Past exhibitions

The second of three biennial surveys presenting the latest ideas and forms in contemporary Australian art

Staged concurrently at three of Sydney’s premiere cultural institutions – the Art Gallery of NSW, Carriageworks and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia – The National 2019: new Australian art showcases a total of 70 emerging, mid-career and established Australian artists living across the country and overseas and working in a diverse range of media.

The exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW presents 24 artists who navigate the boundary between chaos and control in work that is by turns political, poetic and personal. It reveals how Australian artists are responding with subtlety and ambition to the times they live in, through artworks that are intricate, complex and often charged with a sense of precariousness.

Images: Rushdi Anwar Irhal (Expel), Hope and the Sorrow of Displacement 2013-ongoing, Courtesy the artist © the artist; Mira Gojak Exhaled Weight 2019 Courtesy the artist and Murray White Room Melbourne © the artist; Nicolas Folland Flirt 2019 Courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne © the artist; Sally M. Nangala Mulda Town Camp Anywhere 2018-19 (detail) Courtesy the artist and Tangentyere Artists, Mparntwe (Alice Springs) © the artist and Tangentyere Artists; Sandra Selig One Rotation 2019 Courtesy the artist, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, and Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney © the artist; Andrew Hazewinkel Part 1, The Emissaries: Keepers of Our Stories from The Ongoing Remains, (3 parts) 2019 Courtesy the artist and Reading Room, Melbourne © the artist; Peta Clancy Undercurrent 2018-19 (detail) Couresty of the artist © the artist; nova Milne Skin Without Biography 2011/19 Courtesy the artist © the artist