• Dates: From 11 February to 20 march
• Curator: Professor Anne Cranny-Francis

So what is touch? How does it contribute to our lives? How does it shape the people we are? Through various media of visual art, technology, textiles, film, sound and design, this exhibition recasts our notion of touch within the context of contemporary living in the 21st century. The Sense of Touch explores the nature of contemporary embodiment including the constitution of the sensorium – how we understand the relationship between our physical senses and the world they encounter; the relationships between the senses as we currently understand them; how this constitutes us as the embodied subjects we are at the beginning of the 21st century.

Artists are Effy Alexakis, Stephen Barrass, Linda Davy and Joel Davy, Meredith Brice, David Chapman and Andrian Polka, High Tea with Mrs Woo, Stefan Popescu, Ron Mueck, Amanda Robins, Gerd Schmid and Jan Shaw.

• Dates: From 27 March to 1 May
• Curator: Kirri Hill
• Artist: Dr Fan Dongwang

A survey show that explores the influence of traditional Chinese calligraphy on Fan's practice in which the visual language, culture and historical significance of the Chinese Dragon emerges. The artist fuses pop culture stylistic elements with Chinese iconography and successfully produces a cross cultural overlay.

For more information on the works in this exhibition and the associated events, please visit the following link: http://iueu.org.au/webpages/researchfellows/cameronf.html

• Dates: From 7 May to 16 June
• Curator: Yuji Sone with Ros Crisp, Ruark Lewis, and Dean Walsh

Cadences recomposes separate art components - video footage of two dancers, recorded vocal performance, and digital images of an installation work - in a new context, a video installation. Cadences works in the tension between video and dance, between sound art and oral poetry, and between animation and digital photography. While a video installation is a closed system in the sense that it is non-interactive, it does however permit a playing out of repetitive modes that resonates within the spectator, highlighting the dichotomy between the live and the mediated. Similarly, digital effects operate between the original and the photoshopped.

The materiality of the immaterial (video, audio recordings, and photographs) is manifest through digital translation and a rhythm that is both cyclic and a pulsation or wave that inheres in media themselves. This project explores artistic interdisciplinarity, focusing on the particular temporal and textural repetitiveness of the video installation.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

• Dates: From Thursday 2 July to Friday 14 August
• Theme: Aspects of European Island and Regional Cultures
• Curators: Leonard Janisweski & Gina Hammond

Leonard Janisweski & Gina Hammond
Adam Geczy; Nathalie Hartog-Gautier; Maria Miranda and Norie Neumark; Juliana O’Dean.

The city of Paris as a site for exploring the temporal relationship between place, memory and people will be surveyed in Remembering Paris through both photography and video installation.

The evocation of the city of Paris as a metaphor for illuminating human emotional responses and the inherent contradictions will be revealed through various textural readings.

• Dates: From Thursday 20 August to Friday 18 September
• Curator: Stephen Copland and Rod Pattenden
• Interview: Stephen Copland

During recent years in Australia the social, political and economic circumstances of Australian culture have changed considerably. The concept of migration and indeed the Australian idea of the coast have taken on a new meaning by Government attitudes and policy.

These changes to Australia and the shift in its identity and social fabric have been a catalyst for a series of work by artist Stephen Copland, which involve the appropriation of Theodore Gericault's famous painting, The Raft of the Medusa.

• Dates: From Thursday 24 September to Wednesday 11 November
• Curators: Rhonda Davis & John Potts
• Artists:
  • Effy Alexakis
  • Fabian Astore
  • Liam Benson
  • Drew Bickford
  • Stephen Birch
  • Andrew Browne
  • Penny Byrne
  • Matt Coyle
  • Mark Davis
  • Christopher Hanrahan
  • Louise Hearman
  • Sam Leach
  • Alasdair Macintyre
  • VR Morrison
  • Alex Proyas
  • Scanner
  • Darren Sylvester
  • Tim Silver
  • Jelena Telencki
  • Monika Tichacek
  • Pete Volich

Horror, Come Darkness explores the genre of horror as an emotional state for its encapsulating effects of fear, suspense and the irrational - where the manifestation of darkness can transform reality into the threatening, the unfamiliar, the unknown and the unknowable. Tormented creatures, monsters, spectral beings, the living dead camouflaged within nocturnal landscapes all recall an indeterminate evil that looms just under the surface of existence.

Horror, Come Darkness will feature contemporary artists using cinematic effects, literary sources and technological visualisation, painting, stills, installation, and video and sound devices, for effecting the simulation of horror.

Linked to popular culture, horror has become - for many - the ultimate adrenalin rush. Inducing mind-altering states, the spectacle of horror manifests itself as a means of escapism from the everyday.

