One of Australia's most successful art partnerships
They used to lay-buy contemporary art together when they were low-paid gallery workers, forging a business relationship early on.Now, Ursula Sullivan and Joanna Strumpf are one of Australia's most successful art partnerships in terms of the cultural impact of the artists they represent — Tony Albert, Lindy Lee, Polly Borland, ex de Medici, Sam Leach, and Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, to name a few. This year, they're celebrating two decades together at the head of Sullivan + Strumpf.What's even more remarkable is that after 20 years in the commercial gallery business they're still friends.
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How a child’s boomerang returns in the latest TarraWarra Biennial
It was while researching the provenance of a child’s boomerang, found in topsoil near the site of Melbourne Zoo, that Kimberley Moulton found the key to her curatorial vision for We Are Eagles, the latest edition of the TarraWarra Biennial. The Yorta Yorta curator worked with artefacts and other historical material at Melbourne Museum for years before moving into contemporary art in her current role at the Tate in London. Kim explains how that boomerang unearthed a long-buried and disturbing history and earned its place in the biennial, which includes 20 new commissions from artists such as Lisa Hilli, Shireen Taweel, Iluwanti Ken, Nathan Beard and Warraba Weatherall.
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Khaled Sabsabi speaks
The Lebanese-born Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi joins The Art Show exclusively to talk about the profound impact of the decision to unceremoniously dump him as Australia's representative artist to the 2026 Venice Biennale. The decision exposed the arts funding body Creative Australia to claims of political interference, racism and censorship — emptying Australia's Pavilion in Venice after our most successful outing ever in 2024 and leading to a series of open letters from different parts of Australia's arts community which called for Sabsabi's reinstatement.In this exclusive conversation, Sabsabi shares the highs and the lows of his selection and removal, talks about the work that was called into question by the Liberal Senator Claire Chandler, and explores the ideas that are behind his proposed work for the Venice Biennale.The Art Show has made multiple requests to speak with the CEO of Creative Australia, Adrian Collette, and that invitation remains open.
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Warraba Weatherall’s first institutional solo
For Kamilaroi artist Warraba Weatherall, art that isn't a catalyst for something—that isn't driven by critique of gatekeeping museums, the criminal justice system, or the wilful historical amnesia and complacency—isn't worth making. Warraba has just unveiled his first institutional solo at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art, laying bare his politics in a manifesto of simmering rage catalysed into monumental sculptures, anti-monuments, and a tense 8-minute film that explores the violence of the archive.
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The truth behind Vincent Fantauzzo's verisimilitude
In art, verisimilitude — representing things as they appear — is something like telling the unvarnished truth and it makes perfect sense that it's the form in which Vincent Fantauzzo is most comfortable. His first commercial artworks were actually counterfeit 50 dollar notes, just one of the uncomfortable truths which he tells in his new autobiography, Unveiled. Although his childhood in the outer suburbs of Melbourne was wracked by endemic poverty and a distant but physically and emotionally violent father, it was undiagnosed dyslexia that almost beat this Jack Rennie-trained boxer.But Fantauzzo has gone on to great success, and while his representational style isn't wildly popular with critics, his portraits are perennial people's choice award winners at the Archibald Prize.
Visual artists tell you why and how they create! From studio visits, intimate interviews, and live issues, we take art out of the gallery and into your ears.
Ireland