Bill Henson

Photographs by internationally acclaimed artist Bill Henson in this special solo exhibition mark the 20th anniversary of the iconic monograph Lux et Nox, first published in Switzerland by Scalo in 2002.

© Bill Henson
© Bill Henson

In a career that has spanned more than forty years, Henson's extraordinary images are in contrast and counterpoint to the tumult and opinionation of our times. His dazzling city lights deliquesce, they alternate and oscillate and metamorphose into lustrous landscapes and his dark shadowy roads fade into night with its dislocated apprehension of time. In these intermediary no man’s lands, the realms where figures teeter on the precipice of adolescence and fall, or fail to, into some postulated adult state there is the langour of twilight, the dusk that overtakes the outskirts of cities, where industry and romance edge into each other.

Opening reception

Friday, 1 April 2022
6pm – 8pm AEDT

Follow link for details.

About Bill Henson

Bill Henson represented Australia at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995. Henson’s solo exhibitions include: Bill Henson, National Gallery of Victoria and Bill Henson, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (2017), Cloud Landscapes, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2013), Bill Henson: Three Decades of Photography, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2005), Bill Henson, Centro de Fotografia, University of Salamanca, Spain (2003), Bill Henson, Scalo, Zurich, Switzerland (2001), Bill Henson, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (1993), Bill Henson Photography, Denver Art Museum (1989), Bill Henson Photographs, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, (1990) and Bill Henson Fotografien, Museum Moderner Kunst, Palais Liechtenstein, Vienna (1989).

Henson had his first solo exhibition, at the age of 19, at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1975. The NGV has now acquired over 100 Henson works, the most significant of any public institution. Henson’s work is held in every major public collection in Australia and many overseas collections including San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, USA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, Denver Art Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Art, 21C Museum, Louisville, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Sammlung Volpinum, Vienna, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Tate, London.

 

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February

Canberra: Until 6 Sept 2026. Trent Parke’s photographic series The Christmas tree bucket 2006–09 is a tender and darkly humorous portrayal of his extended family coming together to celebrate Christmas.

March

Sydney: Until 7 Feb 2027. From his archive of more than 200,000 images, Close Up celebrates the historic moments and pivotal people he famously captured.

Melbourne: 5 March – 7 August 2026. Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, artist and social documentary photographer Viva Gibb (1945-2017) documented the suburbs of North and West Melbourne, where she lived.

May

Sydney: Until 16 August 2026. PIX, Australia’s first pictorial news weekly, is brought to life in this exhibition, showcasing its archived images and stories for the very first time.

Melbourne: Until March 2027. Rehearsing the City presents archival photographs from Victoria’s government collections, alongside new work by contemporary street photographers.

Coffs Harbour: 28 May – 29 June 2026. West Of Somewhere East is a photographic series tracing a cinematic journey through the interior of New South Wales, shaped by long drives, fleeting encounters, and the reflective rhythm of return.

June

Sydney: June 6 – 19 July 2026. The World Press Photo Exhibition 2026 is returning to the State Library of New South Wales from 6 June to 19 July, offering Sydney audiences an uncompromising view of of the unending challenges that humans, and our planet face.

Melbourne: 6 June – 20 August 2026. Brook Andrew is an artist whose conceptual practice shifts across photography, performance, moving image, installation, public space and research, often through deep collaboration with artists, communities and friends.

Melbourne: 6 June – 28 June 2-26. We Built a House Out of Water is a deeply personal body of work that draws on memory, family, and culture – while understanding healing as an ongoing process.

Melbourne: 26 June – 2 August. Through analogue photographic processes, Dylan Negri aims to immortalised fragments of life that would otherwise disintegrate.