Horror, Come Darkness will create a psychological drama with a number of works that encompass theatrical atmospheric lighting and sound effects - a world inhabited by the detritus, lonely bushland, marshes, tunnels, chambers, isolated highways, graveyards, abandoned buildings, immersing the spectator from within.

• Dates: From Monday 16 November to Thursday 26 November
• Curator: Dr Nikki Sullivan

• Dates: From November 2004 to February 2005
• Theme: Sydney Harbour from the 1940s to recent times
• Curator: Gavin Wilson

Brett Whiteley Big Orange (Sunset), 1974 Oil on collage on wood, 244 x 305cm

John Firth-Smith Luna Park and Bridge at Night, 1964 Oil on masonite 91.4 x 122cm

Sydney Harbour is one of the most painted, photographed and eulogised subjects in the country's cultural life. Harbourlife brings together a diverse body of works from the past 65 years that will give viewers an opportunity to trace artists' responses to the harbour experience that, in many instances, reveals a deep-felt sense of the quality of life at a particular time and place.

The exhibition consists of paintings, photographs, works on paper and ceramics, and examines the dramatic transformation of Sydney's working harbour and waterways since the 1940s.

Kevin Connor Night Road to the Harbour Bridge, 1987 Oil on canvas 183 x 198.3cm

Roland Wakelin The Regatta, 1966 Oil on pulpboard 86.5 x 110.7cm Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra © Roland Wakelin estate

• Dates: From 17 March to 30 April
• Curators: Rhonda Davis and Philip Hayward

Transitions has been organised in association with a month long event entitled From Marginality to Resurgence: European Island and Regional Cultures in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. Together with this exhibition, the event comprises seminars, conference sessions, a concert and related publications.

Salvatore Zofrea Men playing cards

Axel Poignant Young girl in church doorway, Caltanissetta 1958

Fernando Resendes 'Azorean Island' Series 2008

Europe's islands and regions have been affected by a series of developments in the 20th and early 21st Centuries. Prime amongst these has been depopulation, as inhabitants relocate to metropolitan and/or overseas locations in search of better work, education and/or socialisation prospects. Many European island and regional communities are now in the position of having a majority of their populations dispersed from their traditional homelands. This has created new international dimensions to 'inter-local' networking and family structures. It has also threatened the infra-structural viability and social and cultural morale of communities as they 'down-size'.

The exhibition captures the experiences and perceptions of a number of artists concerned with European island and regional cultures since the 1950s and with the experiences of migrants from these locations to Australia.

Claudia Terstappen Cruz del Romero Spain (Andalucia) 1994 C-prints

Effy Alexakis My grandparents' home Sikea, Peloponnese, Greece 1990 'Personal Effects' Series 2008

Nathalie Hartog-Gautier Boxes for Memory 2008 Video installation

Transitions offers glimpses of the landscapes, culture and social transitions of island locations such as the Azores, Kythera, Lofoten and Sicily along with continental locations such as Brittany, Normandy and southern Spain. It also presents images of Australia as experienced by migrants from European regions.

The artists are Effy Alexakis, Angela Cavalieri, Nathalie Hartog-Gautier, Axel Poignant, Fernando Gil Pereira Resendes, Claudia Terstappen, Jeremy Welsh, and Salvatore Zofrea.

Angela Cavalieri Isola 2007 Hand-printed linocut and oil paint on canvas

Jeremy Welsh ‘Lofoten Island' Series 2007 Photographs

• Dates: From 15 May to 7 July

Looking Out through recent video art explores the notion of identity as a construct mediated by contemporary culture and society. Manifold forms of identity emerging within Looking Out seemingly dissolve the boundaries between reality, ideology, and fiction.

The role of the performative body manifest within each individual artist's work encapsulates the nuances of self as an embodied lived experience that can be recreated, renewed and energised to name but a few.

The exhibition has been organised by Macquarie University's Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy and the University Art Gallery in collaboration with the artist, Christopher Hanrahan.

• Hany Armanious
• Fabian Astore
• Guy Benfield
• Destiny Deacon and Michael Riley
• Matthew Griffin
• Christopher Hanrahan
• Laresa Kosloff
• James Lynch
• Ms & Mr
• Todd McMillan
• Kate Mitchell and Marley Dawson (As Riki Tiki Tavi)
• Pete Volich
• Tony Schwensen
• Sam Smith

• Dates: From 15 July to Saturday 23 August
• Venue 1: Macquarie University Art Gallery
• Venue 2: Macquarie University Library Exhibition Space
• Curators: Keith Vincent Smith, Robin Walsh, Rhonda Davis, Leonard Janiszewski
• Movie Tour: Click here to see a movie tour of the exhibition

Bennelong's River to Darug Insights explores the artery of the Parramatta River, from Memel (Goat Island) to Parramatta, as it twists like the burra (eel) that gives the river its name. The exhibition evokes the presence of the Aboriginal people of the three clans (gal) — Wallumedegal, Wangal and Burramattagal — whose lives revolved around its waters.

