Art Guide Australia – July-August 2026
Summary
Celebrating 25 years of publication, the July/August 2026 issue of Art Guide Australia at AUD 12 delivers 20 feature previews across every state and territory — from Arthur Boyd's tapestries at the National Gallery in Canberra to Monet to Matisse at SAM, from the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair to Perth Sky Sculpture Park — with a 16-page gallery map index that remains the magazine's core utility.
The previews section is the issue's engine. Camilla Wagstaff covers Arthur Boyd: Tapestries at the National Gallery (20 June – 18 October 2026), revealing how Boyd's late-career work with weavers produced a distinct textile language. Jo Higgins previews Lyndell Brown and Charles Green: Robinson Crusoe and Georgia Banks: Popular Versus Culture. Barnaby Smith covers the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and Monet To Matisse: Defying Tradition at Shepparton Art Museum (23 May – 20 September). Anna Carlsson profiles Camp Stove and the 20 Questions With feature on Elisa Crossing. Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen previews Zoe Grey: Out of the Blue and Of This Earth. Briony Downes contributes a feature on Julian Charrière's The Land Before Time. Dee Jefferson explores Opening Up: Chinese Contemporary Art. Paul Sutherland profiles Elizabeth Day's Unravelling Empire. Oliver Giles reviews Party of One: Are You Lonely Tonight. The Long View section features Sarah Ayoub on Labour Pains. Louise Martin-Chew covers Jorge Mariño Brito's Songs Sung Anew. Rayleen Forester profiles Ida Sophia's Silent Treatment. Iain Dean's studio is documented by Rosamund Brennan. Jasmeet Kaur Sahi writes on The Vishnu Within: Avatar: Forms of Vishnu.
Regular features include the fold-out gallery map index covering Victoria (Melbourne CBD, Fitzroy and Collingwood, Greater Melbourne), Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth and Fremantle, plus dedicated gallery listings for each region. Exhibition advertisements include Margaret Olley: Australian Intimiste at NAS Gallery (31 July – 24 October), Facing Modernity: Degas to Picasso at SAM (23 May – 20 September), and Aboriginal art from the State Art Collection at AGWA (26 June – 4 October). Editor Chloé Wolifson's note opens the issue.
Editor's Take
Art Guide Australia remains an indispensable tool for anyone planning a gallery visit in Australia, and this 25th-anniversary issue demonstrates why it has lasted. The strongest feature is the gallery map index — a genuinely useful pull-out that no other magazine provides at this scale. The previews are well-distributed across states and media, with good representation of Indigenous and regional practices. The weakest element is the uniformity: every preview follows the same 150-word formula, so a national survey of Arthur Boyd's tapestries gets the same treatment as a debut show at Camp Stove. The 20 Questions With Elisa Crossing feature is the only piece with a distinct voice. This is for the travelling art audience, not for deep critical reading.
Strengths
• Pull-out gallery map index is genuinely useful and unique at this price point
• 20 previews evenly distributed across all Australian states and territories
• Strong Indigenous and regional art representation across features
Weaknesses
• Uniform 150-word preview formula flattens major and minor shows equally
• Only one distinct-voice feature (20 Questions With) breaks the template
Verdict: Essential — Indispensable travel tool for Australian gallery-goers; buy for the maps, not the criticism.
