New arts trail brings creativity to the streets

Fans of street art will probably enjoy a new art trail that launched recently in northern New South Wales.

The Clarence Valley has unveiled its Public Art Trail, inviting visitors to wander through murals, sculptures and installations across the region.

Designed to let art lovers slow down, explore and connect with each town's story, the trail turns streets, laneways and public spaces into an open-air gallery.

The trail covers coastal hamlets Yamba and Iluka, river towns Maclean and Grafton, and the village of Glenreagh.

The artworks celebrate local culture, history and creativity at every turn. The trail is part of the Clarence Valley's Art, History & Culture Hub, which also includes the Art Gallery Trail, Museum Trail, Heritage Trails, and the Lower Clarence Aboriginal Tourist Drive.

The trails aim to let visitors "explore the stories, creativity and culture that bring the Valley to life".

The Clarence Valley region includes the coastal plain and lower valleys of the Clarence and Nymboida rivers.

Hard Core: Mona unveils a new headliner

French-Swiss artist Julian Charrière has been chosen as the next headliner at the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart. 

Charrière will present his first solo exhibition in Australia in Tasmania from June 6, 2026, to March 29, 2027.

Opening in time for mid-winter festival Dark Mofo (June 11-22), his Hard Core will feature an assemblage of artworks from sculpture and installation to film and photography that bridge nature, science, history, industry and myth.

‘Ideas burst from Julian Charrière (below) like licks from an over-friendly dog," says Mona’s founder, David Walsh. 

"Sometimes it’s a lot - attending one of Julian’s exhibitions can be overwhelming. But Julian isn’t a meddler. His ideas are deep and incisive, the sort of ideas that expose the soft white underbelly of reality." 

Hard Core will transform Mona’s touring galleries and spill out into the Void and newly excavated additions to the museum. 

It will feature sculptures made of coal, lava, molten computers, onyx and obsidian.

Cored samples taken from glacial erratic boulders are repaired with steel, aluminium, brass and silver. A lump of stromatolite rock, hundreds of millions of years old, is slowly polished to a perfect sphere between lapidary rock grinders. 

There are plants preserved cryogenically, snails slurping the calcium carbonate from marble statues, and a vending machine full of fossilised ammonites.

So, all very Mona. 

In photographs and video installations, Charrière pits human action against ideas of nature’s grandeur and vulnerability. 

With Breathe, a permanent installation commissioned especially for Mona and built into the museum’s foundations, Charrière releases oxygen molecules that have been trapped inside banded iron ore formations since the Great Oxidation Event some 2.4 billion years ago. 

Visitors are invited to inhale this ancient air, which has been lodged in rock over the years, 

Mona’s director for curatorial affairs, Jarrod Rawlins, said: ‘We like beautiful adventures, physically, emotionally and philosophically, and Breathe delivers that from every angle.’

Berlin-based Charrière has exhibited widely, but this is his first solo exhibition in Oceania.

‘What’s special about this show is how it coalesces distinct works into a single geological body, compressing planetary timescales into a shared, stratigraphic architecture and encounter," the artist says. 

" Here, Mona acts as both figurative and literal bedrock - a boundary-pushing museum which, carved from sandstone, situates human civilization within a far older story; a story of stone and bone.

‘Tasmania, too, is integral to the temporal dissonance of Hard Core: a primeval, almost Gondwanan place, where exhibiting feels less like placing works in a museum and more like returning them to the planetary condition to which they already belong.’ 

A full-colour exhibition catalogue including installation photography will be published later this year.

* Charrière has exhibited at many of the world’s major art institutions, including solo shows at Museum Tinguely in Switzerland, Palais de Tokyo in France, and SFMoMA in the US. 

Bringing art to the streets of regional Victoria

The small towns of Gippsland in Victoria host a wide range of events and festivals throughout the year, making the region a popular weekend getaway destination.

Neerim South, in West Gippsland, will transform into an open-air gallery from February 28 to March 15 this year as the fifth biennial Neerim Artsfest brings a range of striking sculptural artworks to the heart of the region. 

Celebrating contemporary sculptural art in a regional setting, Neerim Artsfest invites visitors to explore artworks displayed throughout the town - in parks, along streets and inside local venues - all free to enjoy.

The 2026 theme, The Spirit Soars, challenges sculptors to create works that evoke freedom, wonder and visual excitement, resulting in a diverse and imaginative collection set against Neerim South’s leafy streetscapes and country charm.

Neerim South has a long-standing connection to the arts, particularly sculpture, famously marked by the seven-storey Neerim Bower that welcomes visitors at the town entrance. Just 100 kilometres from Melbourne, the town offers an easy cultural escape. 

Festivalgoers are encouraged to begin their visit at Algie Hall, open daily from 10am to 4pm during the festival, where indoor sculptures are on display and maps of artwork locations are available. 

From there, visitors can wander at their own pace through the town’s parklands and streets, discovering exterior works along the way.

