Melbourne’s iconic Royal Exhibition Building will play host to a cutting-edge line-up of local artists and international headliners when the City of Melbourne premieres its vibrant new major festival Now or Never.

The inaugural 17-day event will transform Melbourne with immersive experiences of art, ideas, music and technology in August and September. Carlton’s Royal Exhibition Building has been unveiled as one of the festival’s major venues – marking the first large-scale live music performance in the historic building in more than two decades.

The University of Melbourne has today unveiled nightshifts, a contemplative new group exhibition considering the importance of solitude through contemporary arts practice. Presented at Buxton Contemporary from 26 May to 29 October 2023, the large-scale exhibition features more than 30 works drawn from the University of Melbourne’s art collection, alongside two new commissions.

Curated by Hannah Presley and Annika Aitken, nightshifts looks to the shadows and ‘after hours’ as metaphors for the work and thinking that happens beneath the surface, away from the public gaze: time alone in the studio, during the quiet of the night and while asleep. Spanning a range of themes, histories and media, the exhibition offers a meditative counterpoint to the recurring emphasis on collaboration and hyper-visibility in contemporary curatorial practice.

Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) today announced a major exhibition by internationally celebrated contemporary artist Newell Harry, the artist’s largest solo project to date, opening 28 July 2023.

After undergoing a major redevelopment and reopening in 2015, MAMA has become the most visited NSW public art gallery outside of Sydney, and a cultural highlight of regional Australia. The museum is home to the National Photography Prize, and has presented acclaimed exhibitions including SIMMER in 2021, Certain realities in 2019, and the nationally touring exhibition Material Sound in 2018. Titled Esperanto, this exhibition by Newell Harry marks the first time the gallery has presented a major solo exhibition of works by a contemporary Australian artist.

Newell Harry is an Australian born artist of South African and Mauritian descent who draws from an intimate web of connections across Oceania and the wider Indo-Pacific, to South Africa’s Western Cape Province where his extended family continue to reside. Influenced by almost two decades of travel between Australia, South Africa, the islands of Vanuatu and the wider Asia-Pacific region, Harry’s work examines the cultural agitation brought about by the movement of people, objects and knowledge as a result of colonial expansion, migration and globalisation.

Curated by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and delivered in collaboration with the Melbourne Art Foundation, Melbourne Design Fair 2023 has launched today at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) until 21 May. The centrepiece of Melbourne Design Week, Melbourne Design Fair is Australia’s largest presentation of contemporary and twentieth century collectible design by leading Australian and international practitioners.

This year Melbourne Design Fair features the work of more than 150 designers across 60+ presentations staged by prominent commercial galleries, design agencies, organisations and studios, and offers visitors the chance to view and purchase one-of-a-kind, limited edition and small batch design production, including furniture, lighting and contemporary jewellery. Melbourne Design Fair has representation from all Australian states and territories, with highlights including Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert from New South Wales, artisan QLD, South Australia’s JamFactory, Canberra Glassworks, Yarrenyty Arltere Artists from the Northern Territory presented by Agency, and Design Tasmania.

Hadley’s Art Prize today announced 30 contemporary Australian artists who have been selected as finalists for the $100,000 acquisitive landscape prize, representing one of Australia’s richest art prizes, presented in Hobart from 22 July – 20 August 2023.

Selected for the best portrayal of the Australian landscape, this year’s list of finalists features representation from every state in Australia and includes leading Australian artists such as Joan Ross (NSW), Raymond Arnold (TAS), Betty Chimney (SA), Sebastian Di Mauro (QLD), Megan Evans (VIC), Mabel Juli (WA), Kieren Karritpul (NT), Donna Marcus (QLD), Patrick Mung Mung (WA), Megan Walch (TAS), Philip Wolfhagen (TAS), alongside emerging and early career artists.

The 2023 judging panel comprises one of Australia’s most acclaimed and awarded artists Wendy Sharpe, celebrated Tasmanian artist Milan Milojevic, and artist, curator, writer and Associate Professor at The University of Queensland, Dr Fiona Foley. This year the judges have selected works that span a range of mediums, from oil, acrylic, gouache and beeswax, to natural ochre and dyes, weaving, crochet, aluminium and steel.

