Exhibitions

"Notations: Red Scale" presents a captivating visual and conceptual journey by artist Rainbow 陳雋然, exploring the interplay of colour, movement, and notation. The exhibition invites viewers to engage with the rhythm and texture of visual language, evoking a sense of fluidity and transformation. This showcase is a celebration of artistic nuance and sensory experience, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of sound and form.

IAC is honoured to present this very compelling exhibition showcasing selected photographic works by Sandy Edwards, a key figure in Australian photography. Emerging in the 1970s and 1980s, Sandy Edwards was instrumental in the feminist photography movement, using her documentary style to challenge traditional narratives, highlight issues of gender and identity, and question societal norms. Her work not only documents social conditions but also serves as a catalyst for dialogue and change, reflecting a profound commitment to feminist ideals. This exhibition features a selection of Sandy Edwards’ works from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, serving as a snapshot of Australian feminism.

"Connecting and Connections", the first art exhibition of 2025, brings together five distinguished artists of diverse backgrounds who through their highly personalised and distinctive artistic creations, individually and collectively, explore the complexities—often layered and contradictory—of cultural heritage, identity, traditions, mythologies, art history and alternative perspectives. Their inspiring artworks invite viewers to engage with the myriad experiences that shape our world, expanding the mind's eye.

Bitten Peach 分桃 is a solo show of high-profile multidisciplinary visual artist Owen Leong, known for his artistic exploration of queer world-making and inspired by a queer reading of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio,《聊齋志異》, a collection of classical Chinese stories by Qing dynasty writer Pu Songling (1640 – 1715). The collection conjures up a world in which nothing is as it seems, stretching the boundaries between the supernatural and everyday reality, using physical and psychological detail to make the move between these realms seem natural. By fusing historical materials with contemporary forms, the artist has created an exquisite body of work that “navigates the delicate interplay between past and present, desire and fantasy, self and world” and “transforms classical literature into a contemporary celebration of queer joy, power and agency”.

This uniquely empowering exhibition titled Portraits of Women, featuring the Western Sydney-based artist Amani Haydar who is also an award-winning writer, advocate for women’s health and safety and a former lawyer. Amani was born and grew up in Western Sydney of Lebanese heritage. Her parents migrated from Lebanon. In 2015 her father killed her mother as a result of brutal domestic violence, when Amani was five months pregnant with her first child and working as a lawyer. Her self-portrait holding her mum who is holding grandma who was killed in Lebanon won the Archibald finalist in 2018. In 2021 she published a memoir "Mother Wound" which won many awards including Victoria Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. This exhibition showcases Amani’s portraits of women, telling stories of women – all women, inspiring resilience, strength, hope and beauty, under and despite devastating traumas. She has developed a very distinctive artistic style and her artworks are strikingly beautiful to watch.

Hidden Treasures is an exhibition of treasured works of contemporary Chinese art that are not on public view but “hidden” in the homes of collectors. Some of the artworks have not been seen for almost forty years. Between the beginning and the end of this exhibition span 39 years, an exhilarating, dynamic period in Chinese art history that mirrors the ebbs and flows of massive societal changes and likewise the paths of the artists themselves. The stories behind the artworks are fascinating, revealing hidden meanings in the hidden treasures and connecting the artwork to a certain time and place. Enjoy discovering this collection of privately collected Chinese contemporary artworks through the eyes of the collectors!

This exhibition brings together two outstanding artists of different backgrounds, using different mediums, to show their fascinating and intriguing representations and explorations of history in their artistic creations. NC Qin, a young and successful artist specialising in glass sculpture and conceptual art, is first-generation Australian-born Chinese. Her artistic pursuit is intertwined with her identity formation. Embracing her Chinese heritage, she also interrogates and explores the hidden burden of cultural heritage within the Asian diaspora. Shen Jiawei, one of Australia’s best known master portraitists, but his lifelong interest and artistic pursuit are history painting, particularly large-scale history paintings, to capture history’s depth and complexity. This exhibition shows for the first time ever a print of Shen’s masterpiece, "The Tower of Babel" (2023), an epic artwork 20 years in the making that recreates an alternative art history of the 20th century by tracing the biggest movement of all: the International Communist Movement.

This exciting new exhibition features Ning Chen, Pamela See and Nelson Nghe, three distinctive Asian Australian artists of different styles, working in different mediums. What connects them is that they all draw on their cultural history and heritage in pursuit of their social, cultural and artistic identities as a migrant Australian and first-generation Australians of migrant parents. Their lived experiences have enabled them to develop their individual voices and styles, whilst exploring the interconnected aspects of the world we live in.

The Warren Duncan Exhibition is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s visit to China as the Prime Minister of Australia. The photographic works selected for the exhibition captured incredible and rare historic moments, revealing the interactions between Australians and Chinese, including state leaders, diplomats, high ranking officials and ordinary people, and reflecting how China looked to arriving Australians. These photographs humanise an exceptional time in history, making this an exhibition not to be missed.

The Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) at Western Sydney University is proud to present this new exhibition featuring two Australian artists of Chinese heritage, Dongwang Fan and Susan Chen. Every artist has a different relationship with traditions and takes a different approach to them. Artists of migrant backgrounds are bound to take a conscious path towards their cultural heritage, which in turn has a fundamental impact on their artistic creation. The artists in this exhibition are from different generations and had different childhood experiences. But their unique and surprising reconfiguration and transformation of traditions in their artworks both contrast and connect them in their creative depiction of tradition and contemporaneity.