Here's our Melbourne art gallery guide for June, with our recommendations of exhibitions, art shows and instillations to see this month.
June is always a highpoint on the Melbourne art calendar, with a plethora of Melbourne art gallery exhibitions occuring in and around the city from the annual Melbourne Winter Masterpieces, to the coattails of the epic PHOTO 2022 festival, to the huge range of contemporary art exhibits that happen around the city each and every month.
Explore Melbourne’s latest art events, exhibitions and performances here.
Frances Barrett: Meatus
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Sonic compositions and live performances take over the Melbourne art gallery space at ACCA in an exhibition presented by multiple artists responding to the concept of Meatus. A passage or opening that leads to the interior of the body, like the ear canal and nasal passages, Meatus explores the practices of listening and hearing. With four galleries that passage through and into each other, ACCA transforms into a meatus itself – an immersive and sensory experience of sound and light.
Frances Barrett: Meatus runs from April 2 to June 19 at ACCA
Gaia
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Gaia is a seven metre wide, internally lit illuminated instillation of the Earth that hangs suspended in St Paul’s Cathedral. With the intention to invoke the Overview Effect in his audience – the feeling of awe at the immense scale of our universe – UK artist Luke Jerram’s instillation explores human connectedness and the fragility of life. Rotating once every four minutes, the sculpture is rendered from detailed NASA imagery and accompanied by a soundtrack by Dan Jones, a BAFTA Award-winning composer.
You can see Gaia at St Paul’s Cathedral until June 26
Requiem to New York, Photographs by Ashley Gilbertson
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An ode to a pre-pandemic New York, Requiem to New York is a visually powerful collection at this Melbourne art gallery that tells the story of a city in a time of uncertain crisis. Recognised for his photographs of conflict zones, photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson documents the events of 2020, which unfolded around him during his regular jogs of the city.
The exhibition runs until August 22 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia in Fed Square
NGV to transform into Picasso’s Paris paradise with 36 live music acts until October
Light: Works from Tate’s Collection
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A collection of over 70 works curated by Tate in the UK, Light focuses on the artistic fascination with light by showcasing art from over 200 years of art history. Works from great Romantic painters such as Turner and Impressionist artists such as Monet, Pissarro and Sisley are juxtaposed against works of modern and contemporary sculptural art in this illuminating exhibition.
You can catch Light: Works from Tate’s Collection from June 16 to November 13 at ACMI
Helmut Newton: In Focus
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An intimate exploration of one of the most influential and trailblazing fashion photographers of all time, Helmut Newton: In Focus is a collection of 78 original photographs. A provocative and often controversial fashion photographer, his erotically charged black-and-white prints has seen Newton becoming one of the most sought after photographers of the 20th century. The exhibition follows the artist’s youth in Berlin, his flight from Germany at the outset of WWII and his internment in regional Victoria.
It runs until July 7 at the Jewish Museum of Australia
PHOTO 2022 will be Melbourne’s biggest ever photography festival
Internet Immigrant, Queering the Frame: Community, Time and Photography and Paul Mpagi Sepuya
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The Centre for Contemporary Photography has three great exhibitions running concurrently; with Queering the Frame exploring photographs from Australian artists across generations and Internet Immigrant satirically exploring deep rooted biases in our culture. Paul Mpagi Sepuya presents an artist who positions queerness and Blackness at the heart of his photography, whose exhibition at CCP includes elements from his studio such as mirrors, photography tools and backdrops.
They’re showing concurrently, you can catch both exhibitions at CCP (Centre for Contemporary Photography) from April 29 to June 12.
Three queer photography exhibitions are happening in Fitzroy
Susan Jacobs: The Ants Are In The Idiom and Still Life
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Buxton Contemporary has rapidly grown in stature to become a must-see Melbourne art gallery. Two exhibitions presented side by side in Buxton Contemporary – The Ants Are In The Idiom is a presentation of newly commissioned work by Susan Jacobs that meditates on the relationship between language and matter through drawing, sculpture and installation. Drawings and models from the University of Melbourne’s Herbarium are presented in Still Life, an exhibition that explores symbiotic relationships, mycelial networks and microorganisms through the natural sciences.
The exhibition runs from June 3 to November 6 at Buxton Contemporary
Veronica Franco vs Instagram
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The most unique exhibition you’re likely to see at any Melbourne art gallery this month, Gertrude Contemporary is presenting a duel between Veronica Franco, the 16th century Italian poet and the algorithm. Veronica Franco vs Instagram is part exhibition, part sonic experience, developed in conversation with a group of actors, it features a sound performance of spoken and sung prose that has been developed from a script based on Hannie Rayson’s 1990 novel Hotel Sorrento.
It’s on from May 27 to June 25 at Gertrude Contemporary