Woollarawarre Bennelong, who sailed from Sydney to England in 1792, was born a Wangal on the river's south bank and is buried in Wallumedegal territory on its north side at Ryde.

Macquarie University stands in what was once the country of the Wallumedegal; a name derived from wallumai, the snapper fish and matta, a word used to describe a water place. Today, many of us live, work and study in this region.

The visual strands of this local history are embedded in the physicality, naming and realisation of place. A visual dialogue emerges in which time, place, spaces of the past and present begin to merge and co-exist. These temporal effects unfold to provide a reinterpretation of Bennelong's historical presence overlapped by Darug connections to this land-and-water place.

The vestiges and markings of place surveyed in Bennelong's River to Darug Insights brings cultural discourse together with historical narrative that is critical to our understanding of the connection between place and people.

A rich visual story flows between two exhibition spaces, acknowledging the river clans. It is based on a diverse range of sources and media: historical images, documents, books from the Rare Book Collection, University Library, on-site fieldwork, artefacts, contemporary photographs, art work and performance.

Contemporary artists are Robyn Caughlan, Kerrie Kenton, Laurissa Onato, Rebecca Smith, Chris Tobin, Leanne Tobin and Shannon Williams.

• Dates: From 28 August to 9 September
• Movie Tour: Click here to see a movie tour of the exhibition
• Photos: Click here to see photos of the exhibition launch, Jimmy Little and the weaving workshops

Intimately connected with Yolngu language, identity, culture and law, the process of weaving is profound for the women of North East Arnhem Land. The skills and knowledge of weaving was passed down to Yolngu women from the powerful ancestral spirits, the Djan'kawu Sisters. As Lak Lak Burarrwanga says, "For us, the dillybag is a symbol of things that we have, that we know and that we can share. So these stories of weaving, of caring for country, it's like they all come from our dillybag, the dillybag that the Djan'kawu Sisters gave us long ago. We pass it on to our children and to you."

Weaving Together brings together for the first time at Macquarie University a collection of beautiful baskets, mats, dillybags and more made at the artist's homeland at Bawaka.

Artists are Lak Lak Burarrwanga, Djawundil Maymuru, Ritjilili Ganambarr and Banbapuy Ganambarr.

• Dates: From 15 September to 16 October
• Partner: La Trobe University Melbourne touring exhibition
• Movie Tour: Click here to see a movie tour of the exhibition

In 1964 Mike Brown produced a work - known since as "KITE" - that challenged and criticised twelve Sydney artists for their blatant embracing of the commercial art-world and its perceived pitfalls. The octagonal shaped work (which has at its' centre the cover of Hungry Horse Art Gallery's annual calendar) is dominated by Brown's essay criticising these artists. KITE: Mike Brown and the Sydney 12 returns to this monumental episode in Australian art history juxtaposing Brown's work with those whom he criticised.

• Dates: From 22 October 2008 to 10 January 2009
• Curators: Rob Harcourt and Francisco Viddi
• Interview: MQTv Video
• Movie Tour: Click here to see a movie tour of the exhibition

In this exhibition photography has been used as both a scientific tool and as a means of articulating that which lies well beyond the mere objective recording of specimens. The hidden complexity of marine life is revealed through interwoven thematic currents that ebb and flow across the viewer's personal navigation. Biological and environmental conservation, animal behaviour and ecology, and human impact, all emerge as major themes.

Vibrantly luminous images of whales breaching, streamlined dolphins gliding, sudden underwater encounters with seals and vast Antarctic landscapes peppered with penguin colonies, are sharply contrasted against current environmental challenges.

• Dates: From 02 February to 20 April

This is a collection-based exhibition, bringing together a multidisciplinary display of visualised textures that depict the beauty and diversity of the Australian environment. Historically, nationalism supported the idea of environmentalism as people came to identify with the Australian landscape through imagery such as the Banksia and Eucalyptus. Environs will convey the nexus between art, science and nature to highlight the contribution made by artists and indigenous culture in raising our awareness of the natural environment. Environs is a timely reminder of the current ecological crisis that affect us all within the context of global warming. Artists will include Effy Alexakis, Lawrence Daws, Rosalie Gascoigne, John Olsen, Celcia Rosser, Billy Thomas, Craig Waddell, Fred Williams and more.

