The Art Show

A life-size sculpted tree complete with parrots and a wandering dog won the  National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Art Awards (NATSIAA). Every element has ceremonial significance, says Thu' and Apalech artist  Keith Wikmunea , from Western Cape York.  Brenda L Croft's 19th Century-style photograph tells a multi-layered story of family bonds and forced child removal. While Anne Nginyangka Thompson'...

Finnish artist Tove Jansson lived a richly unconventional life as a visual artist and writer and is best known as the creator of the troll characters, The Moomins . The Moomins were a hit children's book, cartoon strip, tv show and eventually theme park. The biggest exhibition of Jansson work will show in Paris in September 2023. Her biographer  Prof Boel Westin  talks about her bohemian life and...

Since 2008 CoUNTess has been commenting and reporting on art institutions, prizes and journalism, exposing the unequal gender representation in the Australian visual arts sector. A new book about the pioneering blog and later, data project Countess Report , started by Elvis Richardson has been co-written by Melinda Rackham . Using the current of water as a metaphor for family memories, history and...

In 1989 photographer Anne Zahalka recreated a well-known painting of stylised, muscular white Australians frolicking on the beach, into a multi-ethnic tableau of an Australia that was more recognisable to her. Deconstructing the identity of the characters in famous Australian artworks is just one strand of her four-decade career. Anne talks to Rosa about using old-school museum dioramas to imagine...

Badiucao is a Chinese-Australian political cartoonist and artist who makes work primarily about China's human rights record and role in international politics. But with a rising profile has come a loss of anonymity, reported intimidation and attempts to have international exhibitions of his work closed . He talks to Rosa about Chinese government censorship, cartooning, his art heroes and his filmm...

Painter Prudence Flint has a career spanning 35 years, best known for enigmatic pictures of female protagonists in surreal domestic scenes. Despite a serious local following, her paintings have proved much more popular overseas, and she only produces around eight a year. All situate the viewer in an interesting psychological space. A Beginner’s guide to art openings. The art exhibition opening is...

Maree Clarke  is a key figure in the reclamation and revival of South East Australian Indigenous art, over a three-decade career. For Between Waves at the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (ACCA), she’s created a wall of multicolour microscopic images of river reeds, that once grew on the wetlands where ACCA now stands, on Wuruendjeri Woi Wurrung land. She's one of ten artists from South East...

When did artists begin doing ‘residencies’? From the patronage system of Renaissance Italy, to artists’ colonies of the 19th Century and the decades-long stint of an artist-in-residence at the NYC Sanitation Department,  researcher Amaara Raheem tells us the history and ideas behind the Artist-in-Residence. Producer Lisa Divissi catches up with the artist-in-residence of Melbourne’s Footscray Rail...

Gunditjmara artist Hayley Millar Baker sets her latest film work at the witching hour, when the spirit world and physical overlap. Hayley previously worked in black and white photography, exploring the psychic scars of frontier violence and dispossession. Ghosts have always been present in Hayley’s work – and in her life. She’s part of the acclaimed new exhibition Shadow Spirit , on at at Melbourn...

Pierre Bonnard was a key artist in a movement that came after Impressionism: Les Nabis. Influenced by the flat colour and decorative elements of Japanese wood prints and Gauguin’s pure colours, Bonnard forged a style that was both radical and beautiful. Curator of the NGV’s winter blockbuster , Ted Gott and Musee d’Orsay’s Isabelle Cahn, discuss Bonnard’s life and long relationship with his wife a...

Daniel Browning travels to London's Tate Modern, to speak with artist Richard Bell about his ongoing installation Embassy, inspired by the original Aboriginal Tent Embassy pitched in 1972. Embassy offers a space for dialogue about the continuing struggle for Aboriginal land rights. Rosa visits the studio of designer and experimental woodturner Makiko Ryujin , who torches her creations until they'r...

Artist  Louise Zhang  uses a multi-hued palette and traditional Chinese symbols to explore  the horror genre, spiritual beliefs and her own cultural history, on her own terms. Louise's latest exhibition is No dust left in the lilies .  My Thing is… Frying Pan. The frying pan  is a new recording studio built around an iconic mixing desk that once lived at Abbey Road Studios, London from 1958 to 198...

