Autumn marks your last chance to catch long-running outgoing exhibitions, such as Paola Pivi’s larger-than-life dancing polar bears at AGWA, or photographer Brad Rimmer’s Wheatbelt region pics at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre. But if you’re ready for something new, this season brings entertaining, emotive and expressive new exhibitions from UK artist Bruce Asbestos, Berlin-based Ida Lawrence and Perth’s own Elle Campbell. 

There are also rare and exciting opportunities to see almost 200 works by Western Australia’s Aboriginal artist collectives at two concurrent Pica shows. Plus, Vietnamese artist Tran Luong gets his first significant Australian exhibition at AGWA. 

Here are the best art exhibitions to see around Perth, in chronological order.  

Paola Pivi – I don’t like it, I love it

Vibrant, joyful, utterly bonkers. The epic Paola Pivi exhibition at AGWA is surreal, super-sized and so good you have to see it more than once. The Hawaii-based Italian artist likes to play with perceptions of reality, often with funny artwork titles written by her collaborator-husband, Karma Culture Brothers. In this exhibition, Pivi covers the walls with slogans in a font she designed, reading “Free Humans” and “Please don’t get a divorce”. Covering all three levels of the gallery, I don’t like it, I love it carries serious messages among the mystifying and marvellous creations. For instance, her dancing polar bears – decorated in blue, red and pink feathers – represent the fragility of the climate crisis. Other works, like Love addict – 999 trays filled with colourful liquid – are simply beautiful to behold. 

Paola Pivi – I don’t like it, I love it runs until April 26 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Brad Rimmer | Loom of the Land

Contemporary art photographer Brad Rimmer has captured the beauty, isolation and vastness of WA’s Wheatbelt region in a series of photos taken over two decades. Rimmer grew up in the region, and each image carries an emotional tie to the place he once called home. In Silence, for example, you’ll see a sunglasses-wearing teen sitting atop a Commodore and an image of an empty tyre swing hanging over a dusty yard. In addition to photos from Silence, Nature Boy, and Nowhere Near, there are two new video works that focus on the stillness of abandoned Wheatbelt town halls, no longer hubs of community connection. 

Brad Rimmer | Loom of the Land runs until April 26 at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre. 

Pascale Giorgi | Worst Hits

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure, right? For Fremantle-based artist Pascale Giorgi, her artistic trash will become the central focus of a solo exhibition themed around the mistakes, leftovers and waste that come with being a multidisciplinary artist 10 years into her career. Worst Hits will reimagine Giorgi’s studio trash into new sculptural works. Look out for humorous vegetable shapes, replica neoclassical sculptures reminiscent of her Sculpture by the Sea artwork, and other motifs such as a mug with a baroque clown face.

Pascale Giorgi | Worst Hits runs from February 8 to April 26 at Goolugatup Heathcote.

All That Country Holds

Noongar artist and curator Zali Morgan has brought together nearly 200 works by more than 100 artists from Western Australia, for a huge celebration of Aboriginal art split across two exhibitions. The first includes 42 significant artworks by 10 Aboriginal artists from the Kimberley region, which were recently shown at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC. That same exhibition is now coming to Pica, where it’ll be given its own deserved fanfare. See works by John Prince Siddon, Angelina Karadada Boona and Leah Umbagai, alongside seven other impressive artists represented by six different arts centres.

All That Country Holds runs until June 14 at West End Gallery, Pica. 

Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists

Morgan’s second exhibition, running concurrently to All That Country Holds, shares the same beauty, depth and creative energy of WA’s art communities – but this time the artists are exclusively new and emerging. Around 180 pieces will be on display, made by 101 artists. There are photographs, sculptures, paintings and textiles. Plus, as part of the programming, you can purchase artworks to take home, with proceeds going directly to the artists and their communities. You can also drop in for making sessions and book artist-led workshops. 

Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists runs until to June 14 at Central Gallery, Pica.

Tran Luong: Tam Ta – Soaked in the Long Rain 

Contemporary artist Tran Luong is a major figure in the Vietnamese art scene. He started painting in the 1980s, moving into performance art and community art in his three-decade career. Political, pioneering and unmoored by a particular medium, Tran’s works unpack internalised political repression, the impact of ideology, and memories of wartime displacement. AGWA’s exhibition is the first significant presentation of his art in Australia. 

