Civilization: The Way We Live Now is an international photography exhibition of monumental scale, featuring over 200 original photographs by over 100 contemporary photographers from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe. Presented at the NGV Australia in collaboration with the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis/New York/Paris/Lausanne and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, the exhibition explores photographic representations of life in cities and journeys through the shared experiences of life in the urban environment.

Looking at the phenomenal complexity of urban life in the twenty-first century, Civilization: The Way We Live Now reflects on the ways in which photographers have documented, and held a mirror up to, the increasingly globalised world around us. The selected works create a picture of collective life around the world and document patterns of mass behaviour.

Image Caption: Ashley Gilbertson, Australian born 1978. 1,215 American soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors pray before a pledge of enlistment on July 4, 2008, at a massive re-enlistment ceremony at one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in Baghdad, Iraq 2008 from the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot series. Type C photograph, 69.0 x 94.0 x 5.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist © Ashley Gilbertson / VII Network

Finkelstein Gallery, Australia’s only contemporary art gallery dedicated to women artists has opened in Melbourne with its inaugural group exhibition Finkelstein Gallery presents which runs from 29 August to 28 September 2019.

Founded by respected art consultant and advocate Lisa Fehily, the gallery will present works from some of Australia’s most exciting emerging and established female artists including Cigdem Aydemir, Lisa Roet, Louise Paramour, Monika Behrens, Kate Rohde, Kate Baker, Deborah Kelly, Coady and international artists Kim Lieberman and Sonal Kontaria.

Inspired by the under representation of female artists in Australia’s institutional collections and the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington D.C campaign #Fivewomenartists, Lisa Fehily felt the time was right to open the gallery.

“After working with artists for many years, I have been witness to female artists being overlooked, not being put forward for important exhibitions and institutions predominantly considering male artists for collections,” Fehily comments.

This under representation is reflected in recent figures which indicate that Australian commercial galleries show 40% female artists and state museums show 34% female artists. The gallery aims to address this imbalance, building on the work of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. which, in 2016, asked people if they could name five women artists.

Image: The Ride, Credit Cigdem Aydemir

The 13th Sydney Architecture Festival will be a week-long festival running from 11-17 November 2019 under the direction of the newly appointed Creative Director, Dr Barnaby Bennett. This year’s theme is Making. Housing. Affordable.

At its core, the practice of architecture is a response to the human need for shelter. The Festival extends this position to the simple claim that everyone deserves a safe and comfortable place to live.

In 2019 the Festival will feature a series of engaging seminars, exhibitions, film screenings, tours and events speakers across a range of disciplines and will reflect on issues of design, economics, housing quality and housing affordability to answer the key question: What needs to change to make it affordable to have a home in Sydney?

“The Festival will present contemporary research and development, practice-led innovation, policy activism, and shareable expertise in relation to community, design, policy and government. Is the answer more affordable housing? Or do we just need more housing to make it affordable? Is the current crisis caused by bad policy, bad land use, or poor design? Who does the current model serve? And what needs to change to make sure every person has a warm, safe home to live in?” Barnaby Bennett.

The National Gallery of Victoria will present the first major survey of LA-based, Australian born science fiction artist, innovator and body architect Lucy McRae from 30 August 2019 – 9 February 2020.

Lucy McRae Body Architect features never before exhibited works and charts McRae’s career exploring how technology could transform the human experience in the future through speculative videos and photography.

McRae has been recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is one of the youngest ever TED Fellows.

Tony Ellwood, Director, NGV, calls her ‘one of Australia’s most exciting conceptual designers today’.

Lucy McRae and Bart Hess, Grow on you #1 2008, colour digital image © Lucy McRae and Bart Hess

Mike Parr, one of Australia’s most rigorous and respected artists will stage The Eternal Opening, an installation exhibiting an actual art gallery as an art object in a gallery at Carriageworks.  In a reconstruction of Parr’s minimalist performance, LEFT FIELD [for Robert Hunter] (2017), audiences will enter a life-sized replica of the original space, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, to experience both the gallery and the documentation of the original performance as a kind of Eternal Return of the original occurrence.

A series of new performances will accompany the work over the course of its exhibition and as a critical addenda to this program  Carriageworks will also present video documentation of Parr’s 2016 work BDH [Burning Down The House] in which hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the artist’s prints were methodically positioned in the Carriageworks traverser before being doused with petrol and incinerated.

Carriageworks Acting Director Euan Upston said: ‘We are delighted to welcome Mike Parr back to Carriageworks for the presentation of this major new project The Eternal Opening and to present for the first time in Sydney the full-scale documentation of BDH [Burning Down the House], an event which occurred here at Carriageworks in March 2016. Parr is an indomitable and uncompromising artist, whose commitment to interrogating art history and art itself has influenced a generation of practitioners. At Carriageworks, we are committed to presenting work that is ‘artist led’. This project is testament to that commitment.’

Anna Schwartz, Director and Founder of Anna Schwartz Gallery, commented: ‘Having worked with Mike Parr for more than thirty years it seems to me that the replication of The Eternal Opening represents the possible viewing of a lifetime’s practice as a single intensifying work. That it is occurring in Carriageworks has particular resonance given Mike’s history of exhibitions in this space.’

