Eight must-see art exhibitions happening across regional Victoria at the moment

The state is alive with installations, exhibitions and arts experiences.

Responsive works, touring exhibitions, debut shows and research-led developments are on show across regional Victoria as our arts scene explodes with creativity.

In addition to the city photographic takeover of Ballarat International Foto Biennale, galleries, museums and institutions are putting their best foot forward with art commissions.

From Platform Arts to Bendigo Art Gallery and across to Castlemaine Art Museum, provocative, daring, and dreamy displays take over.

Here are eight must-see exhibitions currently running across the state.

Keep up to date with all things arts, exhibitions and stage here.

Villain Edit

Villain Edit is the mid-career survey of Naarm Melbourne-based artist Georgia Banks. For over 5 years, Banks has rigorously delved into the world of Reality TV and AI—exploring ideas of death, fame and legacy—to fearlessly provoke viewers into critically engaging with the ineffable ways these mediums shape and influence our identities, relationships and the zeitgeist of our nation. The development is bound to break down barriers between reality and staged reality.

When: Sat 2 Aug – Fri 26 Sept

Where: Platform Arts, Geelong

 

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Kait James: Red Flags

Since 2018, Kait James has been carving out a unique visual language based in the reappropriation of racialised products. Colloquially identified as ‘Aboriginalia’, these mass-produced, commercial objects range from souvenir tea towels and pennant flags to children’s dolls and ceramic figurines. Primarily created from the 1950s through to the 1980s for consumption by non-Indigenous tourists, they depict culturally insensitive and racially stereotyped imagery, designs and motifs. 

When: 2 Aug – 16 Nov

Where: Ararat Gallery TAMA

 

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Ben Crawford ‘A Stranger In A Strange Land’

Ben Crawford finds inspiration in the natural world. Considering shapes, patterns, colours, Crawford crafts his body of works from stories and landscapes, working from an outsider perspective. He uses intrigue to inspire his latest collection grounding himself in the familiar landscape of his home – the creeks and the hills of the valley – contorted but recognisable through a method he adopts called ‘chimerical histories’; where paintings are made up of parts that have been scrambled in his mind. 

When: 21 Aug – 13 Sept

Where: Boom Gallery

 

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FLORA / FAUNA / FELLOW / FLOW

TBH Studio showcases the works of local artist Tania Babic in her debut solo exhibition. FLORA / FAUNA / FELLOW / FLOW features Babic’s exploration of the natural world and human condition through four main focuses – nature and place (flora), animals (fauna), people and personalities (fellow) and the interlinked relationship between these subjects (flow). The exhibition is a culmination of several years of artistic development and production. 

When: From 2 Aug

Where: TBH Studio Ballarat

 

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Regimes of value: the politics of taste, trade and desire

Taking a cue from anthropologist Arjun Appadurai’s notion of ‘regimes of value’, this display of works from the Bendigo Art Gallery Collection explores the ways in which value has been ascribed and signalled in the Western art tradition. Historic works highlight artistic virtuosity, rich ornamentation, and scenes of wealth, from a spectacularly ornamental Meissen vase to the lively exchange depicted in Franz Hochmann’s A Horse Market in a German Village. 

When: Until 30 November

Where: Bendigo Art Gallery

 

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Kaleidoscope

Queer culture is a kaleidoscope; ever changing with endless possibilities contained within the human experience. Kaleidoscope is an exhibition that explores the idea of queerness in its many forms. It embraces, celebrates and emphasizes the differences and experiences that have shaped the lives of those within this community from varied and diverse perspectives. Each artwork reflects life through a queer lens, and approaches the ideas explored in this exhibition as an expression of identity, desire and representation.

When: Until 30 October

Where: Horsham Regional Art Gallery

 

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Nostalgia

Responding to the prompt ‘a sentimentality for the past, memories of life gone by or longing for yesterday’, Nostalgia is an open call curated group show run by Little Malop Street space, Untether Gallery. Taking submissions for local artists and with prizes for “Best In Show” and “People’s Choice”, Nostalgia will see artists tap into their time capsules to awaken feelings from another period of living. 

When: 7 – 30 August

Where: Untether Gallery

 

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The Power of Delicacy – Micky Allan

Daylesford award-winning artist Mickey Allen plays with layers of engraved art over paper-based work in The Power of Delicacy. A sense of simplicity and complexity, why not both in the same continuum? Realistic detail can be glorious, abstract space just as ‘full’ of whatever it is that moves us, which is what counts. Allen aims to create places for the viewer to roam in their own responses, hopefully into hints of the previously unknown in quite that way. 

When: Until 26 October

Where: Castlemaine Art Museum

 

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Waste no time – these shows won’t be on forever!