Cao was recently voted one of the most influential artists in the world. Born in Guangzhou in 1978 and based in Beijing, she has documented China’s rapid urbanisation and digital revolutions for over two decades. Her acclaimed films, photography and large-scale installations offer thrilling encounters with the disorienting, quick-fire transformations of the new millennium.

My City is Yours 欢迎登陆 is an invitation into a world of neon, street dance and pop music; a city both familiar and warped, real and virtual. Enter the exhibition via a replica 1960s Beijing cinema foyer, and exit through a homage to a popular Sydney yum cha restaurant.

Designed by the artist and Beau Architects of Hong Kong, the exhibition takes the form of a cityscape. It’s a space of play and self-reinvention, where cosplayers and hip-hop dancers take over sidewalks in Fukuoka and New York. It’s a city of screens and pixels, mediated by gaming technologies, VR and the metaverse. It’s a city under construction, where neighbourhoods are razed overnight and workers compete for jobs with robots.

The exhibition is made possible with the support of the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW. Along with Magritte, also at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Julie Mehretu, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Cao Fei is part of the Sydney International Art Series, bringing the world’s most outstanding exhibitions to Australia, exclusively to Sydney.

Cao Fei My City is Yours Exhibition
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
30 November 2024 – 13 April 2025
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Realised in close cooperation with the Mucha Foundation, Prague, Alphonse Mucha: Spirit of Art Nouveau is drawn from the Mucha Family Collection. Bringing together Mucha’s illustrations, jewellery, interior decoration, photographs and more, the exhibition reveals an artist and designer whose powerful influence remains with us today.

Once hailed as ‘the greatest decorative artist in the world’, Mucha rocketed to fame with the posters he created for legendary actor and international superstar Sarah Bernhardt, moving on to global recognition through advertising and product design that were his first steps towards the democratisation of art he so desired.

Seeking a true ‘art for the people’, Mucha – as artist, activist, mystic and philosopher – strived to elevate the human spirit. His strongly felt political and spiritual philosophies guided his lifelong commitment to the Slavic peoples and the liberation of his homeland in today’s Czech Republic. Within this sweeping exhibition, visitors will encounter an immersive digital experience of Mucha’s late great painting cycle, the Slav epic, in a journey that helps uncover the artist behind the famous images.

The exhibition is proudly supported by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW. It is accompanied by a full-colour catalogue, richly illustrated with over 200 images.

Alphonse Mucha – Spirit of Art Nouveau
15 June – 22 September 2024
Art Gallery of New South Wales
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

By day and by night, experience music, film and performance across both of our buildings, including our most intriguing space, the Tank, located at the deepest layer of the gallery’s new building.

Volume
22 September – 8 October 2023
Art Gallery of New South Wales
www.volume.sydney

John Olsen: The You Beaut Country offers an unparalleled opportunity to examine Olsen’s consummate place in Australian art history. His You beaut country series, which followed his return to Australia in 1960 after three years travelling in Europe, began what would be a lifelong interest in representing the landscape and Australian identity. These works are presented alongside his more recent paintings, prints and watercolours, including those inspired by the filling of Lake Eyre. The exhibition reveals an artist who at 88 years of age has lost none of his passion for his subject matter, nor his creative vitality and retains a unique ability to capture the spirit of the Australian landscape.

A National Gallery of Victoria exhibition in association with the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

John Olsen – The You Beaut Country Exhibition
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
16 September 2016 – 12 February 2017
www.ngv.vic.gov.au

Rosefeldt’s brand-new thirteen-channel work Manifesto questions the role of the artist in society today. Australian actor, Cate Blanchett, performs the manifestos as a series of striking monologues.

The installation draws on the writings of Futurists, Dadaists, Fluxus artists, Situtationists and Dogma 95, and the musings of individual artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers. Passing the philosophies of Claes Oldenburg, Yvonne Rainer, Kazimir Malevich, André Breton, Elaine Sturtevant, Sol LeWitt, Jim Jarmusch, and other influencers through his lens, Rosefeldt has edited and reassembled a collage of artists’ manifestos.

Manifesto has been proudly commissioned by ACMI in partnership with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin and Sprengel Museum, Hannover, and Ruhrtriennale – Festival of the Arts.

Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto Exhibition
ACMI – Melbourne
9 December – 14 March 2016
www.acmi.net.au