Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

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July 2026

August 2026

September 2026

October 2026

November 2026

Exhibitions

Wednesday 22 July
2026

Adam Elliot

Making Memoir of a Snail

ACMI
Thursday 8 August – Sunday 1 November

Group Show

The Chelsea Hotel Years 1967–69

Heide Museum of Modern Art
Saturday 28 February – Sunday 16 August

Badra Aji

Get the boy a dog and call it a day

Heide Museum of Modern Art
Saturday 14 March – Sunday 16 August

Ray Thomas

Yeerung's Journey

Koorie Heritage Trust
Saturday 30 May – Sunday 9 August

Lygin Ang

Window Seat

Benalla Art Gallery
Monday 1 June – Monday 31 August

Group Show

Linden Postcard Show 2026

Linden New Art
Saturday 6 June – Saturday 1 August

Group Show

EMERGENCE[Y]

Melbourne Science Gallery
Saturday 6 June – Saturday 5 December

Group Show

Spilt Milk (and hard honey)

West Space
Saturday 13 June – Saturday 8 August

Caesar Florence-Howard

Recent Work

Sutton Gallery
Saturday 27 June – Saturday 25 July

Gavin Bell

Day Anatomy

Sutton Gallery
Saturday 27 June – Saturday 25 July

Judy Watson

Shadow Breath

Tolarno Galleries
Saturday 27 June – Saturday 25 July

Christopher Pyett

Years of Colour

McClelland Gallery
Saturday 27 June – Sunday 25 October

Vincent Ward

Palimpsest | Landscapes

Void Melbourne
Thursday 2 July – Saturday 25 July

kuweni Dias Mendis

Running Rivers: People of Place

Linden New Art
Thursday 2 July – Saturday 1 August

Group Show

Soft Geometries

Five Walls Gallery
Friday 3 July – Saturday 25 July

Adam John Cullen

Studio

Lon Gallery
Saturday 4 July – Saturday 1 August

Lyndell Brown and Charles Green

The Solid Mandala

Arc One Gallery
Wednesday 8 July – Saturday 15 August

Group Show

Of the Inland

Brunswick Street Gallery
Saturday 11 July – Sunday 26 July

Group Show

Winterlude

MARS Gallery
Wednesday 15 July – Saturday 1 August

Jim Grant

In Praise of Folly

Off The Kerb
Thursday 16 July – Thursday 30 July

Geoff Harrison

Pastorale

Off The Kerb
Thursday 16 July – Thursday 30 July

James Annesley

Ghost Electricity

Off The Kerb
Thursday 16 July – Thursday 30 July

darby

Dreamer

Off The Kerb
Thursday 16 July – Thursday 30 July

Grant Nimmo

Spirits of the Green Woods

Daine Singer
Saturday 18 July – Saturday 22 August

Matt Arbuckle

Public Capacity

Daine Singer
Saturday 18 July – Saturday 22 August

Martin Smith

The Elegant Hope

Sophie Gannon Gallery
Tuesday 21 July – Saturday 8 August

Duncan Macarthur

Family Portraits

Red Gallery
Wednesday 22 July – Sunday 2 August

Mark Misic

Diamond Flower-Talisman Jam

Red Gallery
Wednesday 22 July – Sunday 2 August

Natali Papak

Elemental Coterie

Red Gallery
Wednesday 22 July – Sunday 2 August

Marc Baptista

VARANASI ‘My Journey through an Ancient City’

Red Gallery
Wednesday 22 July – Sunday 2 August

Martin Smith

The Elegant Hope

Sophie Gannon Gallery
Tuesday 21 July – Saturday 8 August

Many moons ago, publications like America’s LIFE magazine or here in Australia, PIX, were based on the photojournalistic co-dependence of image and text, with each article driven by a carefully orchestrated combination of story and image sequence. Martin Smith’s work is similarly underpinned by the dialogue between the written word and photography, but in his practice the two exist independently, before coming together in a delicate dance to create new meanings. There is no relationship between the domestic setting captured in Oysters (2026), for example, and the story contained within it. However, by playing with these interdependent codes and ways of understanding the world, Martin creates an imaginative space for the viewer where entirely new narratives and ways of seeing become possible.

Martin’s series Naked People of Taigum (2023- ) emerged from the artist’s experience of working in a one-hour photo lab in the outer Brisbane suburb of Taigum in the 1990s. Having access to people’s photographic memories enabled him to recognise a shared language of familiar events—the birthdays, holidays and everyday shenanigans caught in their snapshots—and the way in which we pose (and compose) ourselves for the camera according to different occasions. The nudes that sometimes appeared within these camera rolls also revealed their own language – in their playful responses to the camera, in the obvious trust between the photographer and subject, and in their picturing of a private/public moment. In Martin’s ode to these joyful interludes, language becomes fragmented and unreadable as individual letters decorate and seemingly feather the naked figures at the centre of each image. Like the dissembling of language that occurs in these works, these images also push against the reproducibility of photography by creating unique three-dimensional objects that are at once both image and form. While family photographs are so deeply connected to the stories we tell about them, these intimate moments are about the stories we generally don’t and probably shouldn’t share.

Location

Sophie Gannon Gallery
2 Albert St, Richmond VIC 3121, Australia

Date

Tuesday 21 July – Saturday 8 August

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Website

https://sophiegannongallery.com.au/exhibition/this-elegant-hope/

All exhibition content on this website has been sourced from the exhibiting gallery’s website or provided by other art enthusiasts. We do not own or seek to own any of this material. If you are concerned about any misuse of your content, please let us know here.