Carriageworks, one of Australia’s most significant contemporary multi-arts organisations, will present Incredible Floridas by leading contemporary instrumental group Ensemble Offspring. At the centre of the program is Australian composer Richard Meale’s landmark piece of chamber music, a homage to the surrealist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. Presented from 24 – 25 June 2023, Incredible Floridas will be performed alongside a program of original works for instrumental chamber combinations including two world premieres by French composer Augustin Braud and Australian composer Josephine Macken, drawing inspiration from Meale’s brooding and complex musical language.

Although considered one of Australia’s most important composers, Richard Meale’s significant output is rarely performed live for contemporary audiences. For their latest performance, Ensemble Offspring will revive Meale’s iconic composition Incredible Floridas in an immersive staging by creative director Michelle St Anne. First performed by the British chamber music ensemble Fires of London in 1971, Incredible Floridas is a homage to one of the most revolutionary French poets of the 19th century, Arthur Rimbaud. The work was also celebrated in an early documentary short of the same name, by Sydney-based filmmaker Peter Weir (The Truman Show, Dead Poets Society).

A major new permanent public artwork by the Ghost Net Collective is set to enliven Sydney’s Exchange Square at Barangaroo South from 12 May 2023.

Commissioned by Lendlease, the work has been created by a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists from Cairns, Townsville and Erub in the Torres Strait. The Collective are renowned for making creative use of harmful fish nets that have been abandoned, lost or discarded in the ocean, known as ‘ghost nets’, washed up on beaches all around the world.

Curated by Nina Miall, the site-responsive permanent installation titled Mermer Waiskeder: Stories of the Moving Tide will be one of the largest hand-crafted public artworks in Australia and draws inspiration from the artists’ own histories along with the rich history of the Barangaroo site.

Sydney Contemporary, in partnership with Principal Partner MA Financial Group, today unveiled details for the Fair’s seventh edition. This September, Sydney Contemporary returns with its largest edition to date featuring 96 emerging and established galleries from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore. Presented at Carriageworks, Australia’s largest multi-arts centre, from 7 – 10 September 2023 the Fair is the pre-eminent meeting place for the art world, and critical to the growth of the art market in Australasia.

The hugely popular Carriageworks Night Market returns on 16 June 2023 as part of Vivid Sydney’s brand new festival focus Vivid Food. Curated by Australia’s leading sustainable chef Matt Stone, the market will showcase over 45 stalls celebrating sustainable food practices and the best produce from across NSW, in line with Vivid Sydney 2023’s theme – Naturally.

With a line-up of NSW’s leading restaurants and producers, highlights include Rico’s Tacos’ menu centred on the use of sustainable wild game; Vannella Cheese’s creative use of whey by-product from their own ricotta cheese production; OzHarvest’s sustainably sourced vegetarian menu, designed to be zero waste with any leftovers distributed to those in need; and a dessert from Messina including an apple galette made from rescued apples sourced from Farmers Pick.

Carriageworks today announced its new Carriageworks Nights program featuring a line-up of boundary-pushing artists, performers, musicians and producers. Across 10 events, Carriageworks Nights invites audiences to gather after dark for a series of artist-led evenings, spanning performance, music, film and food.

Kickstarting the program on Thursday 11 May, Jazz Money together with Jason Phu present Silly Silly Party, featuring the artists favourite nostalgic activities, including big bubbles, bad face painting (by Jason Phu), mystic readings, magicians and giant games. Held in the Blacksmith’s Workshop, the night will include hands-on activities such as a superhero cape making workshop with artist Dennis Golding and weaving with writer and artist Anne-Marie Te Whiu. A free event for all ages, Silly Silly Party invites everyone to have a silly time.

On Thursday 25 May, artist Frances Barrett presents Mouth, a night focused on the voice presented at the Clothing Store Artist Studios. Through poetry, improvised performance and song, audiences are invited to explore the slipperiness, multiplicity and power of the voice with artists Sage Pbbbt, Jo Fabro, Tina Stefanou, Sonya Holowell, BLECK and Tarik Ahlip performing under simulated moonlight.

Carriageworks Nights events continue over three months, including video artist and curator EO Gill, who presents Softcore, a drive-in cinema featuring rare and classic experimental films; artists Sidney McMahon, Mistress Tokyo, Demon Derriere, Haiku Hands, BVT, Luke George and Weizen Ho explore artistic representations of Consent; and Salote Tawale feeds the soul with Feast, collaborating with Bloodwood’s Head chef and owner Claire Van Vuuren to present a celebratory banquet. Full program to be announced soon.