Claudia Nicholson, All I Have Are Dreams of You, installation view, The National 2017: New Australian Art, Carriageworks
Photograph: Zan Wimberley

The National 2017: New Australian Art was today unveiled at three of Sydney’s premier cultural institutions, representing the first exhibition in a six-year partnership between the Art Gallery of New Wales (AGNSW), Carriageworks and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) that will continue biennially until 2021, presenting the latest ideas and forms in contemporary Australian art. Connecting three of Sydney’s key cultural precincts – The Domain, Redfern and Circular Quay, The National: New Australian Art is the only large-scale, multi-venue exhibition in the country focused solely on contemporary Australian art.

Presented concurrently at the three institutions, The National 2017 features work by emerging, mid-career and established Australian artists, showcasing new and commissioned work and encompassing a diverse range of mediums including painting, video, sculpture, installation, drawing and performance.The exhibition offers a holistic view of Australian art at a point in time, and fosters dialogue between generations of artists.

The 2017 Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize was today awarded to Melbourne-based artist Diena Georgetti and Melbourne-based emerging artist Kenny Pittock. Celebrating its 21st year, the Prize is among Australia’s best-known art awards, spanning all mediums and offering a total of $36,000 in prize money. Diena Georgetti was awarded the established artist category ($25,000) for The Humanity of Construction Painting (2017) and Kenny Pittock was awarded the emerging artist category ($10,000) for Fifty-two found shopping lists written by people who need milk (2016).

Celebrating its 21st anniversary, the annual exhibition and acquisitive art award highlights exciting developments in contemporary art and provides a platform for an artist-selected exhibition that features established artists alongside early-career artists. The exhibition’s guest curator, internationally regarded Melbourne-based artist Callum Morton made the selection in line with the Prize’s model, which sees the curator nominate established artists, who in turn each choose one emerging artist to create work for the exhibition.

One of the artists exhibiting as part of The Other Art Fair Melbourne from 4 – 7 May 2017 is Gerwyn Davies, an emerging artist whose practice straddles fine art and commercial photography. His work is a playful mix and match of art, craft and design approaches, with costume making forming a foundational element of his process. In his most recent series, Beast, Davies has created a suite of self-portraits that seem to hint at future directions for his practice, while also distilling a number of the themes he has explored in previous work; including the construction of identity, the strangeness of the body, fashion as an embodied practice, and a preoccupation with materiality.

To coincide with NAS Gallery’s upcoming exhibition, the Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize 2017, the National Art School is staging NAS Nights: Performance presented by Barbara Cleveland, on Thursday 6 April from 6 – 9pm.

Formerly known as Brown Council, Barbara Cleveland is collaboration between four artists: Frances Barrett, Kate Blackmore, Kelly Doley and Diana Smith. Together they make videos and performance works that deliberately blur the distinction between stage and gallery, ranging in tone from biting political satire to slapstick farce and often engaging with feminist and queer ideologies.

For one night only, they are bringing their unique brand of performance to the National Art School, transforming the old Darlinghurst gaol into an afterhours adult playground, with an expertly curated line-up of performance, lectures, music, food and drink in one of Sydney’s most unique historical venues.

The National: New Australian Art 2017, Australia’s new art biennial, opens to the public next Friday 31 March, featuring the work of 49 artists across three of Sydney’s premiere art institutions Carriageworks, Art Gallery of NSW and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The first edition of a six-year initiative, presented in 2017, 2019 and 2021, The National explores the latest ideas and forms in contemporary Australian art, connecting three of Sydney’s key cultural precincts – The Domain, Redfern and Circular Quay – in the only large-scale, multi-venue exhibition in the city to be focused solely on contemporary Australian art. Carriageworks will feature several performances throughout the exhibition, including Atlanta Eke & Ghenoa Gela’s ‘The Unsettling’ in June, exploring issues of invisible violence in Australian culture and the problematic nature of cross cultural collaboration through the lens of Horrorcore Hip Hop.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the National Art School in East Sydney will open its campus this evening as part of Art Month Sydney. Showcasing the work of a range of female artists, the evening will include a durational performance work by multi-disciplinary artist and activist Kelli Jean Drinkwater, Jodie Whalen’s performance responding to the inequality and underrepresentation faced by women throughout the world, and a performance by the A capella phenomenon Bad Bitch Choir. The evening will also feature Spectorium by VICE-HP, an exciting interactive art installation along with a live music performance by Race Banyon in the Cell Block Theatre.

TWT Creative Precinct are throwing open their doors during the evening of Friday 24 March 2017 for their annual Block Party in St Leonards, fast becoming one of Sydney’s most vibrant artistic locales. Featuring a program of FREE exhibitions, performances, film screenings, music and workshops, people of all ages are invited to choose their own cultural adventure by following a trail through TWT Creative Precinct’s studios and exhibition spaces to discover the artists and creative hubs that are transforming Sydney’s Lower North Shore. The fourth annual Block Party celebrates four successful years of the TWT Creative Precinct, an entirely artist run initiative providing workspaces for over 70 artists drawn from visual, performing, music and film disciplines – making it one of the largest creative workspace precincts in the country.