• Dates: From 26 April to 6 July

Exploration traverses the spatial realms of vast and indefinite territories - travelling beyond the parameters of what is known and visible. This exhibition drawn from Macquarie's extensive collections reference various sites and places to reveal the way land and space navigation transforms space into place. A thought-provoking display mixing modernist and contemporary art works with records, maps, journals and photography to evoke the psychological and spiritual imperatives that accompany such journeys.

• Dates: From 16 July to 7 September

Celebrating Aboriginal Rights? is a introspective exhibition which brings together an array of material - paintings, photographs, film, documents and posters - to question how far the 1967 referendum has advanced Aboriginal rights, equality and citizenship in its 40th Anniversary year. By and large considered a defining moment in Australia's political history, the Referendum was put to the Australian public forty years ago as a means to stop discrimination against Aborigines and to guarantee their inclusion in future opinion polls. The passing of the referendum allowed the Commonwealth rather than the States to legislate for indigenous people - of particular concern at the time were health, education and housing. So how did the Referendum succeed in improving the quality of life for indigenous people as Australian citizens?

L to R: Les Griggs Bracelets and Batons 1988; Bronwyn Bancroft Lest We Forget 2001

• Dates: From 10 September to 5 October

An outstanding display of 100 superb photographic images by Senior Research Fellow Ron Oldfield, from the Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University shows the wonderful synergy between art and science. The photographs are an important resource for teaching and research within the Department, including close-ups (photomacrographs) of mosses and native flowers, and a range of material photographed through the microscope (photomicrographs). Many images included in the exhibition are international competition winners together with a living display of moss gardens makes this exhibition one not to be missed.

• Dates: From 19 October to 29 November

The exhibition Drawn Marks explores the processes both transitory and concentrated behind the production of works on paper from the idea stage to the finished work. The exceptional quality of paper accommodates a variety of technique and medium complimentary to the progress of the artist's oeuvre. Many works previously unseen to the public including lithographs by European masters such as Marc Chagall and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec will form the nucleus of this exhibit. John Brack, George Baldessin, Bill Cantwell, William Dobell, Arthur Boyd, Judy Cassab, Shay Docking, Russell Drysdale, Ian Fairweather, James Gleeson, Elaine Haxton, Francis Lymburner, Dusan Marek, Helen Maudsley, Arthur McIntyre, John Olsen, Anne Thompson, Lloyd Rees and Tony Tuckson.

• Dates: From 28 April to 16 June

Picture the Seventies from the University Collection include many paintings that have rarely been seen on public display. The range and depth of works explode the myth that painting had died in Australia during the1970s as the far-reaching effects of Conceptualism and Performance-based art cut across-the-board symptomatic to the so-called "death of the object". Looking now at Picture the Seventies it becomes clear that these artists were just as vigorous and adventurous as their Conceptual colleagues also influenced by the International Art Movements ranging from Pop, Funk, Protest to Minimal, together with the New Realist painters and Lyrical Abstractionists and Abstract Expressionists in forging their own ways of making art in this explosive decade in Australian history.

Artists include Suzanne Archer, David Aspden, John Brack, Martin Collocott, Janet Dawson, Shay Docking, Helen Eager, Robert Juniper, Richard Larter, Alun Leach-Jones, Keith Looby, Dusan Marek, John Olsen, David Rankin, Michael Taylor, Tony Tuckson, Guy Warren and Dick Watkins.

• Dates: From 5 March to 20 April
• Curator: Rod Pattenden

This survey exhibition traces the past 15 years of Rosemary Valadon's extraordinary work, ranging from her early portraits through to recent work that explores her interest in feminine rituals of identity.

Rosemary Valadon takes us on a journey into the theatrical world of fairy tales and ancient mythologies that examine the politics of gender and identity. Her 1992 exhibition The Goddess Within explored the notion of female archetypes using Greek goddess myths to portray female behaviour and personality traits as represented by well-known 20th Century women. Her more recent work has examined familiar stories such as The Three Little Pigs and Red Riding Hood in humorous and unexpected ways, while others inject the innocent playthings of every girls childhood with malicious intent - dolls, dress-up clothes and ballet tutus become vehicles for exploring the serious, and perhaps darker side of feminity. A great show for inspiring year 11 and 12 art students interested in developing major works on related themes.

• Dates: From 28 April to 16 June

This retrospective exhibition is out of the ordinary. The audience will use the world wide web and its overlaying effect to create their own personal journey in rediscovering the artists Ian Milliss.

Multi-media stations will allow the visitor to this exhibition to access and respond to various levels of Milliss' work - installations, writings, photographs, and compilations associated with his early conceptual art practice of the late 1960s, his work with Christo in The Wrapping of Little Bay to his pioneering years creating mandates for the arts and culture through political action - the Victoria Street Action Group and Green Bans, the Media Action Group, The Working Life. The finale to his life's passion and work is expressed in his most recent work The Tree of Life shaped by his own personal history.

