Canberra farewells art pioneer Vivienne Binns
One of Australia's most admired and influential artists, Vivienne Binns, has died in Canberra aged 85, writes arts editor HELEN MUSA.
Art
The prime minister has announced a $500 million painting, deemed a waste of taxpayer funds when first purchased, will depart Australia's capital for the west.
Melbourne photographer Nathan Beard has won the final National Photographic Portrait Prize, it was announced at the National Portrait Gallery on Friday evening.
With the ongoing bid to see Canberra recognised as a UNESCO City of Design in mind, the 2026 Craft + Design Canberra Festival was launched in fine style at the National Film and Sound Archive on Thursday evening.
Art
Crossing leaves room for the imagination
KERRY-ANNE COUSINS reviews 'Move Me!' the latest exhibition by one of Canberra’s well known artists and a long established lecturer in painting at the ANU School of Art and Design, Elisa Crossing.
Art
Mohamud wins Art Handlers’ Award at NPG
Hussein Abdirahman Mohamud has won the Art Handlers’ Award at the 2026 National Photographic Portrait Prize for his work UNTITLED: 01, 2025, from the series What remains?
Art
Art turns real and surreal in Crispin, Harrison’s works
The artworks of poet and visual artist Judith Nangala Crispin and visual artist Stephen Harrison, both locals, combine to make one powerful exhibition, Afternoon of the Harpies, reviews ROB KENNEDY.
A life-sized sculpture of Canberra’s “Soup Kitchen Lady” Stasia Dabrowski has been unveiled in Garema Place, close to the spot where she fed people in need every Friday night for more than three decades.
The sixth Canberra Art Biennial, with a program of new commissions, public artworks and international collaborations, was announced at the Australian National Botanic Gardens on Thursday by ACT Arts Minister, Michael Pettersson.
A portrait celebrating the life and work of Gamilaroi Elder and bush food pioneer Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo was unveiled by the Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, on Tuesday at the National Portrait Gallery.
Afternoon of the Harpies promises, or perhaps threatens, to be an exhibition of fantastical creatures, insect angels, carpets and luminescent fish-trap spaceships by two of the Canberra region's most provocative and adventurous artists.
Michael Zavros has won the 2026 Archibald Prize People's Choice Award for his portrait Alex with his tefillin in the sea.
Canberra glass artist Akie Haga has won the 2026 People's Choice Award in the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, with visitors at the South Australian Museum voting overwhelmingly for her luminous glass sculpture, Soft Echo.
Journalist Neil Lade has spent decades telling other people's stories, but arts editor HELEN MUSA discovers his lifelong passion has always been painting, drawing and creating surreal worlds of his own.
A giant four-metre steel Murray cod, was installed at Tuggeranong Arts Centre on Friday, launching a collaborative project culminating in a lakeside artwork at November’s Craft + Design Canberra Festival, writes arts editor HELEN MUSA.
Former curator at The National Portrait Gallery, April Phillips, will step into the role of artistic director and CEO of Canberra Contemporary while director Sophia Cai takes maternity leave.
A long-running environmental art award exhibition was unveiled on Sunday at the Queanbeyan Art Society Gallery where the major prize of the day went to Sophie Baker for an impressionistic interpretation of Lake Ginninderra.
Based at Canberra Glassworks and her own studio in Burra, NSW, Annette Blair - one of Australia's leading glass artists - has won the 2026 FUSE Glass Prize, Australasia's richest award for contemporary glass, writes arts editor HELEN MUSA.
"The National Gallery is offering a rare opportunity to see the complete cycle of 20 monumental tapestries about St Francis by Arthur Boyd. But aficionados may be shocked at Boyd's take on the gentle saint," says HELEN MUSA.
