Six Stunning New Sydney Art Exhibitions to See During May

It’s the yearly exhibition that leaves us with jaws on the floor; the 59th annual World Press Photo exhibition is coming to Australia for another year.Back for its 59th edition, the yearly photographic collection regularly leaves us gaping at the mouth — and this year is no exception. Right at the top with 2015 Photo of the Year is Australia’s own Warren Richardson, with his poignant picture of a man passing his baby through a fence at the Hungarian-Serbian border. He beat 82,951 submissions by 5775 photographers from 128 countries for the top prize, while also taking out first prize in the Spot News category.

The World Press Photo exhibition can be seen at Sydney’s State Library of NSW from May 21 to June 19. Before the exhibition makes its way to Australia, take a look through some of the landmark images that caught the eye of the WPP judges; from a Tibetan Bhuddist ceremony in rural China to a 16-year-old Islamic State fighter being treated for burns in Syria, to one of those epics #sydneystorms rolling over Bondi. With many of the photographs documenting the more saddening news headlines, they’re often not easy images to look at, but it’s the work of these photojournalists that wakes up an otherwise ignorant world.

Taking things to a whole new level of bizarre at the Biennale of Sydney, Mella Jaarsma is putting on a fashion show like no other. Alright, ‘fashion’ might be the wrong term to use here. But with costumes as elaborate as these, it’s tempting to believe you’ve stumbled into some twisted couture show.

From 6.30pm every Wednesday evening until June 1 head along to Jaarsma’s installation Dogwalk at the Art Gallery of NSW, a 60-minute dog-walking performance filled some seriously creepy animal-skin costumes. Picking a part the bond between humans and animals, this show is definitely one to get you talking.

In just six years, Head On Photo Festival has more than doubled in size — from 70 events in 2010 to 150 in 2016. So, throughout the festival’s duration (29 April to 22 May) you could pretty much go to three shows a day without seeing the same photo twice.

This year’s theme is the infinitely multifaceted ‘self’. Who are you, in the eyes of both yourself and those around you? How do various spaces and societies influence your identity?

Unable to make it to all 150 happenings? Make sure you at least get along to the highlights. Toby Burrows’s spectacular Nothing To Lose captures plus-size dancers in motion (from the show we couldn’t stop talking about last year), while Anna Fawcus’s introspective MIXED EMOTION(M.E.). explores the complex nuances of the inner self.

Meanwhile, several photographers journey through the relationship between self and place, with Amy Crawley taking you on a trip deep into rural Victoria in Suburban Endurance, Claire Reynolds reflecting on moving from the country to the city in The Lonesome Cowboy and Hiro Tanaka transporting you to New York City in Around 42nd and 7th, a series capturing Time Square’s many rich layers.

Master German photographer Sven Marquardt will be the subject of dual exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne this May. Splitting his time between his art and working the door at Berlin’s exclusive Berghain nightclub, Marquardt has become an icon both at home and abroad as a result of his striking black and white photographs, captured exclusively using analogue cameras. Now, thanks to the Goethe-Institut, he’s on his way to Australia.

Marquardt’s second stop in Australia will be Sydney for the launch of Future’s Past, a month-long show at Ambush Gallery in Chippendale, co-presented by the Head On Photo Festival. Shutterbugs, don’t let this one pass you by.

If you think T2 has made tea trendy today, you should’ve been around in ancient China. In fact, it was the Golden Age — or the Tang Dynasty — which kicked off around 618, that turned the mighty tea leaf into a Thing. Whether you were a mere commoner or royalty, you’d spend a heck of a lot of time sitting around, brewing, sipping and assessing.

In celebration of this and the many other wonders of the Tang Dynasty, the Art Gallery of NSW is holding a mega exhibition. They’re bringing you 130 objects — from gold dragons to artworks to terracotta sculptures — to help you relive Chinese history.

On top of its tea culture, the Tang Dynasty is famous for a bona fide #ladyboss by the name of Wu Zetian, who took the reigns between 690-705, and was the only female in China’s history to rule as Empress. What’s more, the empire’s capital city, Chang’an, was the absolutely colossal gateway to the famous Silk Road. While London was still a wee baby town, this gargantuan city numbered one million and sprawled as far as Korea in the north and Vietnam in the south.

On April 17, 1816, a massacre occurred near Appin, a small rural town one hour’s drive southwest of the Sydney CBD. Then Governor Lachlan Macquarie ordered his soldiers to attack an Aboriginal camp, either shooting its occupants or driving them over a gorge, to their death. Official records say 14 people were killed, but many Indigenous historians will tell you the total was much higher.

This tragedy might have been erased from many a history textbook, but if you head to Campbelltown Arts Centre anytime between now and 12 June, you’ll see that members of the local Dharawal community remember it all too well. They’ve collaborated with curators Tess Allas (Australia) and David Garneau (Canada) to put together an exhibition titled Secrecy and Despatch.

The show marks the massacre’s 200-year anniversary and, at the same time, reflects on Australia and Canada’s parallel colonial histories. It features newly commissioned pieces by six leading Aboriginal Australian artists, namely Vernon Ah Kee, Julie Gough, Tony Albert, Frances Belle Parker, Dale Harding and Genevieve Grieves, and four First Nations Canadian artists: Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Adrian Stimson, Marianne Nicolson and Jordan Bennett.

“Campbelltown Arts Centre is committed to sharing the history of the area the centre is situated in, Dharawal country, a community rich in diversity, and at a point in time where acknowledgement of past tragedy is crucial to our collective future,” said director Michael Dagostino.