• Dates: From 26 July to 11 August

The breadth and dimension of the Macquarie University collection is outstanding both in genre and style. The exhibition will present the range and depth of Indigenous art practice within the context of contemporary Australia. Artists include Bronwyn Bancroft, Destiny Deacon, Emily Kngwarreye, Lin Onus, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Ginger Riley, Rover Thomas and Lucy Ward.

• Dates: From 21 August to 6 October

The exhibition chronicles the history and development of Chroma as the premier Australian artists paint company, now celebrating over 40 years in the business. This is the first public viewing of the Chroma collection that has been amassed over that period. Artists include Elizabeth Cummings, Geoffrey De Groen, Emily Kngwarreye, Euan McLeod, Idris Murphy, John Peart, Rollin Schlicht, John Walker and Dick Watkins.

• Dates: From 13 October to 4 December
• Artist: Stephen Birch

No Man's Land, an exhibition featuring video projections and sculptural works by Australian artist Stephen Birch, focuses on what it is to exist within contemporary culture.

• Dates: From 24 January to 25 February

David Grigg works across a variety of subject matter and mediums including printmaking, ink washes and watercolours through to portraiture, abstraction and landscapes. The conceptual nature of the process of putting paint to canvas is apparent in Griggs work as he expresses the different and varied moods of living both in Europe and Australia. The experience of living in Austria has shifted his palette in producing works of cool serenity as compared to the geographical conditions found in Australia.

His works are represented in the Austrian State Collection at Stromsbruck, and in private collections in Germany, Holland, Austria, Italy, UK, Norway and Australia.

• Dates: From 7 March to 15 April

This exhibition explores the shifting nature of Australian contemporary culture from the perspective of a recent immigrant trained in the rich visual traditions of Chinese painting and low relief sculpture. Cultural difference is explored through complex surfaces made up of popular images and quotations from western and eastern religious cultural forms. The exhibition will allow viewers to explore their own shadowed territories of cultural exchange and reconstruction.

• Dates: From 20 April to 29 April

An exhibition that explores the many and varied ways in which bodies are modified and selves are transformed. And the way culturally specific know ledges and practices are mediated and transfigured. The exhibition will be staged in conjunction with the Body Modification conference to be held at Macquarie University 21 - 23 April.

• Dates: From 3 May to 26 May

A major exhibition that chronicles the Macquarie University archaeological team led by Professor Naguib Kanawati at the important Teti cemetery and its largest Old Kingdom (3000-2125 BC) courtier's tomb yet uncovered that of Mereruka, the highest official under the Pharaoh Teti. The photographs are a visual diary of the daily toil and complexities behind scholarly investigation, delving into a world of discovery and intrigue.

• Dates: From 1 June to 11 July

References and Notations is a survey exhibition of Ambrose Reisch that spans the period from 1988 to 2005 of paintings, works on paper and sculpture.

Integral to the overall concept of the exhibition will be the display of the notation books, offering an intimate view which parallels the development of the paintings and sculptures. The books will provide a unique insight into the processes behind production by an artist committed to his own personal vision of the landscape.

• Dates: From 18 July to 25 August

A joint event between the Art Gallery and Warawara (Indigenous Teaching Unit on campus), including an exhibition of indigenous artwork from the University's collection, coinciding with a program of public events with indigenous themes such as a film night, dance performance, literature readings, and floor talks.

• Dates: From 5 September to 14 October

Berowra Visions traces the conceptual nature of occupation, the recognition of sites, and the poetics of spaces through the work of Margaret Preston who resided in Berowra from 1932-39. Berowra as place had an enormous impact upon Preston's work for her to be recognised as one of Australia's most significant artists working in the last century.

The combination of both historical and contemporary material in the display will serve to redefine the local heritage and history of Margaret Preston's occupation in Berowra. An array of intangible heritage will accompany the exhibition to present a living history of place by mediating the dimensions of natural history, local knowledge, memory, myths and values that will consolidate the conceptual nature of this display whilst providing an understanding of the process behind Preston's native flower prints and local places.

L-R above:
still from In Between Berowra, a new media poem on DVD by James Stuart, 2005, Karen Chen - Design Director, Tamara Meem - Editor and Animator, Jon Wicks - Soundtrack
Waratah from 1966, 2005, Effy Alexakis from Bloodwood Road Series, 2004-2005, photographs, specimum collected by S. G. McKay on the 20th September 1966 and held in the Downing Herbarium, Macquarie University.

