Visual Art

Art can stir strong feelings in people, both good and bad. These artworks fell in the latter, provoking great controversy in Australia, and telling us a lot about who we are as a nation. 

The Grove Gallery in London was showcasing a collection of 13 Banksy pieces worth about £1.5 million ($3 million) when the iconic print was stolen.

Dolly Parton has never stepped foot on the dry red dirt of Indulkana in remote South Australia, but she is a frequent visitor in the art of Kaylene Whisky, which celebrates sisterhood and strong women. 

Ever noticed the hundreds of smiley faces graffitied on buildings, the back of road signs, guardrails and bridges around Tasmania? The artist says the world needs more joy.

Artists have been using cardboard for at least a century to create works. These Australians showcase how the humble medium can be transformed into striking sculptures and collage.

Joy, a sculpture by artist Loui May, was erected in Sydney's Darlinghurst in the late 1990s. After hundreds signed a petition for its return, a bronze version was created and placed in the spot it once stood decades ago.

Craig Parry is used to capturing beautiful photographs of the ocean at its best, but this heartbreaking image won him a prestigious Ocean Photographer of the Year award. 

The 50th anniversary of Sydney Festival — and the first from new artistic director Kris Nelson — features a mix of Australian and international artists taking over spaces across the city.

In an exhibition exploring the fraught issue of finding a home, artist Alana Hunt is directly inviting owners of multiple properties to solve her own, personal housing crisis.

Whether it's an ancient death mask found on an Egyptian sarcophagus or the selfie you have just cropped on your phone, we have been creating portraits for centuries. So why do we love them so much?

At the turn of the century, Australian women artists travelled to Europe and returned with new styles and techniques. Their long-overlooked contribution to Australian art is celebrated in Dangerously Modern.

An oil painting of an enormous bull is the star attraction at a regional Australian gallery. How did the genre of massive livestock art become so popular?

A country Victorian art gallery has surprised local artist Hamish Elsmann with an exhibition of work he never knew it was keeping. The community response has changed his life.

This designer's "risky playgrounds" are often divisive. His latest is four storeys underground in a former World War II oil tank.

The artwork, Queer Sydney: A History, was hung at Surry Hills Police Station, metres from where the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade is held.

"Dangerously low" arts sector funding has rendered the Tasmanian industry "highly vulnerable", with funding stagnant since 2016-17, the state government has conceded.

The National Gallery will host an exhibition of art from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands three years after a video appearing to show a non-Aboriginal assistant helping to paint an artwork led to it being postponed.

Hidden figures and inscriptions are being discovered beneath some of Australia's most famous paintings as conservators use infrared technology to reveal details in Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly series, unseen since the artist's own time.

Laurie Burgess has dedicated two decades to transporting artwork across the country, and has developed an appreciation and knowledge of the Australian art world few could rival.

Rock art has significant cultural importance to traditional owners, and is a highlight for visitors who make the hike to see it. These Ltyentye Apurte Rangers are working to help keep them protected from wasp nests.