Gian Manik, ‘Fantasy Chamber’ now open at Linden New Art
Gian Manik’s solo exhibition Fantasy Chamber is now open at Linden New Art in St Kilda, Melbourne. The exhibition follows on from Manik receiving the major new biennial art prize JUNCTURE, through which two contemporary Australian artists are awarded $20,000 to support their practice and develop a new work to be presented as a solo exhibition at Linden New Art.
Manik’s exhibition is made and presented in conversation with Linden’s grand Victorian architecture, taking a collage-like approach to extend an ongoing investigation into queer and Eastern identity, art history, and self-portraiture.
Gian Manik Fantasy Chamber 20 August – 8 November 2026 Linden New Art St Kilda, VIC
Gian Manik has produced a new large-scale wall painting, referencing a tender still from the film Steam: The Turkish Bath (d. Ferzan Özpetek, 1997), for the inaugural exhibition at Endless Lonely Planet, Melbourne.
Gian Manik Film 18 July – 8 August Endless Lonely Planet (618 Nicholas Building, 37 Swanston Street) Melbourne, VIC
“In the final gallery, Gian Manik’s large-scale oil painting, Happiness and delight in these pleasures with punishments meted out to each sin (2026), takes its cue from another iconic triptych, Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights (circa 1490–1510). His contemporary reimagining, populated by imagery drawn from pornography and orgiastic culture, is revealed behind a black curtain that simultaneously evokes the confession booth and adult cinema.”
Gian Manik’s inclusion in the group show New Religion at Ngununggula has been featured in Sebastian Goldspink’s exhibition review for The Saturday Paper.
Sebastian Goldspink “New Religion at Ngununggula” The Saturday Paper 11 July 2026
Gian Manik is included in the group exhibition New Religion at Ngununggula, exhibiting his work Happiness and delight in these pleasures with punishments meted out to each sin (2026). Taking early Netherlandish painter’s Hieronymus Bosch’s iconic The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490–1510, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid) as a point of departure, Manik paints a dense cacophony of bodies that echoes Bosch’s invocations of excess and temptation. Provided a framework through Bosch’s work, Manik transposes pornographic and symbolic imagery alike upon set versions of the Garden of Eden, Earthy Delights, and Hell. Here, this imagery is freed from hierarchical distinctions and fixed associations, allowing space for playfulness and contradiction where depictions of fleshly pleasure operate simultaneously as moral warning, spectacle, and entertainment.
Fostering a dialogue between works of art and objects from both historical and contemporary origins, New Religion explores how contemporary artists engage with religious imagery, belief systems, and symbolic forms to consider the ways in which ideas of faith, power, and meaning take shape. Historic modes of devotion, morality, and reverence are reimagined through contemporary materials and perspectives, creating new points of connection between past and present.
New Religion 27 June – 18 October 2026 Ngununggula Southern Highlands, NSW
Image: Gian Manik Happiness and delight in these pleasures with punishments meted out to each sin, 2026 (artwork detail) Oil on linen 206 x 375cm
Gian Manik’s painting Imagine, you’re young and know what you want (2025) is currently on view in the group exhibition Myth Makers at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Sydney.
Through a series of self-portraits, Myth Makers interprets myths of nationhood and family, authorship and agency, paradise and mortality, as vital to visions of self. A constellation of painting, sculpture, film and installation, the exhibition charts how age-old ideas of ritual and inheritance intersect with contemporary forces of digital image culture and surveillance systems to form, and fragment, modern identity.
Myth Makers 27 May – 23 August 2026 Woollahra Gallery at Redheaf Sydney, NSW
“Gian Manik, whose work occupies the main gallery, revels in the tensions of being-in any-place, whether dreamt and faraway, or awake and nearby” – Rosemary Overell, 2026
The group exhibition Dreaming from afar (Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland) has been reviewed in Art New Zealand magazine. Including a major new suite of paintings by Gian Manik alongside works from Tyrone Te Waa and brunelle dias primbs, the exhibition considers the complexities of history and nostalgia through a painterly environment that blends the physical with the imaginary.
Rosemary Overell “Tyrone Te Waa, brunelle dias primbs & Gian Manik: Dreaming from afar” Art New Zealand Issue 198, Winter 2026 Reader. Pp. 42-43.
Mia Khin Boe and Gian Manik in Octopus 26: Melange at Gertrude Contemporary
Works by Mia Khin Boe and Gian Manik will be included in the annual curated group exhibition Octopus at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne. Now in its 26th edition, this year’s exhibition is curated by Krisna Sudharma of Non Frasa Gallery, Bali, Ubud, Indonesia.