• Dates: From mid-December 2005 to mid-January 2006

2005 has been designated by the United Nations as the World Year of Physics, to remind the world of the central role Physics plays in the enabling sciences. The Physics Art Prize is the headline event of many planned by the Department of Physics at Macquarie University.

It is an acquisitive award, first prize money $15,000. Artists are to respond to five (5) large format posters which feature the following research areas of the department: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Lasers and Optics, Semiconductor Materials and Devices, Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Biophotonics.

Artists exhibited: James Angus, Marea Atkinson, Karin Beaumont, Stephen Birch, Colleen Blake, Simon Bourke, Meredith Brice, Robert Bryce, Gaye Chapman, Peter Charuk, Felix Cheung, Caroline Jeanne Coate, Stephen Copland, Fan Dongwang, Tracy Cornish, Jayne Dyer, Anne Edmonds, Catriona Galbraith, Ernie Gerzabek, Kaye L. Green, Rosemarie Gregelec, Stephen Haley, Joanne Handley, Malcolm Harding, Chris Henschke, Isobel Johnston, Marjatta Kaukomaa, Susan Kneebone, Jeanette Landstedt, Jennifer Little, Melinda Menning, Constantine Nicholas, Sean O'Connell, Sandra Pitkin, Candice Reid-Latimer, Cameron Robbins, Geoffrey Rose, Erica Jane Seccombe, Larissa Smagarinsky, Felicity Spear, Matt Staples, Lindsay Stepanow, David Stephenson, Julie Stephenson, Teong-Eng Tan, Simon Taylor, Kevin Todd, Marika Varady.

• Dates: From 2 February 2004 to 2 March 2005

A dynamic exhibition of recent works by two of the most important Melbourne artists whom emerged from the 'ROAR Studios' in 1981. The raw, gestural work of those early days of ROAR studio artists have continued to influence both Ferguson and Singleton in producing vibrant paintings that capture the joy and simplicity of their everyday environment. "Generally the subject matter is drawn from my own environment- children at play, boats on a grey horizon, the surrounding hills of the peninsula." And for Judi Singleton, "The colours I use and my symbols derive from everyday life and experience of recently having children and living by the sea has directly influenced the subject."

• Dates: From 10 March to 10 May

This historic exhibition of more than 70 portraits is a unique collection of both an historical and retrospective nature that chronicles the cultural and political struggles of two generations of Indigenous Australians and their continuing testimony to gain autonomy. The striking black and white photographs included in the exhibition feature many of the key figures central to the struggles - activists such as Marcia Langton and Gary Foley; Mum Shirl and other community leaders; artists Wandjuk Marika and Thancoupie; and writers, dancers, filmmakers and photographers. The portraits on display in Proof are testament to Gemes' engagement with the people who make up the Movement - the immense relationship between the photographer and subject is unmistakable in every portrait.

• Dates: From 18 May to 21 June

Script, which has previously toured Melbourne and Regional Victoria, brings together works in a range of media - installation pieces, video, large-scale works on paper, paintings, photographs and artist's books - all of them expressing a vital engagement with the idea of text as image.

• Dates: From 22 September to 26 October

'Eye witness' artist George Gittoes brings a powerful vision of the effects of war on the two cities most associated with the new horizon of international terror. Paintings, drawings, photographs, video, personal diaries and objects will offer a complex and yet intimate perception of the effort to make sense of the physical and ideological nature of such conflicts. Curated by Rod Pattenden, this exhibition will examine the role of such art to inform our understandings of the complex world that we now inhabit after 9/11.

• Dates: From November 2004 to February 2005

• Dates: From 7 March to 2 May

A major survey exhibition that documents the period 1966-70 of the infamous Central Street Gallery that brought the international to Sydney. The gallery was always in a state of aesthetic overdrive, it confidently introduced "hard edge" abstraction into the canon of Australian art and preempted the genesis of conceptual and performance art in the 1970s. But like a candle burning at both ends, Central Street Gallery was short-lived.

Artists include Gunter Christmann, Max Cullen, James Doolin, Barry Hirst, Michael Johnson, Tony McGillick, Ian Milliss, Harold Noritis, Alan Oldfield, Wendy Paramor, Rollin Schlicht, Joseph Szabo, Vernon Treweeke, Dick Watkins, John White and Normanna Wight. The display contains paintings, sculpture, installation, letters, photographs and posters.

• Dates: From 19 May to 16 June

A traveling exhibition funded by VISIONS Australia Grant exploring the idea of value in both environmental and economic terms, placed on trees. A tree was turned into over 90 objects by artists, crafts people and designers to explore and express how much further the products from one tree can go compared to the woodchips it would create if it were milled.

