Max Dupain, silver gelatin print, gift of Diana Dupain, 1947-1951, reproduced courtesy of Chau Chak Wing Museum. 
Student life
Max Dupain at the University of Sydney
9 August 2024-August 2025
Considered by many to be Australia’s most famous modernist photographer, Max Dupain (1911-1992) spent a period in the early 1950s documenting student life at the University of Sydney. The resulting body of work represents Dupain’s foray into modernism, combining architectural backdrops with candid studies of student life at work and play. Student Life is a brilliant and hilarious series of formal and surprisingly informal photographs which astutely observe Sydney’s cultural shift in the immediate post war years.
Kerameikos
The potter’s quarter
24 August until August 2025
Following a week-long residency at the museum in February, seven leading Australian ceramics artists produced new works based on the museum’s extensive collections.
The commissioned works draw on objects ranging from ancient Cypriot motherhood figurines to nineteenth century trade beads. Kerameikos provides a fresh perspective on one of Australia’s oldest museum collections. They have been created by: Vipoo Srivilasa, Glenn Barkley, Juz Kitson, Idil Abdullahi, Kirsten Coelho, Janet Fieldhouse and Monica Rani Rudhar.