Indonesian multimedia artist Dian Suci has won the 10th edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, as announced by curator and jury chair Cecilia Alemani in Venice at the Serra dei Giardini. Suci was selected from a shortlist of five finalists that included Betty Adii, Dzikra Afifah, Ipeh Nur, and Mira Rizki. The jury was organized and chaired by Alemani and included Museum MACAN director Venus La.
May 2026 brings a packed calendar of art exhibitions across Australia, with highlights including Rone's 'Another TIME' at COMA Gallery in Sydney, the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes at the Art Gallery of NSW, and solo shows by Eleanor Louise Butt, Jordan Gogos, Natalya Hughes, Patricia Piccinini, and Michaela Gleave. Regional venues like Bundanon and Ngununggula also feature major exhibitions, including a posthumous show of Rosalie Gascoigne alongside new commissions by First Nations women artists.
The Australian art scene is hosting a diverse array of exhibitions throughout March 2026, headlined by the landmark 25th Biennale of Sydney titled 'Rememory.' Major institutional highlights include the newly reopened Newcastle Art Gallery showcasing its national collection, a significant Ron Mueck survey at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and a major Rosalie Gascoigne exhibition at Bundanon. Commercial galleries are also debuting new works, ranging from Patricia Piccinini’s stem-cell-inspired installation at Passage Gallery to Christopher Zanko’s architectural studies at N.Smith Gallery.
Tony Albert, a Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji artist, has spent his life collecting Aboriginalia—kitsch household items from the mid-20th century that feature naive or racist depictions of Indigenous culture. These objects, including ashtrays, velvet paintings, and figurines, form the basis of his upcoming exhibition *Tony Albert: Not A Souvenir* at the Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Bruce Johnson McClean. Albert's practice transforms these mass-produced artifacts into a powerful critique of colonization, displacement, and erasure.
Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre will present 'Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise' opening on May 9, 2025. The exhibition, developed and toured nationally by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia), features Colombian Australian artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso's photographic project on the Australian Maratus spider. It includes 17 large-scale digital photographic portraits created with scientific imager Geoff Thompson and entomologist Andy Wang, plus an immersive projection of Cardoso's video 'On the Origins of Art I-II' (2016), co-owned by MCA Australia and Tate.