Murray Fredericks | The Salt Lake

Salt 300 (Tent & Bike) 2005
pigment print on cotton rag
120.0 x 250.0 cm
Salt 300 (Tent & Bike) 2005 pigment print on cotton rag 120.0 x 250.0 cm

The salt lake is a major survey exhibition of Murray Fredericks that brings together Salt, Array, Vanityand his most recent series, Blaze. From the earthly to the celestial, the physical to the metaphysical, these exhibitions consider place, time and space in very different ways.

Over the last 20 years, Murray Fredericks has established himself as one of the leading international artists challenging the traditions of landscape photography. In 2003 Murray Fredericks first visited Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, one of the world’s largest salt lakes, located in the deserts of central Australia. Driven by the boundless potential of abstract space, Fredericks has returned 31 times over the past two decades, exploring perceptual states of being. His chapters, or ‘cycles’ as he calls them, have explored interventions with mirrors, and more recently fire, capturing infinity and the void through the lens of contemplative minimalism. Defined by light, colour and space, Fredericks’s photographs are a phenomenological response to the experience of existing in an ostensibly empty place without scale.

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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

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.

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.

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.

Sydney: until 4 July 2026. A Breath Before Dawn is a meditation on memory, inheritance and the unresolved presence of history within the body.

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.