Mike Parr: The Eternal Opening

Mike Parr, Left Field [for Robert Hunter], 2017, Image Zan Wimberley.

The first comprehensive publication of Whiteley’s artistic oeuvre, Brett Whiteley: Catalogue Raisonné: 1955–1992 has been compiled by art historian Kathie Sutherland over seven years and comprises a seven-volume collection that covers the artist’s life time of work in exhaustive detail.

Brett Whiteley: Catalogue Raisonné: 1955–1992 is an unprecedented publishing event that confirms Whiteley’s enduring significance as a visionary force of Australian art. Weighing 21 kilograms and totalling 2400 pages, the set of seven cloth-bound books presented in a deluxe, elegantly finished slipcase features more than 4600 artworks, including hundreds of never-before-published works.

Volumes I, III and IV hold paintings and drawings from the 1950s to the 1990s; Volume II contains exquisite concertina fold-outs of the mammoth The American Dream and Alchemy; Volume V contains Whiteley’s prints; and Volume VI compiles his ceramics and sculpture. A final book, Volume VII, holds essays, a cataloguing text, an exhibition history, an artist’s biography, a bibliography and an index of persistent themes that lend insightful form to the expanse of Whiteley’s rich and varied oeuvre.

This one-off print release is limited to 1000 copies, with each individual set foiled with a unique number in the series and presented in bespoke packaging.

The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, presented by Woollahra Council, has announced 43 emerging and established artists as finalists for the 19th annual Prize and exhibition. The 2019 finalist group includes artists from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom highlighting the Prize’s growing international reputation.

The innovative submissions – each for a freestanding sculpture of up to 80cm in any dimension – were selected from 634 entries by a judging panel comprised of Professor Ross Harley, Dean of the Faculty of Art & Design and UNSW Chair of Arts and Culture, Louise Herron AM, Chief Executive Officer, Sydney Opera House, and Design and Architecture advocate, broadcaster, author and comedian, Tim Ross.

The 2019 Woollahra Sculpture Prize finalist artists are: Ali McCann (VIC) Alison McDonald (QLD) Ara Dolation (VIC), Benjamin Jay Shand (NSW) Brenda Page (VIC) Carol Cooke (ACT) Carol Lehrer Crawford (NSW) Donna Marcus (QLD) Erica Izard (NSW) Jane McKenzie (NSW) Jane Price (SA) Jeffrey Wood (NSW) Jessica Leitmanis (VIC) Johannes van Nunen (NLD/NSW) Julie Monro-Allison (ACT) Julie Pennington (ACT) Kate Ellis (VIC) Kenny Pittock (VIC) Kieta Jackson (UK) Lisa Giles (NSW) Louis Pratt (NSW) Louiseann King (VIC) Luke Storrier (NSW) Mandy Quadrio (TAS/QLD) Mehwish Iqbal (NSW) Merran Esson (ACT) Natalie Rosin (NSW) Nathan Keogh (NSW) Neil Laredo (NSW) Nicole de Mestre (NSW) NOT (NSW) Oliver Ashworth-Martin (UK/VIC) Patricia Smart (NSW) Paula Dunlop (QLD) Peter Zappa (WA) Stuart Rex Mclachlan (NSW) Tai Snaith (VIC) Tina Fox (NSW) Toni Morrison (NSW) Tracey Deep (NSW) Ulan Murray (NSW) Veronica Andrus-Blaskievics (NSW) Wanda Gillespie (NZ).

A free exhibition of all the finalist sculptures will be presented from Friday 11 October to Sunday 3 November 2019 at Woollahra Council Chambers.

Image: Ara Dolatian, “Vibrant Matter”

Fremantle Biennale have announced UNDERCURRENT 19, the second edition of the city-wide contemporary art program showcasing experimental site responsive work from established and emerging artists from across the world. Opening UNDERCURRENT 19, the Fremantle Biennale will present the internationally acclaimed light installation WATERLICHT by Studio Roosegaarde founded by Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde. Marking the first time the studio have presented this work in the Southern Hemisphere, the installation calls attention to rising water levels and the climate change crisis.

Running for three weeks from 1-24 November 2019, the Fremantle Biennale will also present 15 new commissions including large-scale artworks, installations, architectural pavilions, performances and group exhibitions realised in new and found sites across the port city. Over 40 local, national and international artists will respond to the history, landscape and communities that make-up Fremantle to reveal and celebrate the cultural, social and historical distinctiveness of the port-city in Western Australia.

Fremantle Biennale Co-Founder and Artistic Director Tom Mùller said: Art has always been a fundamental component of Fremantle, with its creative community almost as renowned as its port. The Fremantle Biennale builds on this reputation and following the success of our first edition, we are thrilled to expand the program to run for three weeks in November. Artists from across Australia and the world will respond to the transience and transitional flow of Fremantle as a port town through a variety of different artistic practices. All art forms will inform and be informed by the space and history of Fremantle, whilst also addressing key topical issues of today.

The full program can be viewed at www.fremantlebiennale.com.au

Image: Waterlicht by Studio Roosegaarde, Credit Studio Roosegaarde