• Dates: From 24 June to 18 July

Peter Griffin, both a nationally and internationally exhibited artist, has developed a reputation as one of Australia's most consistent abstract painters. His work creates a visual vocabulary of impulses and responses to the places that he has visited, entering into a process of recording, myth making and inventing realities. A unique survey exhibition that highlights Peter's contribution to Australian abstraction over the past thirty years.

• Dates: From 28 July to 5 September

This is the first survey exhibition of Roland Wakelin's work since 1967, who is one of the most admired painters of 20th Century art in Australia. The exhibition will show his diversity and talent through the many subject areas he chose such as portraits, landscape and still life. Colour and its masterful use and control was one of the major aspects of his genius. He was the founder of the modern movement in Australia, which is clearly indicated in this exhibition, where he continually strove to represent his conviction of artistic honesty and directness.

• Dates: From 10 October to 28 November

Interesting things happen around the edges, off stage and in the margins; confessional scribblings, larger shadows, the signs for map reading, all the hints of a wider horizon of meaning outside the frame. This exhibition draws on the strengths of the Macquarie University Collection in indigenous art and is supplemented by a range of contemporary artists exploring this range of interests. Themes will include the mapping of meaning, acts of erasure and mark making, the slippage of cultural edges, the re-mythologising of the landscape and apocalyptic visions of the future.

Artists: Peter Booth, Marion Borgelt, Leonard Brown, Andrew Browne, Gordon Bennett, Kate Briscoe, Richard Byrnes, Liz Coats, John Coburn, Charles Cooper, Nicole Ellis, George Gittoes, James Gleeson, Tim Johnson, Emily Kngwarreye, Lindy Lee, Hector Jandanay, Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, Noelene Lucas, Paul Miller, Trevor Niickolls, Lin Onus, Marita Sambono, Wendy Stavrianos, My Le Thi, Rosemary Valadon, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) and Susan White.

• Dates: From 4 March to 23 April

A collection of works from Margo Lewers, a highly influential and supportive artist who created the Penrith Regional Gallery 20 years ago, alongside her peers- some of the best known names of the Sydney art scene of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Exhibited works by John Olsen, Peter Laverty, Tony Tuckson, Elwyn Lynn and Carl Plate. Also on display are works by Yvonne Audette, Judy Cassab, Eva Kubbos, Nancy Borlase and Sheila McDonald.

• Dates: From 3 May to 26 June

A fresh look at this very popular exhibition which explores the diversity of women's lives. It tackles the historical representation of women as the other and covers issues such as identity, sexuality, love, desire, motherhood, old age and death. The exhibition features artists such as Davida Allen, Linda Klarfeld, Wendy Stavrianos, Julie Rrap, Deborah Walker, and Jenny Watson, and includes some new works to the collection.

• Dates: From 5 July to 25 August

Throughout history, fossils have always fired the human imagination. Palaeographia will be an exhibition of original Australian artworks and fossil specimens, drawing its inspiration from the rich Australian fossil record. It will illustrate the long and varied history of life on our ancient continent and its adjacent marine realm through exhibiting scientific illustrations, interpretative artworks and original specimens. A common focus to both scientific study and the artmaking process is the exploration of the world around us; Palaeographia will stand to enhance and project this fusion of art and science.

• Dates: From 9 September to 9 October

This significant collection of Bougainville art from the Australian Museum Sydney, has never been on public exhibition. It presents works that demonstrate a dynamic and evolving culture. The exhibition highlights the links between traditional and contemporary art practices reflecting the many facets of Bougainville society, from structure and government to coming of age ceremonies. A fascinating and diverse range of objects such as canoes, paddles, spears, bows, arrows and jewelry will be on display, as well as contemporary paintings and photographs.

• Dates: From 21 October to 20 December

>A major exhibition tracing the development of this outstanding sculptor over a sixty year period. The exhibition will look at the way nature and music has inspired his sculptural forms. As curator of the Macquarie University Sculpture Park he has worked and given much needed support to many of our well known sculptors whose works now reside at Macquarie due to untiring work by Errol Davis. The collection has grown from 25 to 65 and now boasts to be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. The exhibition marks a tribute to Davis' immense talents as a sculptor and shows the passion he has in order to produce the form and movement that are evident throughout his works.

• Dates: From 31 January to 14 February

This exhibition comprises works by four innovative photographers. The works traverse a variety of issues and approaches, yet come together in artistic strength and intellectual vigor. The exhibition also challenges the idea of women photographers being confined to a certain style and choice of subject matter. Casting New Shadows poses more questions than answers. The revealing shadows in these photographs blur a range of categories and distinctions, which demonstrate that there can be many answers to the one question. Exhibiting photographers- Danny Anderson, Robyn Ferrell, Kellie Greene, and Amanda James.