On the genesis and concerns driving the exhibition, Sudharma states the following, “The premise of this exhibition lies in a phonetic accident, a slip of the tongue between two languages that reveals the tension of our shared geography. On one hand, there is the melange: a mixture, a medley, a distinctively anti-essentialist state where Indonesian and Australian identities blur and entangle. On the other, echoing in the local vernacular, is the Balinese imperative melahang: a command to handle with extreme care, to fix what is broken, or to split a material along its natural grain.”
Octopus 2026: Melange 11 April – 30 May 2026 Gertude Contemporary Preston, VIC
Gian Manik in Dreaming from afar at Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland, Tāmaki Makaurau
Gian Manik will present a suite of new paintings alongside two site-specific wall-based works for the exhibition Dreaming from afar at the University of Auckland’s Gus Fisher Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Alongside Manik, the exhibition brings together work by Brunelle Dias Primbs (India, Aotearoa New Zealand) and Tyrone Te Waa (Ngātu Tūwharetoa) to explore the ways in which different artists prove what it means to encounter a place of tradition or history through their own contemporaneity.
Touching on ideas of Orientalism, queerness, religion and whakapapa, Dreaming from afar considers the complexities of history and nostalgia through a painterly environment that blends the physical with the imaginary.
The exhibition is pressented in association with Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival 2026.
Dreaming from afar Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland 14 February – 2 May 2026
Gian Manik’s exhibition Correspondence has been reviewed by Artforms’s Anthony Byrt.
“Correspondence suggested that Manik is deeply attuned not only to the subtexts and comedies of queer desire, but also to its cyclical trends. Yet his work also draws on tremendous art-historical knowledge.”
Gian Manik: Imagine, you’re young and know what you want at Conners Conners Gallery
Gian Manik is exhibiting new work at Conners Conners Gallery in Imagine, you’re young and know what you want. Manik continues to speculate on the futures and legacies of reproduced artworks by responding to the ontology of “institutional painting”, as canonised in Western art history. The artist reflects on the commodification of artworks and their reproductions within the global art market, and merges this with the personal.
Imagine, you’re young and know what you want 7 August – 6 September, 2025 Fitzroy Town Hall 201 Napier Street, Fitzroy, 3065 Opening hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm
Established in 2023, JUNCTURE is a biennial prize, awarded to two mid-career artists by Linden New Art. It is a national open callout, with the artists selected by a panel of industry professionals. Two artists, Gian Manik and Sarah Crowest, will each receive a cash prize of $20,000, to support exciting new directions in their practices, culminating in an exhibition at Linden New Art in 20 August – 9 November 2026.
‘Regenerative Strategies’, a major new commission by Australian painter Gian Manik, takes the form of nine discrete paintings, hung together to become, in the artist’s own words, ‘a landscape of different things functioning as one mass’. Created in collaboration with over 250 children from eight primary schools in and near the Walyalup/Fremantle area, the work is a reflection upon ideas of environment and place, encompassing pre- and post- colonial landscapes as well as speculative visions for the future.
Congratulations to Gian Manik, who has been selected as a finalist for the Art Gallery of South Australia’s prestigious Ramsay Art Prize, for his work Untitled (2024).
The prize, open to Australian artists under 40 working in any medium, aims to support and encourage contemporary practitioners to make a significant work at a pivotal moment in their career.
Ramsay Art Prize 31 May – 31 August 2025 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Gian Manik in You Are Here Too at the Institute of Modern Art
A new series of paintings by Gian Manik are included in the group exhibition You Are Here Too at the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Meanjin/Brisbane.
Curated by Kink curatorium, the exhibition presents a collection of works by contemporary Australian artists exploring queer desire and sexuality. It serves as both a celebration and a response to the groundbreaking 1992 show ‘You Are Here’ at the Institute of Modern Art, which made history as Queensland’s first exhibition featuring exclusively gay artists during the height of the AIDS crisis.
Thirty-three years later, this contemporary reflection examines the evolution of LGBTQI+ expression in Australia, showcasing new and existing works that present queer desire as ‘amorphous, fluid, temporal, retreating, explicit, abstracted and political.’ Additionally featured artists include Holly Bates, Nick Breedon, Alexis Kanatsios, and Yangamini, with performances by Leen Rieth, Crystal Love, and others.
You Are Here Too Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Meanjin/Brisbane 12 April – 29 June 2025 Opening event 11 April, 6–9pm
Gian Manik: Artist in Residence at Monash University Prato Centre
We’re thrilled to announce Gian Manik is the 2025 Artist in Residence at the Monash University Prato Centre.
In a collaboration between Monash University’s Prato Centre (MUPC) and Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA), the residency will see Gian Manik generate new artwork from the rich artistic contexts of Prato.
