This is one of the most anticipated exhibitions of the year. Passage: The Art of Atong Atem is the first-ever major solo exhibition of the South Sudanese, Melbourne-based photographer whose vibrant, dynamic self-portraits have made her one of the most celebrated contemporary artists of her generation. More than 65 works spanning a decade of practice explore identity, mythmaking and intergenerational storytelling through portraiture in which Atem uses her own body as canvas, adorned with textiles, paint and symbolic objects drawn from Dinka Bor culture and the broader diasporic experience. A world-premiere exhibition, and free to attend.

Travelling from the Design Museum in London, Barbie: The Exhibition makes its Australian debut at Melbourne Museum, tracing the design evolution of one of the world’s most recognisable cultural objects across more than 65 years. The exhibition approaches Barbie through the lens of fashion, architecture, furniture and vehicle design, examining how a doll became a mirror of changing social values and aesthetic movements across the decades. Expect this one to draw audiences well beyond the usual gallery crowd. Book early at museumsvictoria.com.au.

David Jolly is an artist whose practice has attracted serious attention from collectors and critics while remaining refreshingly outside the mainstream spotlight. This solo exhibition at Heide is an opportunity to encounter a significant Australian practice in depth, in one of the country’s most beautiful gallery settings. Adult $27, concession $20, children under 12 free.

Personal Effects explores the intimate objects people carry through their lives. The things that accumulate meaning not through monetary value but through touch, time and association. Drawn from the Heide collection and archive, it is a quietly affecting exhibition that rewards the kind of slow, unhurried attention that Heide’s setting naturally encourages. Adult $27, concession $20, children under 12 free.

ACCA’s annual NEW commission series is one of the most anticipated events in Melbourne’s contemporary art calendar. NEW26 continues the programme’s tradition of commissioning ambitious, large-scale new works specifically for ACCA’s extraordinary warehouse spaces. The commissioned artists will be announced ahead of opening, but the NEW series has a consistent track record of producing some of the most talked-about exhibitions in the country. Always free, always worth the trip.

Ken Whisson and John Foubister are two of the most quietly revered painters in Australian art, both known for work that is eccentric, atmospheric and entirely resistant to fashion. Bringing their practices together at Heide, Going Back In is an exhibition for people who want to spend time with paintings that reward slow looking, work that reveals more the longer you stand in front of it. Adult $27, concession $20, children under 12 free.

Gyula Halász, known to the world as Brassaï, arrived in Paris in the 1920s and spent the following decades photographing the city that almost nobody else saw — the nightclubs, street corners, lovers and labourers who inhabited Paris after dark. His images are among the most influential photographs of the twentieth century, and this exhibition brings a significant collection of his work to Melbourne for audiences to encounter the full atmosphere of his vision. If you have ever loved Paris, or photography, or the idea that a city has a secret life visible only to those who look closely enough, this exhibition was made for you. Heide’s sculpture park and on-site café make it a rewarding half-day visit, so build in time for both. Adult $27, concession $20, children under 12 free.

After a strong inaugural edition, the Melbourne Sculpture Biennale returns at a new and considerably more ambitious venue: the heritage-listed Billilla Mansion in Brighton. Outdoor and indoor sculpture, site-responsive commissions and emerging Australian artists all form part of the programme. The combination of exceptional heritage architecture and wide-open sky makes this one of the most enjoyable art events of the spring season. Ticket details to be announced, follow the Biennale on social media for updates.

Watch These Hands is an exhibition about making; the long, slow, intimate process of creating objects by hand and what that act means in a world increasingly mediated by machines. Bringing together artists and craftspeople whose practices are rooted in the handmade, the exhibition asks questions about skill, patience, material and meaning that feel genuinely urgent right now. It is the kind of show that reminds you why you make things, or makes you wish you did. Adult $27, concession $20, children under 12 free.

Drawn from the collections of the Museo Nazionale Romano and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, this Melbourne-exclusive exhibition brings ancient Rome into vivid, immediate focus. Original statues, mosaics, frescoes, jewellery and everyday objects from Julius Caesar’s era tell a story about power, ordinary life and the surprisingly human face of one of history’s most formidable civilisations. It is equally compelling for first-time visitors to the ancient world and for those who have spent years studying it. No booking required.