Indian conceptual artist Mithu Sen talks about the idea of 'radical hospitality' and how she pokes fun at the art world's hierarchies. Plus,  science reporter Belinda Smith explains why she creates GPS art on the run. And painter Danelle Bergstrom on a journey to Sweden that altered the course of her life and art.

Mark Valenzuela makes magical sculptural installations based on a military upbringing and living in two worlds - Australia and the Philippines. Plus, we hear from the curator of the Rijksmuseum's blockbuster Vermeer show. And Liss Fenwick photographs her Top End hometown, Humpty Doo.

Julia Gutman won Australia's most prestigious painting prize for a portrait sewn with fabric. She chats to guest host Rosa Ellen about her winning work and the gendered view of textiles and craft. Plus, meet sculptor Renee So and delve into the secret life of Clarice Beckett, the modernist master almost lost to history.

The Portrait of Mai (Omai) by Sir Joshua Reynolds depicts a youthful Polynesian man who visited England in the 1770s and spent time on James Cook’s third voyage. The work has been the subject of UK government export bans, a feverish fundraising campaign, millions in donations and some panhandling by Britain’s elites, in a desperate bid to keep it on British soil. Daniel speaks with Professor Kate...

Charmaine Papertalk Green writes poetry inspired by individual paintings of the late Nyoongar artist Shane Pickett. The ancient Greeks called this genre 'ekphrasis'. Plus, sculptor Heather B. Swann takes a different perspective on the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, putting the female Leda at the psychological centre of the story.

Daniel speaks with the pioneering US photographer, activist and UCLA Professor Catherine Opie , whose early portraits of her genderqueer community challenged homophobia and moral panic during the heightened atmosphere of the AIDS epidemic. Catherine has gone to become one of America's foremost contemporary fine art photographers. Binding Ties  is the first survey of her work in Australia. Plus, me...

Environmental artist Janet Laurence tells us the story behind her latest exhibition, based on life-changing trips to Antarctica and Iceland. Plus, fashion designer Kiel Rogers on why a sense of being 'anti-fashion' drives him. And what's happening with Melbourne's Nicholas Building? A plan to buy back the iconic artists' hub is now on hold, while the last remaining artist-run gallery in the buildi...

It’s  a bit like the art world State of Origin: two rival cities go head to head with big exhibitions showcasing the best of Australian contemporary art and design. The prize? Your attention, column inches, buzz and kudos. Daniel takes a tour of Melbourne Now and The National, held across Sydney's major galleries..

On this highlights episode of the show, Daniel speaks to guests Sally Scales and Nici Cumpston about the meteoric rise of the Pitjantjatjara artist Betty Muffler. Betty is a ngangkari (a traditional doctor) — a fact intrinsic to her work. Plus, we visit the studio of miniaturist Natasha Bieniek and speak to author Claire Roberts about the influence of China on the painter Ian Fairweather.

2023 is going to be the year of AI art . If you’ve been playing around with text-to-image apps like DALL-E 2 or Stable Diffusion, you know how remarkable the technology is and how fast it’s moving. UNSW AI Institute's  Prof Toby Walsh talks about the history of artificial intelligence and art, artist Kim Leutwyler on the experience of having your artwork used to ‘train’ AI (without consent) and Ro...

What can a new Andy Warhol exhibition teach us about social media and the cult of celebrity? Plus, an artist spends a year working at a 1930s Georgian mansion in Adelaide, making artwork about its ecological footprint and storied art collection.

Hoda Afshar on the impact of protest art and photography in the Women, Life, Freedom uprising in Iran. Plus, the unconventional life of 19th Century painter Rosa Bonheur, and painter Marikit Santiago on ambition, conflicting identities and banana leaves.

On this episode, two artists and two very different takes on place and belonging. Callum Morton focuses on the built environment and Naomi Hobson is deeply embedded in the natural landscape.