ALGAEIC INTENT investigates the ways in which Algae thrive in the wreckage of capitalism (it grows in response to the excesses of agriculture and suffocates fish via depletion of oxygen) and how this can operate as a mirror/reflective distortion of our intermingled biological actions and porous relations to matter.

Motherhood and fertility have been extensively represented in creative practice for both their pictorial qualities and in the documentation of lived experiences. These representations continue to play an important role in shaping public perceptions of womanhood, while infertility is underrepresented, silenced or deemed contentious – often framed in terms of lack or failure.

This project reassembles everyday life scenes in a conned space to generate an analog of a nocturnal urban park, reflecting the ongoing colonisation of the late night.

Press against; Soften into explores fat as a material, an identity and a form of embodiment. The exhibition responds to conventions in contemporary art that distinguish between normal and fat bodies.

Some Sort of Notation takes its name from the journals of Alexander Marshack: an archaeologist who, in 1964, published a study on seemingly random, human-made notches on palaeolithic bones. Adamant that the markings were far from meaningless, he proposed they were complex lunar observations— a proto-writing system. “It is clearly neither art nor decoration,” he’d said, “but some sort of notation.”

(maelstrom) presents new works by South Australian artists Nicholas Hanisch and Nicole Clift. The two bodies of work, oil paintings and hand-woven tapestries, are responses to tangible and intangible manifestations of density, respectively. Nicholas Hanisch’s small oil paintings on canvas and bronze present intense tonal studies of sudden force, such as volcanic eruptions, fireworks, black holes, meteor showers and billowing smoke clouds.

This exhibition revisits selected works from Danish Quapoor’s recent good grief series, recontextualising them amongst related works. Quapoor’s trademark illustrative paintings on stretched paper feature alongside wall drawings and sculptures. Collectively, the works allude to diverse concepts including shifting personal identities, familial relationships, corporeality, grief, memorialisation, frustration, allergies, expectations, gender roles and sexuality.

'Working Tiles' is an exhibition featuring works from 14 artists, designers, and makers, all operating within a shared studio environment. ‘Tiles’ gallery and studios are located on Gadigal and Wangal country, Lewisham.

We have partnered with WestWords to deliver our writers program this year.

There is a red chair that once existed in an adoption agency in Seoul between 1983-1991 that was sat on by every adoptee for their 'first photo'. This year, 36 years after the artist’s ‘red chair photo’ was taken, she contacted the agency to enquire about this red chair and if it might still be there. The social worker’s only response––‘The red chair in your picture does not exist’. In the potent slippage of translation, correspondence and negation, this exhibition is a performative affirmation that, ‘yes, it does!’

un/conscious is a large-scale artwork that features a collection of sixteen brightly coloured tactile canvases, creating a kaleidoscopic wall of colour. The textiles featured are recycled offcuts of vintage towels from Re/lax Remade, a sustainably focused, Sydney-based fashion label.

still waters run deep brings together the work of five artists who live or have lived on Wilyakali and Barkindji / Barkandji Country in Far West NSW: Barbara Quayle, Blake Griffiths, Dan Schulz, Tannya Quayle, and Verity Nunan.

Using remnants of the world that her Mum, Aunties, and Nan lived in, Jasmine Miikika Craciun celebrates the love, life and strength they embody. Like the beautiful coloured glass and crockery that has stood the test of time on the sandy flats of Wilcannia long after the humpies have gone, the matriarchs of her lineage do the same.

Prita Tina Yeganeh

My Soil Farsh فرش (Carpet) expresses the profound experience of placemaking through transforming and innovating a cultural object. For Prita Tina Yeganeh, the connection stems from the cultural values and rituals of kinship and community-building deeply embedded in the familial environment that nurtured her sense of belonging as a child.

Magic Cave grew from research Emmaline Zanelli began in early 2023 into the social culture and family dynamics surrounding the mining industry in South Australia, with a focus on youth. Influenced by the young people she met and their interests, Magic Cave is an absurdist fantasy interpretation of life underground

Adele Warner and Gigi Malherbe

Cybermancy brings together Gigi Malherbe’s and Adele Warner’s meditations on the short-comings of the human body. As the suffix “mancy” denotes, artworks cast a speculative gaze to the near contemporary future to examine the integration of technology with the physicality and decay of the body.

Find your CATCH 🎣

Firstdraft is delighted to announce the Firstdraft Auction is back and will open Wednesday 7 August. In its 15th year, the Firstdraft Auction remains steadfast to its aim of supporting artists.