Art exhibitions to see in Sydney this weekend

When it comes to regional art galleries, Bundanon is top tier. But it’s difficult to convey the magic of this place if you haven’t experienced it for yourself. Hidden within a nature reserve and perched between a snaking bend of the mighty Shoalhaven River and the foot of a mountain, it's a special place to unplug and connect with art and nature. Hence, the latest exhibition to take up residence in the Art Museum, which encourages new ways of thinking through collaborations between humans and non-human worlds, is a natural fit.  From large-scale paintings in traditional Indigenous art styles to experimental technologies, Thinking together: Exchanges with the natural world features new major commissions from contemporary artists and collectives that take a range of unexpected forms and unusual perspectives. For example, Greek-Australian artist and performer Tina Stefanou has been “collaborating” with retired horses for almost a decade, and these equine beauties are now the stars of ‘Horse Power’ (2019) – a video work in which we see them dressed in costumes festooned with jangling keys, creating freestyle percussion as they graze nonchalantly.  Meanwhile, music-making mushrooms are the heroes of ‘Growth in the shadows’, a living artwork from Sydney-based interdisciplinary artist Keg de Souza – and that’s not a euphemism. Working with ecologists and Bundanon’s natural resources team, de Souza has “borrowed” live mycelium and fungi samples from the landscape and housed them...

The $30,000 Dobell Drawing Prize has a rich history of celebrating some of Australia’s most renowned artists, and you don’t have to hand over a cent to head down to the gorgeous gallery inside the sandstone walls of the National Art School to check out all of this year’s finalists. Curated by Lucy Latella, the exhibition features 56 artworks from an exciting cross-section of established, mid-career and early-career artists, selected from 965 nationwide entries. Now in its 24th year, this biennial art prize celebrates the enduring importance of drawing in contemporary art practice, with a focus on technique, innovation and expanded approaches. The selected works span various media – from coloured pencil, charcoal, chalk and watercolour to clay, human hair, aluminium, LED, and video – and consider a range of themes including domesticity and social dynamics, environmental care, and impacts of climate change and colonisation. NAS alumna Rosemary Lee took out the prize this year – her winning work ‘24-1’ depicts an urban landscape in Sydney’s Inner West, and the judging panel praised her work for the way it “observes tonal and compositional profundity in everyday life”. The judges also said: “We were most impressed by the level of visual intensity the artist has achieved in this complex work, both through its vibrant colour and in the extraordinary detail of the composition. The artwork’s exploration of the urban landscape and gentrification of the Sydney suburbs of Ashfield...

Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) presents the first solo museum exhibition by Kamilaroi artist Warraba Weatherall, whose work has been exhibited widely nationally and internationally over the past decade. Through a dynamic combination of installation, sculpture and video works, Shadow and Substance turns a critical eye to the colonial record – reframing existing narratives about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and culture found within archival and museum collections.  Drawing on his own family’s experiences, Weatherall’s work draws attention to the ethics of how Indigenous property, cultural information and materials have been historically acquired and displayed. A refined display that invites contemplation, this exhibition curated by MCA Australia Curator Megan Robson premieres several brand new artworks, including ‘Trace’ (2025) a major new co-commission between the MCA and the Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025, which resembles a giant spinning toy. ‘Dirge’ (2023) is a particularly fascinating piece, which draws attention to the ways in which information is “translated and transmitted”. Weatherall has created a large-scale, custom-built polyphon – a disc-operated mechanical music box – and the score it plays is a Braille translation of a colonial document relating to Aboriginal land rights found in an Australian museum.  Running until September 21, Shadow and Substance is part of the MCA’s autumn 2025 exhibition program. You can spend up to an hour inspecting...