Culture Watch: Art Exhibitions To See in Perth in 2025

The second half of 2025 brings a whole host of captivating art to the local scene. There are biologically simulated brains creating music, intergenerational Iranian Australian storytelling and playfully painted polar bears.

From fresh graduates to globally celebrated names, everyone is making their mark on the 2025 exhibition calendar. Here – in chronological order – are the best art exhibitions to see in Perth this year.

Revivification

Revivification is a world first, combining science and art to create what artist Nathan Thompson calls “mini brain organoids” from late experimental composer Alvin Lucier’s blood, reprogrammed into stem cells. Through cutting-edge biological innovation, the artists and neuroscientists behind the exhibition have revived the creative genius’s brain on a cellular level, enabling new music to be produced in real time throughout the exhibit. The performances provoke existential questions about the potential to continue creating after death and consequently, what creativity is an expression of, if not life itself.
Revivification runs until August 3, 2025, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

It’s Always Been Always

It’s Always Been Always is a celebration of Blak women’s roles as nurturers of community, conservators of land and decision-makers. It features six female First Nations artists whose works explore themes of strength, leadership and connection between oneself, others and Country.
It’s Always Been Always will run until August 3, 2025, at the Fremantle Arts Centre.

The West Australian Pulse

Since 1992, the West Australian Pulse has been exhibiting Year 12 visual arts graduates’ works to celebrate their achievements and gauge the topics of most concern according to the youth of the day. This year’s works explore everything from sexuality and racial equality to neurodiversity and climate change. Also returning is Pulsefest, which invites young people skilled in all creative mediums – including fashion and music – to spotlight their talents over the first three days of the exhibition.
The West Australia Pulse will run until August 31, 2025, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Hatched: National Graduate Show 2025

Now in its 34th year, Hatched features artworks by outstanding graduates from across the country. The 2025 exhibition will feature 23 graduating artists, each selected for their bold ideas and distinct creative vision. For the first time, the show is moving offsite to a striking, light-filled space in Forrest Chase. The exhibition includes everything from ceramics and woodwork to textiles and performance, with pieces that address themes such as resistance and transformation, environmental impermanence, performative identities, surveillance and more. Hatched is more than just a survey of graduate work, it’s a pulse check on where art is headed and who’s leading the way.
Hatched: National Graduate Show 2025 runs from August 2 to October 5 at Forrest Chase, Perth CBD.

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 Turkey’s 1980 military coup, Tenger’s work explores the psychic and physical landscapes shaped by authoritarianism, conflict and exclusion. The artist 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.
Borders / Borders runs from August 16, 2025, to February 8, 2026, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Vádye Eshgh (Valley of Love)

Commissioned by Second Generation Collective, Vádye Eshgh (Valley of Love) unfolds as an elegy to memory, identity and intergenerational resilience. A joint effort by Iranian Australian Baha’i video artist Elham Eshraghian-Haakansson and performer, theatre maker and musician Asha Kiani, the exhibition is a moving image installation that speaks to the lived experiences and collective trauma of Iranian Australians. Both intimate and expansive, Vádye Eshgh invites audiences to witness a poetic space of cultural survival.
Vádye Eshgh (Valley of Love) *will run from October 17 to December 21 at West End Gallery, first floor of the Pica Gallery in the Perth Cultural Centre.

I don’t like it, I love it

Paola Pivi sparks joy. The Italian artist is known for her colourful surrealist sculptures and installations. I don’t like it, I love it is one of her biggest exhibitions yet. There will be a giant inflatable comic book cell and Pivi’s iconic feathered polar bears, reimagined in new poses and colours, drawing playful attention to the fragility of nature. Her work explores climate change, creativity and the human condition.
Paola Pivi – I don’t like it, I love it runs from November 8, 2025, to April 26, 2026, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Additional reporting by Lucy Bell Bird and Alice Volfneuk.

This article was updated on July 16, 2025 to remove exhibitions that have since concluded.