OzAsia Festival forced to cancel five shows

The COVID-19 situation interstate has forced the cancellation of five shows planned for next month’s OzAsia Festival in Adelaide, but organisers say the rest of the 2021 program is proceeding.

SALA announces award winners and 2022 feature artist

Mark Valenzuela – whose three-part work Once bitten, twice shy featured in the last Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art – has been named as the SALA feature artist for 2022 at the closure of this year’s record-breaking festival.

Barrie is back for the 2022 Adelaide Festival with a fairytale Russian opera

The centrepiece of the 2022 Adelaide Festival will be Barrie Kosky’s new production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel, an opera the celebrated director says is weird and wonderful – part fairytale, part psychological drama and part political satire.

In Other Words puts focus on Australia in the Asia-Pacific

OzAsia Festival has released the full line-up for its new writing and ideas program In Other Words, with the pandemic prompting a change of venue and a revised hybrid format that will see speakers appear on stage and screen.

Pop culture meets traditional knowledge: Kaylene Whiskey in the studio at Indulkana, South Australia. Photo: Meg Hansen, image courtesy the artist and Iwantja Arts

2021 Tarnanthi Festival to showcase work by 1000 artists

This year’s Tarnanthi Festival will feature new works by almost 1000 contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, from stories shared on salvaged car parts to an augmented-reality experience transporting visitors to the APY Lands, while the popular annual art fair will be presented as an online-only event.

Green Room: Festival for the curious, art with heart

SA arts and culture news in brief: New Barossa Contemporary festival launches inaugural program, SA Music Awards nominations open, $20,000 art award recipient announced, Windmill show to raise funds for Afghans, an intensive program for aspiring authors, and a free play spotlighting positive mental health.

Winemaker Geoff Weaver and the emotion of landscape

Wine and art express landscape in different ways – or do they? Winemaker and artist Geoff Weaver lost a lifetime of artistic expression in the 2019 bushfires but it hasn’t dampened his connection with the Adelaide Hills, nor his passion for painting.

Report argues the case for huge boost in Adelaide Fringe funding

Adelaide Fringe is using a new report analysing the event’s comparative and future economic impact to push for a significant rise in State Government funding – from $2.4 million to $4.4 million a year – to help it rebound from the impact of COVID-19.

Asian-Australian talent takes centre stage at 2021 OzAsia

Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival has unveiled its largest line-up yet of Asian-Australian talent, with new artistic director Annette Shun Wah’s first full-scale program featuring more than 300 artists across 30 events including theatre, music, comedy, literature and film.

Festival set to celebrate the art of nature

Nature Festival has released its arts program of live performances, exhibitions and talks ahead of the event’s return to South Australia later this year.

Illuminate Adelaide rallies to reignite the city

UPDATED: Illuminate Adelaide’s Light Cycles experience in the Botanic Garden returns from tonight for an extended season, with other outdoor activations also set to light up again after SA’s pandemic lockdown forced a sudden halt to the festival last week.

Supreme Library: Roy Ananda has spent hours in his studio working on a system that houses representations of select items from his extensive pop culture collection. Photo: Sam Roberts

Roy Ananda comes in peace

In SALA feature artist Roy Ananda’s dual exhibitions for this year’s festival, the surprising connections between a lifetime of obsessive pop culture fandom and 20 years of contemporary art practice are delightfully revealed.

In the Studio with Jason Sims

Contemporary Adelaide artist Jason Sims admits he feels a sense of both trepidation and release when one of his public artworks is installed in its new home. His latest futuristic perception-challenging creation has been unveiled in the CBD.

Lockdown a major blow for Adelaide’s winter festivals

UPDATED: SA’s COVID-19 lockdown announcement has dealt a crushing blow to Adelaide festivals, forcing them to hit the pause button just as the city was preparing to celebrate one of its biggest winter activations.

Bad weather turns off Light Cycles until Saturday

Severe weather warnings forced organisers of South Australia’s new winter festival Illuminate Adelaide to delay last night’s opening of its centrepiece Light Cycles experience and other outdoor events until Saturday.

Zoo’s giant skink tells a story of culture and country

The vivid animatronic skink turning heads in Adelaide Zoo’s Light Creatures after-dark experience features artwork by Elizabeth Close that reflects First Nations peoples’ connection to Country and stories passed down through generations.