his return to Moscow with the outbreak of World War One, followed by the interwar years in Germany where he was an instructor at the Bauhaus, and his final chapter in Paris.
🗓️ When: Now – 10 March 2024
📍Where: Art Gallery of New South Wales
7. Nicholas Mangan: A World Undone
Nicholas Mangan transforms unconventional materials into captivating installations, ranging from coral rubble to cryptocurrency, offering fresh perspectives on ecological, historical, economic, and political themes central to civic discourse. The exhibition “Nicholas Mangan: A World Undone” traces Mangan’s distinctive visual language spanning two decades, culminating in his latest project, Core-Coralations (2021–ongoing), inspired by the challenges confronting the Great Barrier Reef. Noteworthy pieces include Ancient Lights (2015), a solar-powered film exploring our connection to the sun; Limits to Growth (2016–21), drawing parallels between bitcoin and ancient Pacific stone currency; and Termite Economies (2018–2021), a sculpture series delving into non-human labor and social organization.
🗓️ When: 5 April – 30 June 2024
📍Where: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
8. Tacita Dean
This exclusive exhibition in Sydney compiles pivotal works that encapsulate Dean’s explorations into themes such as chance, memory, entropy, history, and time. Showcasing significant bodies of work not previously seen in Australia, the exhibit encompasses new and recent film pieces, expansive chalkboard drawings, as well as photographic and print series. Notable highlights include the premiere of Geography Biography (2023), Dean’s most personal work to date; a collection arising from her contributions to The Dante Project, a collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor and composer Thomas Adès for The Royal Ballet in London; and her latest film, Claes Oldenburg draws Blueberry Pie (2023), featuring the late American Pop artist Claes Oldenburg (1929–2022) sketching in his Manhattan studio.
🗓️ When: Now – 3 March 2024
📍Where: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
9. Stories Of The Dat Do Dogs
“Stories of the Dat Do Dogs” is a photographic exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the final withdrawal of Australian troops from Saigon. Commemorating this milestone, the exhibition showcases the photographs and narratives of 50 veterans and nurses who served in Vietnam. In collaboration with artist Jack McLain, an American special forces veteran of the Afghanistan conflict, each participant had the opportunity to share their story, resulting in unique wet-plate tintype portraits that accompany their narratives.
🗓️ When: Now – 31 January 2024
📍Where: Anzac Memorial
10. Holidays
The Holidays exhibition beautifully encapsulates the timeless allure of breaking away from daily routines to unwind, shedding light on pivotal social shifts that have inspired generations of Australians to embrace leisure pursuits such as sports and travel. Featuring over 100 objects from the Powerhouse Collection, the exhibition vividly traces the evolution of leisure from the 1900s to more recent times. Additionally, it mirrors the contemporary resurgence of nostalgic pastimes like board games, picnics, and bushwalks, which gained popularity during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
🗓️ When: Now – 30 March 2024
📍Where: Powerhouse Museum