On July 4, 1975, the crusading journalist, heiress and anti-development campaigner Juanita Nielsen went to a meeting at a Kings Cross underworld hang-out. She was never seen again. In this innovative fiction and documentary video installation, artist Zanny Begg and producer Philippa Bateman weave the tropes of true crime and cold case stories with themes of gentrification, corruption and non-conformity.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: Monday 14 Jan, 10am
WHERE: UNSW Art & Design Galleries
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Indonesian-Australian artist Jumaadi presents video works produced in collaboration with the Halsey Institute, Charston USA and courtesy of King St. Gallery that draw on traditional Indonesian theatre called Wayang Kulit with both traditional and contemporary imagery using light and shadow.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: Monday 14 Jan, 9am
WHERE: Casula Powerhouse
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Newtown institution The Welcome Choir is a drop-in choir open to people of every variety and singing ability, with no audience or auditions, just the communal joy of singing together. On Tuesday, join them at World Square to celebrate the moon landing and sing, en masse, the Frank Sinatra and Count Basie classic Fly Me To The Moon.

WHAT: Choir
WHEN: Tuesday 15 Jan, 6:30-7:30
WHERE: World Square
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

D.I.Y. (adjective) Do-it-yourself; describing something that may be constructed by one’s self without the help of a trained professional. This exhibition brings together artworks that share a D.I.Y ethos.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Tuesday 15 Jan, 5-8pm
WHERE: Kudos Gallery
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Four Winds is a storytelling project which draws on the oral history and speculative future of Blacktown and Greater Western Sydney in a cross-generational dialogue between four key artists: two senior community members, Aunty Edna Watson and Uncle Wes Marne, and two future leaders, Savarna Russell and Shaun Millwood. Blak Box will be installed on Blacktown Showgrounds as part of the Sydney Festival 2019 Blak Out program.

WHAT: Installation
WHEN: Until 2 Feb
WHERE: Blacktown Showground
HOW MUCH: $35, more details here

Head along to the Calyx in the heart of The Royal Botanic Garden for a night of astronomy, star gazing and storytelling. While you look into the night sky, you’ll be surrounded by the new carnivorous plant display at The Calyx.

WHAT: Star gazing
WHEN: Wednesday 16 Jan, 7:30pm
WHERE: The Royal Botanic Garden
HOW MUCH: $35-$39, more details here

‘Monuments to moments’ is a solo exhibition of new photographic works from Smith’s research into landscape and memory. This project uses geographical sites such as Bombo Headland NSW, to explore the physical and emotional traces and marks left on the landscape from human interaction and how these marks can affect a viewer.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Thursday 17 Jan, 6pm
WHERE: Verge Gallery
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Get colourful for the opening night of Come Play an exhibition at Imperial UP by Jeff Mcann. Jeff is an artist, educator, artistic director and foremost a story-teller, working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums including sculpture, fashion, installation, public art and performance.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Thursday 17 Jan, 6:30-9:30pm
WHERE: The Imperial Hotel Sydney
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

‘Just Not Australian’ brings together 19 artists across generations to deal broadly with the origins and implications of contemporary Australian nationhood. This timely thematic show will showcase the sensibilities of larrikinism, satire and resistance to interrogate presenting and representing Australian national identity.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Friday 18 Jan, 6-8pm
WHERE: Artspace
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

FERMENT is an exhibition that changes and evolves week by week, re-contextualising each artwork with new works installed in the gaps left by the departure of works that were installed earlier. This weekly going and coming of artworks is like a slow and progressive dance, each step of which is seen by coming to its 5 openings-on Fridays 6-8pm on 4, 11, 18 and 15 January & 1 February.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: Friday 18 Jan, 6pm
WHERE: Articulate Project Space
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Xiao Lu: Impossible Dialogue 肖鲁:语嘿 is the first retrospective of leading contemporary Chinese artist Xiao Lu. The exhibition is anchored by Xiao Lu’s performance work Dialogue from the landmark China/Avant-Garde exhibition at the National Art Gallery, Beijing, in February 1989. This work, in which the artist fires a gun at her own art installation, is a milestone in the development of contemporary art in China. It has also has been read as a critical turning point in China’s recent history.

WHAT: Exhibition Opening
WHEN: Saturday 19 Jan, 4-6pm
WHERE: 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

For the first Month of 2019, AIRspace Projects welcomes you back to their fresh painted gallery spaces with exhibitions that tackle the themes of home and belonging, drift and wonder, photography and dreams and the investigation of the phenomenological body.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: Until 2 Feb
WHERE: AIRspace Projects
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Prominent Chinese artist Xiao Lu appears in conversation with Sydney Festival Director Wesley Enoch to discuss her solo exhibition Xiao Lu: Impossible Dialogue 肖鲁:语嘿 . This talk focuses on how art can be a platform for championing important debate – ultimately, reframing conversation and changing minds.

WHAT: Talk
WHEN: Sunday 20 Jan, 12-2pm
WHERE: 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here

Looking here looking North is an exhibition by Woven, a collective of artists who each have continuing personal connections to Indonesia. The exhibition centres around themes of identity, memory and cross-cultural experiences, explored through performance, painting, installation, photography, video and sculpture.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: Sunday 20 Jan, 10am
WHERE: Casula Powerhouse
HOW MUCH: FREE, more details here