Nearly 400 extraordinary jewels, timepieces and jewellery objects drawn from Maison Cartier’s archives are on display at NGV International in an exhibition exclusive to Melbourne. From archival sketches and the legendary panther brooch to the iconic Tank watch, the exhibition traces more than 170 years of a creative house that has consistently sat at the intersection of art, design, craft and culture. These are pieces that have passed through the hands of royalty, artists and heads of state, and seeing them in person is a genuinely different experience from anything a photograph can offer. The NGV also offers free guided tours of key works throughout the run, well worth joining for the context and storytelling they provide alongside the ticketed experience. Book well in advance at ngv.vic.gov.au, as weekends sell out.

Now in its sixth Melbourne edition, the Affordable Art Fair is one of the most genuinely enjoyable events on the city’s cultural calendar. With more than 70 galleries represented and all works priced up to AUD $10,000, it occupies a sweet spot between a serious commercial art fair and a very good party. First-time buyers feel as welcome as seasoned collectors, and the energy across all four days is warm, curious and refreshingly unpretentious. Opening Night on Thursday 27 August, from 5pm to 9pm, is consistently the most sought-after ticket of the weekend. It’s intimate, buzzy and giving you first access to works before the crowds arrive. Opening Night sells out weeks in advance, so book early at affordableartfair.com.

ACCA is one of Australia’s most adventurous contemporary art institutions, and this upcoming exhibition continues its commitment to ambitious, ideas-driven programming. Are You Lonely Tonight? brings together artists whose work interrogates connection, solitude and the particular texture of contemporary loneliness, a subject that resonates well beyond the gallery walls. ACCA’s exhibitions consistently challenge and reward in equal measure, and entry is always free.

Open Tuesday to Friday 10am – 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am – 5pm.

Tolarno Galleries on Exhibition Street is one of Melbourne’s most respected commercial galleries, and its current exhibition features new work by Judy Watson, a Waanyi woman and one of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists. Watson works across painting, printmaking, installation and video to explore the intersections of family, country and memory. Her work is immediately beautiful and quietly political, and shadow breath continues her practice of drawing histories to the surface with both delicacy and force.

Open Tuesday to Friday 11am – 5pm, Saturday 11am – 4pm.

Now in its eleventh year, the fortyfivedownstairs Emerging Artist Award is one of the most important platforms for new artistic talent in Melbourne. Works selected from open submissions are exhibited across the gallery’s two Flinders Lane spaces, giving visitors a genuine survey of where Melbourne’s next generation of artists is heading. If you want to discover an artist before everyone else does, this is consistently the exhibition to attend.

The NGV describes this as the most comprehensive thematic exhibition exploring motherhood ever mounted in an Australian art institution. More than 200 historical and contemporary works from the permanent collection move across painting, sculpture, photography, textiles and installation to explore the experience of motherhood in all its complexity: tender, exhausting, transformative and fiercely political. It is a show that rewards return visits and stays with you long after you leave the building. No booking required.

This photographic exhibition brings together more than three decades of collaborative work by artists Gerard O’Connor and Marc Wasiak, and the scope and ambition of what they have created together is immediately apparent. These are cinematic, meticulously crafted images built entirely by hand with a team of artists drawn from across disciplines including costume, set design, lighting and performance. Every detail was conceived, constructed and captured through human vision and craft, entirely pre-AI works in the fullest sense.

The collection foregrounds LGBTIQ+ figures who have long been overlooked in mainstream historical narratives, reimagining them with a theatricality that is at once spectacular and deeply tender. Showing at the Victorian Pride Centre during Pride Month, the exhibition feels exactly right in its setting. The opening evening was hosted by Clive Scott AM alongside Pride Centre CEO Paul Horwell, and Gerard O’Connor spoke about the inspiration behind the collection and the artistic journey it represents. With more than 30 years of work on the walls, this is a body of work that deserves to be seen in full. Weekday mornings are quietest for viewing.

John Perceval is one of the most important figures in Australian modernist painting, and this survey at Heide, the very place where his friendships with Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and the Reed circle shaped his practice, is a rare opportunity to see his work in depth and in context. Spanning ceramics, drawings and paintings across several decades, All That We Are is both an art historical event and a genuinely beautiful exhibition. Adult $27, concession $20, children under 12 free.

Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson is one of the most compelling figures in contemporary art globally. His practice spans durational performance, video installation and music, occupying a singular space between the profound and the quietly absurd, and his work has the rare quality of feeling both completely serious and genuinely joyful at the same time. Mercy is his most anticipated solo exhibition to date, and this is the kind of show that prompts you to rearrange your afternoon so you can stay longer.