Culture

This year’s Archibald Prize was won by Laura Jones with a mix of awkwardness and composure. After more than 100 years, the country’s most popular art prize is like a parasocial family album.

He’ll stare like it’s the last caviar on earth. He’ll get sweaty, scratch his neck. The President knows he can’t keep any of the Presidential Gifts – that ancient samurai sword from Japan; the latest PlayStation, also from Japan – but that doesn’t mean he has to be thrilled about it. It would have been cool to keep that sword. Try to assassinate him then! And the PlayStation… Well, he prefers the Xbox anyway – proper American gaming. But the President loves food like he loves democracy. Like he loves the flag.

The biggest retrospective of Judy Watson’s 40 years of practice, mudunama kundana wandaraba jarribirri at QAGOMA, is a visceral experience of bringing truth to the surface.

James Elazzi first saw Frida Kahlo’s painting Sin Esperanza (Without Hope) when he was in Year 7 – and he was transfixed.

Sydney Dance Company’s compelling new work, Momenta, is an ingenious expression of the immanent.

Celebrated French director Olivier Assayas used his experience of pandemic lockdown to create Suspended Time, another in a series of films that directly reflects his own life.

With Richard Bell and Deborah Cheetham Fraillon featuring in its public artworks, a ‘future-forward’ drag show and other events, First Nations artists are the headline act at this year’s Rising.