Tran Luong: Tam Ta – Soaked in the Long Rain runs until August 16 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Attachment Styles: Modes of Belonging in Modern and Contemporary Art

With pieces plucked from AGWA’s 18,000-strong collection, Attachment Styles is a curious exhibition themed around therapy talk. Whether you identify as “anxiously avoidant” or “securely attached”, there’ll be a painting here that speaks to your soul. Frederick McCubbin’s Down on his luck, for example, has a hint of self-soothing. Stewart MacFarlane’s The border seems to depict jealousy or sibling rivalry. Then there’s John Nash’s The Bathers, with its lone individuals sitting in close proximity to others. Whichever one you relate to most, it’s clear these artists understand our deep-seated need to feel seen.

Attachment Styles: Modes of Belonging in Modern and Contemporary Art runs until October 11 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Bruce Asbestos: Cranky Pants

Enter this playful exhibition by UK artist Bruce Asbestos through the wide-open mouth of one of his kooky sculptures, named Super Crank. This all-ages space welcomes big feelings and judgement-free opportunities to express yourself, especially if you feel a little silly. There are fun fabrics to explore, which have unusual zips, snaps and other fastenings. Use them to design a new outfit – or an entirely new personality – then show it off on the catwalk. Being your unapologetic self is what Cranky Pants is all about.  

Cranky Pants runs until April 25, 2027 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Dolphin

Bold, colourful and almost-childlike in their big expressive style, Elle Campbell’s artworks conjure feelings of freedom and play. In her latest solo exhibition, 25 paintings made during her residency at the Heritage Collective, will be on display across three buildings. They’re all linked by the Dandaragan-raised artist’s memories of coastal holidays where dolphins felt like magical creatures to her. So they’ll feel right at home in the sprawling oceanside property.  

Dolphin runs from May 9 to 31 at the Heritage Collective, Cottesloe. 

Jemi Gale | Promise to sing for you

Narrm/Melbourne-based artist Jemi Gale uses all sorts of unconventional elements in her paintings, such as nail polish, charms and collage. Inspired by her friends, her art practice is an exploration into loneliness prevention and finding companionship. In this Goolugatup exhibition, two new works (made while the artist was in residence) will be shown in adjoining rooms, representing the bridges friends often form across physical and emotional distances. 

Promise to sing for you runs from May 9 to July 26 at Goolugatup Heathcote.

Ida Lawrence: A Bigger Misha

In Ida Lawrence’s own words, her paintings “make a big deal out of small observations, tiny gestures and little feelings”. Take A Bigger Misha, for example. It’s a painting of a pet dog owned by her boyfriend’s parents and inspired by a framed artwork of their other dog, which was done by her partner’s ex-girlfriend. It’s decorated with musings on those (somewhat jealous) feelings, as are her other narrative artworks, which aim to share her unique perspective. Lawrence’s paintings are also inspired by the places she’s lived, including Sydney, Ubud and Berlin, where she’s mostly based today. See her entertaining artworks in this upcoming exhibition. 

Ida Lawrence: A Bigger Misha runs from May 9 to August 2 at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre. 

Leyla Stevens: Groh Goh (Rehearsal for Rangda)

Indonesian Australian artist Leyla Stevens makes compelling video works about cultural histories and performances. At Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre, you’ll be able to watch her 28-minute film about the Balinese mythological figure Rangda. It looks at the passing on of knowledge through matrilineal storytelling and movement, and it repositions the mythical demon queen as an empowering female force. 

Leyla Stevens: Groh Goh (Rehearsal for Rangda) runs from May 9 to August 2 at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre. 

The West Australian Pulse 2026

More than 300 teenage artists submitted their works for this year’s exhibition to be judged by AGWA’s associate curator, Isobel Wise, with artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah and principal consultant Lisa Bowden, from the School Curriculum and Standards Authority. The 63 very impressive shortlisted pieces will be exhibited. Come vote for your favourites in the people’s choice award, or simply marvel at the results of a talented bunch of year 12 visual arts grads. More into textiles? The Pulse fashion show takes place on May 23. 

The West Australian Pulse 2026 runs from May 16 to September 13 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Past Exhibitions

Growth

Broadsheet photographer Danica Zuks is presenting a series of photos, sculptures, video work and native plants in their debut solo exhibition at Zig Zag Gallery. They ask viewers to consider what’s beautiful and what’s harmful across the various materials, from plastic milk crates to Geraldton waxflowers. Zuks’s colour-drenched images show the symbiosis of the natural and artificial, including striking photos of eucalyptus, karkalla (pigface) and other endemic plants appearing to grow through shopping carts and plastic baskets. 

