Begin your school holidays (or take a quick break from work!) to take inspiration from the intricate detail and sumptuous colours of ‘The lady and the unicorn’ tapestries and create your own woven artwork of magical colours and different textures on a simple card loom.

WHAT: Workshop
WHEN: 11am – 3:30pm
WHERE: Entrance Court at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, CBD
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.

This specially commissioned work features as part of the newly opened exhibition ‘Sheer Fantasy’ – all about curiosities, spectacle, and nostalgia.  If you’re feeling brave or inquisitive, sign up for this 20 minute experience and find yourself inside the cabin of a truck with performer Mark Shorter aka Renny Kodgers, getting lost in a conversational journey that ponders the space of “The Road”.

WHAT: Performance
WHEN: Every half hour on Saturday 21 April, Sunday 22 April, Saturday 2 June & Sunday 3 June.
WHERE: Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown.
HOW MUCH: Free but bookings essential – more details here.

For a third consecutive year, Chinese Contemporary Art Month 2018 will be launched on 13 April, featuring one main exhibition, two forums and a selected collection of associated exhibitions. Following the success since its inauguration in 2016, this year’s Chinese Contemporary Art Month seeks to deliver an eclectic mix of Chinese Contemporary Art and continue facilitating constructive communication between Chinese and Australian contemporary artists, collectors, curators and industry professionals.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: 14 April – 5 May
WHERE:China Cultural Centre in Sydney, Castlereagh St, Sydney NSW 2000
HOW MUCH: Free, more info here

Filmmaker Arash Kamali Sarvestani and journalist Behrouz Boochani shared a love of cinema. They decided to create a record of daily life in the Manus Island detention centre. Boochani secretly captured footage on his mobile phone, sending it to The Netherlands to be shaped into a narrative. He filmed detainees phoning anxious relatives, ambulances arriving and fences being erected around the ramshackle camp. Their intention was to document the situation so that in the future no political leader can present a distorted narration of the events.

WHAT: Film
WHEN: 6–8pm, Wednesday 18 April and 2–4pm, Sunday 22 April
WHERE: Museum of Contemporary Art, 140 George St, The Rocks NSW 2000
HOW MUCH: $10 General Admission, $8 MCA Member, $8 Concession, more info here

Join the Liverpool Art Society for an ongoing life drawing group and get to work with various life models in a relaxed and supportive setting. Don’t stress if you’re used to drawing stick figures, absolute beginners are welcome and you can work independently at your own pace, though advice can be sought if you really need it!

WHAT: Drawing class
WHEN: 7 – 9 pm
WHERE: Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Casula
HOW MUCH: $15 – more details here.

Another school holiday recommendation for those heading towards the west – you’re invited to learn the art of paste ups and portraiture, as you work to create collaborative artworks that celebrate the people who helped shape the Campbelltown area. Plus, all contributors will then be invited to join Campbelltown City Council and the Artists to celebrate the launch of the artworks public display when completed!

WHAT: Workshop
WHEN: 10 – 4pm, and again on Friday 20th
WHERE: Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown.
HOW MUCH: Free but bookings essential – more details here.

Prolific artist Denise Green is premiering a new body of work that combines photography with painting. In War Then And Now, photographs taken by her father during the North African campaign in the Second World War are turned into collage and interwoven to represent the artist’s observance of his subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder when returning home from service.

WHAT: Exhibition opening
WHEN: 6 – 8 pm
WHERE: Gallery 9, Darlinghurst
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.

To boost your midweek and get some artistic stimulation, look no further than the latest issue launch from Framework: UNSW Art & Design’s critical arts journal.  Taking over AD Space for the night, you’ll be able to see drawings, works, related videos, sound excerpts, and text paste-ups by the contributors.

WHAT: Magazine launch
WHEN: 5 – 7 pm
WHERE: AD Space, UNSW Art & Design, Paddington
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.

‘Between Two Seas’ presents a collection of photographic work by Peter Morgan taken in northern Iraq and Palestine. From villages in northern Iraqi Kurdistan to Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and Checkpoint 300 outside Bethlehem, the body of work uses portrait, landscape and street photography to explore the concept and politics of ‘regime-made disaster’ and the restriction and control it entails.

WHAT: Photography exhibition
WHEN: 19 – 29th April
WHERE: 220 Creative Space and Gallery, CBD
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.

An exciting event tonight at Firstdraft will see their first instalment of ‘Around the Outside’: part reading room, part film club and part open dialogue – dedicated to exploring expanded forms of feminism in contemporary art. Featuring artists: Barbaralla Karpinski, Astrida Neimanis, Lilly Lae and Hannah Bronte.

WHAT: Performance lecture and exhibition
WHEN: 6 – 8pm
WHERE: Firstdraft Gallery, Woolloomooloo
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.

The ‘Habitat of Time’ programming includes a symposium, reception and art exhibition exploring how contemporary art and archival practices experiment with time and allow us to re-imagine our reality. This series of artworks, installed in the Powerhouse’s Turbine Hall and Upper Turbine Gallery considers the interaction of culture, technology and nature, exploring time embedded in landscape and industry, organic forms and our imaginary.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: 19th April – 6th May
WHERE: Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Casula.
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.

Vanishing Point is a presentation of work by an artist-initiated collective with diverse practices and cultural backgrounds. Exploring the intersection of photography and the island as a concept, five female artists will question the definition of borders and by extension the definition of personal, cultural and political identities. Tonight’s opening features a guest talk by Isobel Parker Philip (the Curator of Photography at the AGNSW) and feature artists: Consuelo Cavaniglia, Ellen Dahl, Yvette Hamilton, Taloi Havini and Salote Tawale.

WHAT: Exhibition opening
WHEN: 6 – 8pm
WHERE: Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Gymea.
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.

Curator Chang Feng brings together 10 renowned Chinese artists to present contemporary works that push the boundaries to explore the materiality of paper. This show features artists like Guen Mai, Yin Kun & Wang Xiaojin – all of whom offer a recontextualisation of their practice within the contemporary Australian art scene.

WHAT: Exhibition opening
WHEN: 6-8pm – continuing until 27th April
WHERE: 541 Art Space, CBD
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.

Sydney textile artist Paula do Prado will be using the Australian Design Centre’s Object Shop like a studio space for the day. Stop by to visit Paula while she works on her current project ‘Hybrid Forms’ and witness the various materials and techniques she uses to create her designs.

WHAT: Studio presentation and talk
WHEN: 1 – 3pm
WHERE: Australian Design Centre, CBD
HOW MUCH: Free but booking essential – more details here. 

What better way to start a weekend than with work from prolific artist and curator Khaled Sabsabi, today opening ‘Organised Confusion’, an exhibition exploring the varying and different modes of carefully orchestrated movements & displays, carried out en masse and by individuals.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: 21st April – 1st July
WHERE: The Cube, Level 2, Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.

Part visual art and part performance, Tender Young Creatures is a live installation centred around the theme of young women walking at night. Inspired by the classic tale of Red Riding Hood, the performance is a contemporary look at the wolf which lives inside us. In a highly visual and richly aural landscape, sixteen young female performers and singers reignite Red’s story and asks us to consider fear, the thing which we feed most.

Before it closes, come and view the handiwork undertaken by UTS Fashion & Textile students as part of a ‘Global Studio in India’. Chosen practitioners got to working closely with highly skilled local artisans to develop their creative and technical practices in Bangalore and the Himalayas respectively.

WHAT: Exhibition
WHEN: Daily from 9am, until April 27th
WHERE: UTS Library, UTS, Haymarket.
HOW MUCH: Free! More details here.