Opinion | Australian Arts Review

The Photograph and Australia: the curator and the exhibition

March 27 - Exhibitions, Opinion, Photography

The opening room of The Photograph and Australia, a major retrospective of Australian photography that opened at the Art Gallery of NSW on the weekend, says it all. Two walls are massed with portraits large and small, of...

What are ‘regional arts’ and why do they matter?

March 12 - Latest News, Opinion

At last year’s Regional Arts Australia Summit in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Attorney-General George Brandis announced more than A$1 million in funding for regional arts projects across Australia, asserting that regional arts wa...

The American Dream is yours, and this is your wake-up call

March 3 - Opinion, Visual Arts

LA photographer Alex Prager is currently exhibiting short films and film stills at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne. There is something authentic behind the artifice of her highly staged images of, amo...

The Powerhouse is going west – and arts funding should follow it

March 2 - Opinion, Venue

Those angry letter-writers complaining about New South Wales Premier Mike Baird taking the Powerhouse Museum “out west” to Parramatta are in urgent need of a history lesson – but first, geography. There was a time, not s...

Theatre reviewing is a responsible job – and it requires care

February 26 - Latest News, Opinion

Is there any job other than theatre critic where so little knowledge can carry so much weight? If you are a bad artist, the evidence is there in the bad art you create. Everyone who sees your work will have a view and, u...

Western Sydney meets the city in Nakkiah Lui’s Kill the Messenge...

February 25 - Opinion, Theatre

Last week I went to the theatre. Unusual? No. But I say this because this event was real theatre in a way that I have not experienced for a long time and that will stay with me. A friend invited me to the opening of a pl...

A National Theatre of Australia is needed, and it’s time

February 25 - Latest News, Opinion

Sociologist Max Weber once called politics “the slow boring of hard boards”. If he had been in the arts he might have added, “using your head as a drill”. Australia’s cultural agenda often feels like an endless loop of i...

Only bravery can save artists from Australia’s elite arts ‘...

February 16 - Latest News, Opinion

Our major performing arts organisations are Australian culture’s country clubs. Sponsored by a matrix of old money and old-school networks and infused with the new managerialism, the majors currently enjoy the protection...