Art Wrap: 11 Must-See Perth Exhibitions, from World-Famous Aussie Artists to Next-Gen Talent

Perth’s galleries are punching well above their weight in the second half of 2026. World-renowned artist Khaled Sabsabi, who’s currently representing Australia at the Venice Biennale, is mounting a mid-career show. Several notable mural artists are bringing their work indoors with a limited-run show by prolific artist Kamsani Bin Salleh, aka Kambarni, and Perth-raised Stormie Mills, who becomes the first Australian street artist to hold a solo show at a state gallery. To catch the next generation of Australia’s artistic talent, check out Pica’s Hatched, the graduate showcase that’s launched some of the country’s biggest creative careers. 

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.

Unwavering

Since opening in 2014, Spinifex Hill Studio in South Hedland has established itself as a community arts centre to watch. This winter, you can see why, with a new collection of work from the grassroots studio now showing at Form Gallery. Curated by Yolŋu artist and printmaker Ruby Djikarra Alderton, Unwavering celebrates the fortitude and resilience of Aboriginal women. See new commissions from 14 Spinifex Hill artists, including celebrated painter Doreen Chapman and Maywokka (Mayiwalku) Chapman, a Manyjilyjarra and Warnman elder and one of the last surviving desert dwellers in WA, both of whom have work held in the National Gallery of Victoria’s collection.

Unwavering runs at Form Gallery, Claremont until August 30.

Kamsani Bin Salleh: Nullians

Trailblazing artist, illustrator and designer Kamsani Bin Salleh, aka Kambarni, has been commissioned to create murals and projections across Australia, from Kings Park and Midland Train Station to Collie and the Sydney Opera House. This show goes back to his early work – comic-style illustrations drawn on scraps of paper and tissues, which he posted to Instagram. They eventually made it into the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra. His wry, unfussy drawings tackle colonisation, identity and power – from everyday microaggressions to police brutality, climate change and genocide. His formless, thought-provoking characters, the Nullians, take their name from “terra nullius”, the colonial fiction used to justify the British invasion of this continent.

Nullians runs from August 20 to August 30 at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre. Entry is free.

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.

Khaled Sabsabi: Between Suns

It’s been a big year for Australian multidisciplinary artist Khaled Sabsabi. Off the back of the 2026 Venice Biennale, he’s bringing an expansive retrospective to Perth. His career kicked off in 1998 with Aajyna, which reflected his childhood experience of the Lebanese Civil War, and he’s barely stopped since – working across painting, video, sound, installation and performance over almost three decades. This exhibition includes works never before seen in public. It’s a rare chance to catch an internationally recognised Australian artist at the top of their game.

Khaled Sabsabi: Between Suns runs until September 20 2026 at the Naval Store, Fremantle.

Hatched: National Graduate Show 2026

Before they’re snapped up by galleries or coveted by collectors, Australia’s best tertiary art graduates cut their teeth at Pica’s Hatched. Now in its 35th year, the show brings together 21 artists from art schools across the country for what is, for many, their first exhibition in an institutional setting. Past alumni include 1998 exhibitor Archie Moore, who became the first Australian to win the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, while Khaled Sabsabi of the 2005 cohort is representing Australia in Venice this year. At the 2026 edition of Hatched, look out for four emerging WA artists, including Jessica Shannon, who adapts discarded industrial materials from the Pilbara for her works interrogating land, extraction and permanence.

Hatched: National Graduate Show 2026 runs until October 4 at Pica, Perth. Entry is free.

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.

In our hands, we hold

How long is a piece of string? In the case of First Nations weaving practices, tens of thousands of years long. The ancient and sophisticated art form dates to the Ice Age and is steeped in cultural significance, used for ceremonies, gathering food, and passing down stories. In our hands, we hold explores this practice as both material and metaphor, bringing together new works by artists from across the state. The show intertwines multiple mediums, spanning sculpture, textiles, installation and moving image. Walyalup artist Sharyn Egan, drawing on her experience as a child of the Stolen Generations, weaves portraits into paper baskets, while Lorraine Connelly-Northey turns scrap metal gathered on Country into sculptures that resemble traditional dillybags. Plus, spot works by Gija artist Mabel Juli, Noongar artist Brett Nannup and Yindjibarndi artist Katie West, among others.

In our hands, we hold runs from August 15 to November 1 at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre. Entry is free.

Margaret River Region Open Studios

If a picture tells a thousand words, how many does an artist’s studio hold? This September, Margaret River Region Open Studios throws open the doors for you to find out. Back for its 13th year, the region-wide event gives rare, behind-the-scenes access to more than 150 artists – including four families who share their creative spaces, from jewellery-making brothers to a mother-daughter duo working side by side. Look out for the cosy, colourful studio of master printmaker Leon Pericles, singular scrap metal sculptures by 14-year-old artist Charlie Guiver, intricate paintings by proud Noongar, Banyjima, Nyiypali artist Kim Kiosses, and large-scale naturescapes by self-taught painter Tamika Hogan. Beyond the canvas, there’s furniture by renowned designer Nathan Day and jewellery by makers like Madison Eoff and Jeannie Carroll.

Margaret River Region Open Studios runs from September 12–27, 2026 at multiple locations across Margaret River.

Stormie Mills: All the secrets are buried between the oceans and the mountains

You’ve seen Stormie Mills’s street art across Perth: the Wellington Street freeway underpass, Shenton Park train station, and Como’s Henley Street apartments. Now it’s coming indoors for a landmark show at AGWA, in which Mills will become the first Australian street artist to hold a solo exhibition at a state gallery. Named after its centrepieces – two 12-metre-long paintings – the show also features portraits of friends, collaborators and influential street art figures, including American artist Futura 2000, many rendered in Mills’s signature black, white, grey and silver palette. He’s been changing public perceptions of street art since 1984, from his commission for the 2004 Athens Olympics to group shows in Tokyo, and solo exhibitions in Los Angeles. This watershed show puts the spotlight on his whole career – and might just open the door for other Aussie street art to be welcomed in by the institutions that have long kept them at arm’s length.

All the secrets are buried between the oceans and the mountains runs until November 8 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.

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.The West Australian Pulse 2026

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.

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 Bradf 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.

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.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 14, 2026 but was substantially updated on August 7, 2026 to include more art exhibitions in Perth in 2026.