On the announcement of Manik’s residency in Prato, Associate Professor Spiros Panigirakis, Head of Fine Art, MADA says, “Manik’s practice uses the verisimilitude of painting as a starting point to contest fraught histories and engage visceral and libidinal conditions of the human experience. Manik is making some of the most vital paintings in Australia today. We can’t wait to see what emerges from the residency.”
As part of his residency, the artist will deliver an initial public presentation on his work and research, allowing the broader community to gain insight into his practice. Throughout the residency he will also host workshops, lectures, and exhibitions, giving students the invaluable opportunity to engage in discussions about contemporary painting, the role of art in cultural narratives, and how these ideas manifest in practice.
Gian Manik’s monumental painting Tabernacle (2025) is currently on show in After Ruins, a group exhibition at Non Frasa, Bali, Indonesia.
Co-presented with DESA, the exhibition at Nonfrasa reflects on how artists approach cultural memory. Drawing from the symbolism and framework of ruination, the exhibition seeks to articulate the ways in which artists to trace the remnants of past cultures to make meaning of the present. The group presentation of new sculpture and painting from artists throughout Australia and Southeast Asia, After Ruins crystallises shared efforts to grapple with memory, both fragmented and symbolic. In yoking these connections between the memorial and ruinous, artists are inviting viewers to reconstruct collective past, fashioned as monuments of shared experiences.
After Ruins Nonfrasa, Bali, Indonesia 22 February – 22 April 2025
Gian Manik in conversation at the Victorian College of the Arts
Gian Manik will deliver a talk at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) Southbank campus on 15 August as a part of their ongoing ‘Art Forum’ series. Providing a rich insight into his work and its relationship with the world, Manik will share the themes, processes and ideas that drive his practice.
The lecture will be presented live in the VCA’s Federation Hall in Southbank and is free to attend. The talk will be available as a webinar broadcast live via Zoom. Registration is not required.
Art Forum: Gian Manik Thursday, 15 August 2024 12:15 – 1:15PM Federation Hall, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank, Naarm/Melbourne
Gian Manik will be in conversation with curator Annika Kristensen at Lawson Flats, Perth/Boorloo, discussing his practice, recent projects.
With several of Manik’s works in their collection, the talk at Lawson Flats will additionally outline the forthcoming project which Manik is undertaking in collaboration with the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA). Raised in Boorloo/Perth, Manik will be producing thirty new paintings for PICA’s new annual fundraising event, PICA Editions.
Please note that registration is required for this event. It is free to attend for all Lawson Flats members, and costs $15 for non-members (ticket includes a free drink).
Curator Conversation with Gian Manik and Annika Kristensen 19 June 2024, 6–7pm (AWST) Lawson Flats, Boorloo/Perth
Gertrude Glasshouse will present a solo exhibition by Gian Manik, You own the school, embrace your responsibility for its legacy.
Harnessing imitative techniques honed during a childhood spent voraciously copying old master paintings, Gian Manik recasts and filtrates Caravaggio’s second version of Supper at Emmaus (1606) for the exhibition. By speculating upon the futures and legacies of reproduced artworks,the exhibition demonstrates a research-led practice responding to the ontology of “institutional painting,” that has been canonised in western art history.
Manik will be in conversation with curator Amelia Winata on Saturday, 13 April at 4pm in Gertrude Glasshouse, discussing the considerations and drives behind the exhibition and its positioning when situated within the artist’s wider practice.
Gian Manik You own the school, embrace your responsibility for its legacy Gertrude Glasshouse 12 April – 11 May 2024
Gian Manik and Mia Boe included in Gertrude Studios 2023, Gertrude Contemporary
The annual Gertrude Studios exhibition presents new and recent works produced in the organisation’s 16 studios, celebrating the site as a conduit for dialogue and making. A collective snapshot of the practices supported within the program, the exhibition offers the opportunity to experience a broad diversity of works from leading arts practitioners in Naarm/Melbourne, as well as examine material and conceptual developments in contemporary practice.
The exhibition features work from each of Gertrude’s sixteen Studio Artists, including Mia Boe and Gian Manik, remaining a cornerstone of the annual Gertrude programme that is conceived throughout the year by the Gertrude Studio Artists and the Curator in Residence Amelia Winata. The Studio Artists experiment with divergent ideas or reflect on recent productions in new configurations, all in conversation with the work of fellow practitioners.
Gertrude Studios 2023 Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne 11 November – 17 December 2023
Review: Vanessa Francesca, ‘Gian Manik, ‘Don Quixote”, Art Guide Australia
September 2023
Read Vanessa Francesca’s current review of Gian Manik’s exhibition Don Quixote.
“Gian Manik is one of Australia’s most exciting contemporary artists. His exhibition Don Quixote is a palimpsest that pays tribute to the many layers of identity, interpretation and innovation that have characterised the history of the work.”