Growth runs from January 16 to February 8 at Zig Zag Gallery. 

HALE TENGER / BORDERS / BORDERS

BORDERS / BORDERS is the first museum survey of renowned Turkish artist Hale Tenger, whose poetic yet politically charged installations span three decades. Deeply rooted in her experience of growing up during and after Turkey’s 1980 military coup, Tenger explores the psychic and physical landscapes shaped by authoritarianism, conflict and exclusion. She uses sound, image and sculpture to construct immersive, affective environments. Her pieces depict the tension between violence and gentleness, history and memory, presence and erasure. The result is a body of work that doesn’t resolve so much as linger, inviting reflection on how power, belonging and resistance are felt and navigated.

HALE TENGER / BORDERS / BORDERS runs until February 8, 2026, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Pippin Drysdale: Infinite Terrain

Fremantle-based ceramicist Pippin Drysdale has been working with clay for over 40 years, and at AGWA you can see 400 of her hand-carved vessels and sculptures in a major retrospective. It includes perfectly domed porcelain mounds painted in sunset oranges; delicate pastel vases with tiny bases and bulbous middles; and fingerprint-like curves etched into the clay that look like lines drawn in the sand. Curator Isobel Wise says the aesthetics of Drysdale’s ceramics are deeply rooted in the Australian landscape. While they’re individually mesmerising, together they’re otherworldly. 

Pippin Drysdale: Infinite Terrain runs until April 6 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. 

Awakening Histories

Before British invasion, First Nations people in Australia had an ongoing relationship with the Makassan seafarers of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. In this Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (Pica) exhibition, a number of artists from Australia and Indonesia reflect on the importance of this cultural exchange, including the plants they traded and the ideas they shared. Artists include WA’s Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Makassar-based photographer and writer Aziziah Diah Aprilya, and northeast Arnhem Land collective the Mulka Project.

Awakening Histories runs from February 6 to March 29 at Central Galleries. 

Painting Itself / 绘画本身

Pica has invited five painters from Hong Kong, Malaysia, London, Shanghai and Singapore to flip the long-held rules of European and American painting to instead make paintings “through an Asian lens”. Their works are instilled with internal struggles and moods and created using painting practices from East and Southeast Asia. Artists include painters Jon Chan and Un Cheng, plus painter and performance artist Tang Dixin. 

Painting Itself / 绘画本身 runs from February 6 to March 29 at West End Gallery. 

Under Waters

Step into an aquatic themed installation at Perth Festival, where your body movements will trigger digital marine shell forms to move through water, blobbing through digital coral and sand. Under Waters is the creation of Wiradjuri Scottish artist April Phillips, who fuses science, poetry and First Nations knowledge into her artworks. Phillips is the founder of the Friends with Computers collective, which uses digital technologies as tools for art making, and this interactive installation will live at Pica as part of its season one program, before touring regional WA later this year. 

Under Waters runs from February 19 to March 29 at Studio 2, Pica. 

Melissa Sandy | The Void

Yindjibarndi artist Melissa Sandy shares a deeply personal series about grief, as part of Perth Festival. Sandy lost her aunt, Mrs A Sandy, who was also an artist and maternal figure in the community. Following years of slow and deliberate creative process, the Pilbara artist has made intricately patterned metallic paintings. They’re accompanied by audio-visual works and a documentary film created in Jirrayi/Mount Florence on the eastern fringes of Yindjibarndi Country. The Void is commissioned by Boorloo Contemporary, which is also showing a series of vibrant, provocative flags made by Kait James at East Perth Power Station (also part of the Perth Festival program). 

The Void runs from February 28 to March 28 at PS Art Space. 

Sculpture by the Sea

Sculpture by the Sea is returning to Perth in March for its 21st Western Australian exhibition. The 2025 WA iteration was cancelled due to a lack of federal funding and sorely missed in the local art scene. This year’s exhibition will include 70 pieces from renowned local and international sculptors dotted along the natural amphitheatre of Cottesloe Beach.

Sculpture by the Sea will run from March 6 to March 23 at Cottesloe Beach.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 14, 2026 but was substantially updated on April 22, 2026 to include more art exhibitions in Perth in 2026.