Beyond the sculptures, visitors can enjoy walking and cycling along the Rokeby to Neerim Rail Trail, sample local brews and live music at Five Aces Brewing Co., dine at Neeri Nuff Wine Bar & Kitchen, or immerse themselves in nature at rainforests, wetlands and waterfalls.

The festival also coincides with the Rokeby Market on March 14, slated to feature more than 100 stalls showcasing handmade, homegrown and locally produced goods.

Images: Nicky Cawood

Get walking: Sculpture by the Sea is back

Nothing beats a good seaside walk.

Except, perhaps, a seaside walk that has been enhanced by interesting artworks.

Sculpture by the Sea has returned to the Bondi to Tamarama Walk and will once again be the world’s largest free to the public sculpture exhibition.

The spectacular coastal walk has again been transformed into a 2km~long sculpture park featuring 100 sculptures by artists from Australia and across the world

Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi is one of Sydney’s most popular events, with 500,000 visitors viewing over 100 sculptures by artists from around the world each year.

Held since 1997, this free exhibition captures the imagination of Sydney and its visitors for three weeks each spring and is billed as the largest annual sculpture exhibition in the world.

The popularity of the Bondi exhibition led to the creation of Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe in Perth on Australia’s west coast in March each year.

Staged since 2005 the Cottesloe exhibition features over 70 sculptures and is enjoyed by 220,000 visitors, making the exhibition as much a part of Perth as the Bondi event is in Sydney.

The Sydney event runs from Friday, October 18, to November 4.

Meet the curious creatures "protecting the environment"

A series of enormous wooden sculptures will be installed south of Perth later this year.

Created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, and standing at up to 5-metres tall, the "protectors of the environment", will each have their own distinct personality.

“We can design an entire world out of trash when we know what to do with it," Dambo said.

"That's why I build these larger-than-life projects out of recycled wood and materials. I hope my work inspires others to be kinder to nature and our planet."

Visitors will be encouraged to explore the Mandurah region, less than an hour south of Perth, to discover the installations at various locations when the exhibition opens to the public later this year.

Dambo has exhibited extensively throughout the world including in Denmark, the US, France, Germany, China, South Korea and Chile.

His works celebrate the diversity, beauty and importance of the natural world, with all the artist's works handmade using recycled materials.

This public art event is initiated and produced by FORM – Building a State of Creativity Inc., and will be delivered in collaboration with the City of Mandurah.

A lifestyle town with a holiday vibe, Mandurah combines dolphin spotting and relaxing canal cruises with adventures to lesser-known wetlands and beaches.

Underwater sculptures to be living artworks

Meet an art gallery that will ultimately only be enjoyed from underwater. 

The Museum of Underwater Art, in partnership with Museum of Tropical Queensland, has launched its next stage of sculptures. 

Ultimately destined for the Great Barrier Reef, five of the Museum of Underwater Art's next stage of sculptures are being launched at the Museum of Tropical Queensland, in Townsville, before they are installed in their underwater home.

The Ocean Sentinels display will offer an opportunity to view the works before they begin to transform into their own micro reefs when placed on the Great Barrier Reef.

MOUA board director Paul Victory said the exhibit is about connecting with as many people as possible, to spark meaningful conversation around the Great Barrier Reef and its future.

“The chance to see the world-class sculptures in the flesh and learn about their stories, promoting reef conservation and the link between art and science to a wider audience, is incredible,” he said. 

Incredible might be pushing it - but it is certainly interesting. 

“This unique exhibit allows the public to enjoy and experience the next stage of the Museum of Underwater Art and learn about the important work we've been doing with coral planting, reef health surveys, providing education and work opportunities for Indigenous guides, and more,” he said.

“These are thought-provoking sculptures, they tell a story and have been created to highlight the important work of world-leading marine scientists,” he said.

Artist Jason deCaires Taylor designed and created the hybrid-form sculptures that celebrate the work of eight incredible marine scientists and community members. 

“I hope that in years to come a variety of endemic species such as corals, sponges and hydroids will change the sculptures' appearance in vibrant and unpredictable ways,” deCaires Taylor said.

“Like the Great Barrier Reef itself, they will become a living and evolving part of the ecosystem, emphasising both its fragility and its endurance.” 

Local member for Mundingburra, Les Walker, said the Museum of Underwater Art was shaping up to be one of Queensland's great new tourism attractions.

“This unique North Queensland tourism experience is predicted to generate more than $22 million each year for Townsville's visitor economy,”  he said. 

With politicians it is always about the money; never the art. 

“We know the Museum of Underwater Art has great potential to attract divers and snorkellers from across Australia and the world," Walker added.

“The timing of this new investment in tourism is welcome after the economic impact of Covid-19." 

The artworks will be on display at the Museum of Tropical Queensland until May 15. 

It is envisaged that the sculptures will be installed underwater by June, with the final location to be decided by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

For more details on the MOUA project visit moua.com.au. For information on visiting the exhibition at the Museum of Tropical Queensland see mtq.qm.qld.gov.au