Don Quixote continues at Sutton Gallery until the 30 September, 2023.
Gian Manik is exhibiting in a group show at Chauffeur, Sydney. Titled The Profane Opening upon the Sacred, the exhibition runs from April 14 – May 27, 2023.
Artists include: Antoine Aguilar Gian Manik Luke Pither
Gian Manik announced as a finalist in the 2023 Ramsay Art Prize
Congratulations to Gian Manik, who is a 2023 finalist in the Ramsay Art Prize.
Presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) and supported in perpetuity by the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation, Gian Manik is one of twenty-seven finalists who have been selected for the Ramsay Art Prize 2023 – a $100,000 acquisitive prize for contemporary Australian artists under the age of forty.
The works selected will be exhibited in a major exhibition at AGSA from 27 May until 27 August 2023. The winning work will be acquired into AGSA’s collection, joining works by past prize winners Sarah Contos (2017), Vincent Namatjira (2019) and Kate Bohunnis (2021).
Once a year, Gertrude opens their private studios to the public, providing audiences with a special opportunity to meet the artists, view works in progress, and experience the environment in which Gertrude Studio Artists create their work. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Join Sutton artists Mia Boe, Catherine Bell & Gian Manik this Saturday 18 February for a peek into their studio practice alongside the 2022-2024 cohort.
ACCA Art Kitchen #4 ‘Primary Colour Oil Painting with Gian Manik’
Join Gian Manik to learn how to create an oil painting from a source image by mixing the three primary colours, plus black and white. You will also hear why Manik approaches painting as a discipline, thinks of his practice as a form of self-portraiture, and chooses to work in a dedicated art studio.
Image: Gian Manik, ‘Micro-dosing in Kallista 3’, 2018, oil and aerosol on canvas, 153 x 112cm.
The singular work in this exhibition by artist Gian Manik is a portrait of Ralph McLean (1957–2010), the first openly gay person to be elected as Mayor in Australia (former City of Fitzroy, 1984-85) and a gay rights and social justice advocate.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Having researched the City of Yarra Collection, the reference image Manik used for the portrait was one of only two images he found of McLean. The work’s format, execution and framing speaks to the agency of significant historical and cultural collections and commissions.
Gian Manik ‘Ralph McLean’
Friday 11 November 2022 – Friday 27 January 2023
Richmond Town Hall, 333 Bridge Road. Richmond VIC
With new works by Sutton artists Gian Manik and Catherine Bell.
Gertrude’s annual Gertrude Studios exhibition presents new and recent works produced in the organisation’s 16 studios and celebrates the site as a conduit for dialogue and making. As a collective snapshot of the practices supported within the program, the exhibition offers the opportunity to experience a broad diversity of works from leading arts practitioners in Naarm Melbourne, as well as examine material and conceptual developments in contemporary practice.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The exhibition is conceived across the year by the Gertrude Studio Artists and the Curator in Residence Tim Riley Walsh.
‘a do ocean’ featuring Gian Manik, George Egerton-Warburton, Raafat Ishak and Nick Selenitsch
‘a do ocean’ curated Christopher L G Hill at Kings Artist-Run, featuring Sutton artists: Gian Manik, George Egerton-Warburton, Raafat Ishak and Nick Selenitsch
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Also with Cameron Allan McKean, Ricarda Bigolin, Hugo Blomley, Nicola Blumenthal, Holly Childs, Stacey Collee, Renee Cosgrave, Gabriella D’Costa, Debris Facility, Endless Lonely Planet 11, Sam George, Luke Gerrard, Aurellia Guo, Chloe Hagger, Christopher L G Hill, Jesse Hogan, Lou Hubbard, Helen Hughes, Eleanor Laver, Alice McIntosh, Sean McMorrow, Kate Meakin, Virginia Overell, Ashley Perry, Lisa Radford, Yuval Rosinger, Amy May Stuart, Savanna Szelski, Christopher Theofanous, Yundi Wang, and more.
Gian Manik’s is included in ACCA’s ‘Like a Wheel That Turns: The 2022 Macfarlane Commissions’, the third edition of a multi-year partnership that supports the commissioning of ambitious new projects by contemporary emerging to mid-career artists.
Exhibition dates: 2 July – 4 September 2022. Curated by Max Delany and Annika Kristensen.
Gian Manik has been awarded a studio position at Gertrude Contemporary in their highly competitive Studio Program.
The application–based program supports 16 artists for a two–year period, with 8 artists invited to join the program each year. Gertrude Contemporary is committed to supporting artists at key moments in the development of their practice, to represent an inter–generational selection of artists, and to support a diverse range of artistic practices. The selection of artists is by a competitive application process led by an advisory committee.
Gian Manik will relocate his studio to the Preston premises in 2022.
