From Geelong to Ballarat and Daylesford to Warrnambool, you’re bound to love exploring some creative gems and art venues across regional Victoria.
With Melbourne branded the arts capital of Australia, it’s easy to forget about the wealth of art on offer outside the city and throughout the rest of the state.
Regional Victoria has some of the best artistic communities and spaces. With the ever-growing popularity of going regional, it is so important to check out all the wonderful artistic spaces we have here in regional Victoria. Whether you’re making a day trip or have lived in these towns all your life, there is plenty to do and see, from permanent collections and major touring shows to spotlighting talented artists and their works.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the best exhibitions happening currently around regional Victoria, with a few Melbourne appearances, updated each month.
Here are our recommendations for the must-see exhibition and art shows happening between September 14 and October 11 in and around the region:
Wadawurrung Dja: Awakening Country – The Art of Deanne Gilson
Dr Deanne Gilson is a proud Wadawurrung woman, emerging elder, cultural educator and award-winning visual artist from Ballarat Victoria. Gilson works primarily in clay, painting, digital imagery and fabric design.
Gilson’s new exhibition Wadawurrung Dja: Awakening Country, features a vibrant mix of twenty paintings and textile works. The exhibition includes ten newly created contemporary ceremonial cloaks using Gilson’s unique fabric designs.
Wadawurrung Dja: Awakening Country – The Art of Deanne Gilson is taking place at the National Wool Museum in Geelong until November 13.
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Daniel Johns: Past, Present & FutureNever
‘Past, Present & FutureNever’ is a fully immersive exhibition exploring the musical legacy and creative flair of Daniel Johns. Steeped in grunge nostalgia, the exhibition delves into the vault of the artist’s 30-year Grammy, Emmy, ARIA and APRA-winning musical career, whilst unleashing an immersive 90s retrospective.
Alongside a treasure trove of memorabilia, there’s also a custom DeLorean (aka ‘DanieLorean’) transformed by a FutureNever soundscape synchronised with projection mapping, an eerie self-playing piano, and a chance to step into a scene from the upcoming featurette ‘What if the Future Never Happened?’
‘The Past, Present & FutureNever’ exhibition is open daily at Rialto Melbourne until October 9.
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INTERVALS
INTERVALS is an exhibition curated by João Marco Deloie presenting works by six contemporary artists based between Geelong and Melbourne. It centres on photographic and video practices, featuring the diverse works of Cecilia Sordi Campos, Michael Danischewski, Joshua Maxwell de Hoog, Jahkarli Romanis, Ammar Yonis, and artist-curator João Marco Deloie.
Works range from landscape photography to self-portraiture, depictions of place, and other investigations in the photographic discipline.
INTERVALS takes place at Platform Arts in Geelong from September 23 to October 21.
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Patsy Taylor: Liberated Abstractions
Taking over Art Space Ballarat, Patsy Taylor’s ‘Liberated Abstractions’ is a vibrant and colourful exhibition worth visiting. Here gestural references to natural forms follow personal instinct and inherited permission to interpret the sublime. Reduced to the bare elements of art and paint – colour, line and tone, the warm sunset colour palette has inspired a fresh perspective for this artist, provoking renewed feelings of optimism and possibility.
Patsy Taylor: Liberated Abstractions runs until October 2 at Art Space Ballarat.
Barbara Brash—Holding Form
Barbara Brash (1925–1998) was a key artist in Melbourne’s printmaking revival of the 1950s and ’60s. Her colourful and dynamic prints demonstrate an expressive and experimental approach to the printed medium.
Bringing together woodcuts, linocuts, lithographs and screen prints from the Gallery’s collection and the Colin Holden Collection, Barbara Brash—Holding Form provides an insight into the evolution of Brash’s innovative and expressive practice.
Barbara Brash—Holding Form is at the Geelong Gallery until October 9.
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Bluestone: 150 Years of the Dennys Lascelles Woolstore
150 years ago, CJ Dennys & Co Woolstore opened its doors in Geelong – a building that is now an important cultural hub in Victoria’s second-largest city. Bluestone: 150 Years of the Dennys Lascelles Woolstore is an honest account of the colonisation of the Geelong/Djilang region and events leading up to the opening of the woolstore.
The exhibition tells the stories of those who have walked these halls and explores the progress of Geelong/Djilang and those who lived here through the ages.
Bluestone: 150 Years of the Dennys Lascelles Woolstore runs at the National Wool Museum in Geelong from September 16 2022 – April 23 2023.
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Peta Uthmeyer with ‘Colour your World’
Residing in Torquay, Peta Uthmeyer is an acclaimed international artist renowned for her love of bold, vibrant colours, creative ideas and expressive style. Creating semi abstract figurative paintings focusing on colour and surprising ways of using it, Peta will be bringing a freshness into Geelong’s The Space – Gallery + Workshops as October’s guest artist.
Peta Uthmeyer with ‘Colour your World’ takes over The Space – Gallery + Workshops in Newtown from October 5 until October 29.
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Terrace Projections: Zoe Scoglio, ‘Agri-Cultures’
Illuminating the Castlemaine Art Museum façade, Agri-Cultures is a commissioned video work by local artist Zoe Scoglio in dialogue with local small-scale farmers Gung Hoe growers in response to the theme ‘Industry’. Focusing on the manual labours and tactile relations, this is a visual portrait of the daily regenerative holistic practices and emergent cultures at the Harcourt Organic Farming Co-op.
Terrace Projections: Zoe Scoglio, ‘Agri-Cultures’ takes over Castlemaine Art Museum until October 9.
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Thor: Love and Thunder Costumes
Recently, the Marvel Universe got a little bit bigger thanks to Thor: Love and Thunder. The movie was a predominately Australian production, filmed during lockdown. It employed some popular Aussie costume designers, who created memorable designs that added another element to the film. Their work will be shown at ACMI this September – visitors can see costumes worn by Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, and even Russell Crowe’s Zeus costume.
Thor: Love and Thunder Costumes is taking place at ACMI throughout September.
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