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Exhibitions

Wednesday 22 July
2026

Adam Elliot

Making Memoir of a Snail

ACMI
Thursday 8 August – Sunday 1 November

Group Show

The Chelsea Hotel Years 1967–69

Heide Museum of Modern Art
Saturday 28 February – Sunday 16 August

Badra Aji

Get the boy a dog and call it a day

Heide Museum of Modern Art
Saturday 14 March – Sunday 16 August

Ray Thomas

Yeerung's Journey

Koorie Heritage Trust
Saturday 30 May – Sunday 9 August

Lygin Ang

Window Seat

Benalla Art Gallery
Monday 1 June – Monday 31 August

Group Show

Linden Postcard Show 2026

Linden New Art
Saturday 6 June – Saturday 1 August

Group Show

EMERGENCE[Y]

Melbourne Science Gallery
Saturday 6 June – Saturday 5 December

Group Show

Spilt Milk (and hard honey)

West Space
Saturday 13 June – Saturday 8 August

Caesar Florence-Howard

Recent Work

Sutton Gallery
Saturday 27 June – Saturday 25 July

Gavin Bell

Day Anatomy

Sutton Gallery
Saturday 27 June – Saturday 25 July

Judy Watson

Shadow Breath

Tolarno Galleries
Saturday 27 June – Saturday 25 July

Christopher Pyett

Years of Colour

McClelland Gallery
Saturday 27 June – Sunday 25 October

Vincent Ward

Palimpsest | Landscapes

Void Melbourne
Thursday 2 July – Saturday 25 July

kuweni Dias Mendis

Running Rivers: People of Place

Linden New Art
Thursday 2 July – Saturday 1 August

Group Show

Soft Geometries

Five Walls Gallery
Friday 3 July – Saturday 25 July

Adam John Cullen

Studio

Lon Gallery
Saturday 4 July – Saturday 1 August

Lyndell Brown and Charles Green

The Solid Mandala

Arc One Gallery
Wednesday 8 July – Saturday 15 August

Group Show

Of the Inland

Brunswick Street Gallery
Saturday 11 July – Sunday 26 July

Group Show

Winterlude

MARS Gallery
Wednesday 15 July – Saturday 1 August

Jim Grant

In Praise of Folly

Off The Kerb
Thursday 16 July – Thursday 30 July

Geoff Harrison

Pastorale

Off The Kerb
Thursday 16 July – Thursday 30 July

James Annesley

Ghost Electricity

Off The Kerb
Thursday 16 July – Thursday 30 July

darby

Dreamer

Off The Kerb
Thursday 16 July – Thursday 30 July

Grant Nimmo

Spirits of the Green Woods

Daine Singer
Saturday 18 July – Saturday 22 August

Matt Arbuckle

Public Capacity

Daine Singer
Saturday 18 July – Saturday 22 August

Martin Smith

The Elegant Hope

Sophie Gannon Gallery
Tuesday 21 July – Saturday 8 August

Duncan Macarthur

Family Portraits

Red Gallery
Wednesday 22 July – Sunday 2 August

Mark Misic

Diamond Flower-Talisman Jam

Red Gallery
Wednesday 22 July – Sunday 2 August

Natali Papak

Elemental Coterie

Red Gallery
Wednesday 22 July – Sunday 2 August

Marc Baptista

VARANASI ‘My Journey through an Ancient City’

Red Gallery
Wednesday 22 July – Sunday 2 August

Martin Smith

The Elegant Hope

Sophie Gannon Gallery
Tuesday 21 July – Saturday 8 August

Many moons ago, publications like America’s LIFE magazine or here in Australia, PIX, were based on the photojournalistic co-dependence of image and text, with each article driven by a carefully orchestrated combination of story and image sequence. Martin Smith’s work is similarly underpinned by the dialogue between the written word and photography, but in his practice the two exist independently, before coming together in a delicate dance to create new meanings. There is no relationship between the domestic setting captured in Oysters (2026), for example, and the story contained within it. However, by playing with these interdependent codes and ways of understanding the world, Martin creates an imaginative space for the viewer where entirely new narratives and ways of seeing become possible.

Martin’s series Naked People of Taigum (2023- ) emerged from the artist’s experience of working in a one-hour photo lab in the outer Brisbane suburb of Taigum in the 1990s. Having access to people’s photographic memories enabled him to recognise a shared language of familiar events—the birthdays, holidays and everyday shenanigans caught in their snapshots—and the way in which we pose (and compose) ourselves for the camera according to different occasions. The nudes that sometimes appeared within these camera rolls also revealed their own language – in their playful responses to the camera, in the obvious trust between the photographer and subject, and in their picturing of a private/public moment. In Martin’s ode to these joyful interludes, language becomes fragmented and unreadable as individual letters decorate and seemingly feather the naked figures at the centre of each image. Like the dissembling of language that occurs in these works, these images also push against the reproducibility of photography by creating unique three-dimensional objects that are at once both image and form. While family photographs are so deeply connected to the stories we tell about them, these intimate moments are about the stories we generally don’t and probably shouldn’t share.

Location

Sophie Gannon Gallery
2 Albert St, Richmond VIC 3121, Australia

Date

Tuesday 21 July – Saturday 8 August

Save to Calendar

Google

Website

https://sophiegannongallery.com.au/exhibition/this-elegant-hope/

All exhibition content on this website has been sourced from the exhibiting gallery’s website or provided by other art enthusiasts. We do not own or seek to own any of this material. If you are concerned about any misuse of your content, please let us know here.

Suggest a change

Suggest an edit or change to this exhibition

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