ARTAND Australia launches new online platform

ARTAND Australia, Australia’s longest running and most respected art publication, has launched a dynamic online platform, featuring art news, feature stories, exclusive video content, exhibition reviews and special contributor content. The new platform will also celebrate cross-collaborations between the visual arts and other creative sectors including architecture, design and fashion. 

For the first time, the entire archive of ARTAND Australia print magazines has been digitised and made available at www.ARTANDaustralia.com to search and peruse online.

ARTAND Australia editor and publisher Eleonora Triguboff commented: "ARTAND Australia has a proud heritage as the most respected independent art publication in Australia.The launch of our new online platform propels us into an exciting new era."

Melbourne Art Fair 2014 announces 70 participating galleries and artwork highlights

The Melbourne Art Fair, Australia’s longest running and leading art fair presented by the Melbourne Art Foundation, today announced a premier selection of 70 galleries confirmed to participate in the 2014 event. Presented from 13 until 17 August 2014 in the historic Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne’s Carlton Gardens, the Melbourne Art Fair will showcase over 300 artists from around the world presented by some of the best Australian, New Zealand and other international galleries. 

Galleries at the Fair will be presented across two sections, with established galleries in the main MAF Galleries section and emerging galleries and artist collectives presented in the MAF Platform section. MAF Platform continues the Fair’s commitment to exhibiting the best emerging talent by presenting curated galleries and artist run initiatives younger than five years. 

Melbourne Art Fair Director Barry Keldoulis, who will oversee his first Fair in 2014, commented: “The focus of the Fair is to present the best contemporary art from Australasia and we’re excited to have attracted the foremost galleries and artists from the region to participate. Galleries will present a diverse range of works spanning paintings, works on paper, photography, sculpture, new media and installation work by established artists and emerging talent.”

Tacita Dean premiere presented by Biennale of Sydney and Carriageworks

The 19th Biennale of Sydney and Carriageworks co-present the world premiere of Event for a Stage, a new performance work by Tacita Dean running from 1 until 4 May 2014.  The work, which is part of the middle program of the Biennale, represents the first time the artist has created a live performance piece and is a development of her practice. 

Centred on the filming of a portrait of an actor on stage, played by acclaimed British actor Stephen Dillane, the performance will explore the role of the actor as well as exposing Tacita Dean's way of filming to the audience. This one-act theatrical presentation is made in association with ABC RN, who will produce and broadcast a radiographic version of the performance. 

Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize announces 2014 artist list

Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize today announced 19 established and 19 emerging Australian artists who have been selected to create new work for the 2014 exhibition at the National Art School Gallery, presented from 11 April until 15 May. This will be the 18th annual Prize and has been this year curated by artist Tim Johnson.

The respected annual prize, which offers a $36,000 prize pool, has a unique model that seeks to foster mentoring relationships between different generations of visual artists.  The artist list includes Judy Watson, Simryn Gill, Susan Norrie, Reg Mombassa, Locust Jones, Guan Wei, Tim Maguire, Elisabeth Cummings, Tom Polo, Khaled Sabsabi and Tully Arnot (whose work is pictured here).

International street artists come to Sydney

.M Contemporary’s first exhibition for 2014 - From the Streets - unveils a cutting-edge collection of internationally renowned street artists from across the globe. The exhibition runs in the Woollahra-based gallery from 22 March until 27 April 2014.

From the Streets is made of entirely new works by leading street artists from America, Europe, Australasia and Africa, highlighting the diversity of genres and practices. Featured artists include: Mademoiselle Maurice (Paris); Chris Uphues (New York); Morley (LA); Jeff Aerosol (Nantes, France); Kilmany Jo Liversage (Cape Town); and Ever Jaz (Argentina), as well as locally renowned street artists Australian Collective.

The Australian Collective will be creating an outdoor installation as part of a live street art showcase on Saturday 2 March. The installation will be auctioned off later that evening to raise money for the charity Operation Smiles.

Tino Sehgal's encounter at the Art Gallery of NSW

For its 29th art project, Kaldor Public Art Projects presents a live encounter at The Art Gallery of NSW by internationally acclaimed Anglo-German artist Tino Sehgal from 6 February until 23 February 2014.

John Kaldor (director of Kaldor Public Art Projects) commented on the encounter: “Sehgal’s works open our eyes to a radical new way to engage with art and that must be experienced to be fully understood… This is so contemporary is one of my favourite works. It’s joyous and spontaneous, involving and engaging the audience directly”

Tate Modern curator Jessica Morgan is giving a free public lecture on the work of Tino Sehgal at 1pm, Monday 10 February at The Art Gallery of NSW.

Anna Schwartz Gallery presents Erwin Wurm

Anna Schwartz Gallery will present a solo exhibition by renowned Austrian artist Erwin Wurm at Carriageworks, Eveleigh from 22 February until 10 May 2014.

The exhibition, entitled ‘Crap Head’, will feature a selection of Wurm’s photographs, sculptures and video works. Wurm’s career spans three decades; he is internationally renowned for his humourous works that are underpinned by a fierce critique of contemporary culture.

“I am interested in the everyday life. All the materials that surrounded me could be useful, as well as the objects, topics involved in contemporary society. My work speaks about the whole entity of a human being: the physical, the spiritual, the psychological and the political.” (The Artist Who Swallowed the World by Hatje Cantz, 2006).