• Dates: From 10 May to 21 June

Intimate Glimpses is an exhibition of 90 black and white photographs by three photographers, Effy Alexakis, Michelle Wilson and Mario Bianchino. The variety of images contribute to the many histories the inhabitants of this country hold, and serve to alter our perception of what it means to be an Australian in this year of the Centenary of Federation. The experiences of the people depicted are as diverse as Greek-Australians living in Queensland to the locals surfing at Avalon Beach and on to the strength of the Rainbow Serpent's existence in Aboriginal Australia.

• Dates: From 3 August to 3 September

This exhibition explores the diversity of women's lives. It tackles the historical representation of women as the other and covers issues such as identity, sexuality, love, desire, motherhood, old age and death. The exhibition features artists such as Davida Allen, Linda Klarfeld, Wendy Stavrianos, Julie Rrap, Deborah Walker, and Jenny Watson.

• Dates: From 10 September to 10 October

A survey show of indigenous art that features new acquisitions from the collection of Macquarie University and Professor Di Yerbury.

• Dates: From 12 October to 25 November

A touring show from the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery. The display presents themes and techniques that relate to Polish folk art with works ranging from paintings on glass, woodcarvings , and textiles to ceramics and decorated eggs. The works encapsulate the way Polish folk art traditions have influenced Polish artists in Australia.

2001.12.01-2002.02.21 - New Acquisitions Exhibition

• Dates: From 1 December 2001 to 21 February 2002

An eclectic new collection of Aboriginal artworks, featuring both traditional and contemporary pieces. Many well known artists such as Bronwyn Bancroft, Jimmy Pike, Gertie Huddleston and Trevor Nickolls are represented as well as Michael Riley and Billy Thomas whose works defy the Aboriginal Label. The collection includes works from the Great Sandy Desert, Tiwi Islands, Arnhem Land and urban areas.

• Dates: From 13 March to 12 May
• Theme: Children's art of the twentieth century

A traveling exhibition from the National Gallery of Australia, featuring children's drawings and paintings collected by Frances Derham (1894-1987), artist and educational pioneer. Her unique and important collection of children's art from Australia and around the world, gathered over more than half a century, was donated to the people of Australia in 1975 and is held at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. The images in this exhibition (80 works on paper) portray personal and cultural identity, family and school life, social and political events by children from indigenous Australian communities, urban and regional Australia, former Australian territories New Britain and Papua New Guinea, and Europe.

• Dates: From 24 May to 11 June
• Theme: An Exhibition of Czech and Australian Art

A collection of 26 works from the artists in the Czech Republic and 26 paintings and sculpture by artists living in Australia. A common thread that runs through the exhibition is the way both the Czech and Australian artists are returning to look at the landscape and the figure. The exhibition aims to initiate a dialogue between Czech artists and their Australian contemporaries. These connections have been encouraged by the Czech group Konfese and the Australian sculptor Errol Davis, curator of the Macquarie University Sculpture Park. The exhibition has been curated by a young Australian sculptor, Linda Klarfeld, who this year completed a monumental sculpture, the Twelve Stations of the Cross, at Macquarie Park Cemetry. Her figurative works are included in the exhibition.

• Dates: From 20 June to 7 August

This exhibition of 'faces' brings together three generations of Australian male artists who have used portraiture as a means to convey a variety of themes ranging from personality and emotion to cultural values and beliefs. The selection of paintings contrasts the traditional genre of portraiture bound by convention with contemporary representations of the figure that redefine the meaning of portraiture. The display comprises of around 40 works from the Macquarie University art collection and ones on loan from private collections showing a male perspective by artists such as William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Richard Goodwin, Sidney Nolan, John Olsen, and Tony Tuckson.

• Dates: From 22 August to 30 November

An exhibition that surveys the development and artistic achievement of Indigenous artists. This exhibition traces the changes that have taken place in Indigenous art over the years, showing its diversity and capacity for innovation. The joint exhibition of more than 60 works has been assembled from the private collection of the Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University, Professor Di Yerbury, and the University collection.

In addition to outstanding works in the traditional genres of Indigenous art, including major paintings by leading Papunya artists, the joint exhibition is unusually strong in displaying a range of well known works that carry a socio-political message by important contemporary artists from urban locations.

• Dates: From 6 July 1999 to 3 March 2000

This exhibition at Macquarie University's new gallery offers teachers and secondary students an informative look into Aboriginal art and culture. The paintings show the richness and diversity of Aboriginal art. The exhibition is suitable for visual arts and Aboriginal Studies students. The historical aspect of the exhibition also makes it relevant to students of Australian History. The exhibition addresses the following themes: Stories, Land and People; Politics; Interaction (Copyright Issues); Maps and Symbols; Adaption and Change.