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^{Georgina Cue, Miller, 2017, archival inkjet print 104 x 148.7 cm Edition 1 of 3 + 2 AP Courtesy of the artist.}

Auto Body Works, Arts Project Australia, 16 June – 21 July 2018.

Guest curated by Patrice Sharkey, Director of West Space

I recently made a rather modest foray into the world of body augmentation. After ninety minutes of being subjected to intense buffering, sharp prods and eye-watering fumes, I emerged transformed; a once recalcitrant nail-biter revamped into someone just prese...

^{Meredith Turnbull, Closer 2018, installation view, Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne. Photographer: Christian Capurro.}

Best and Overlooked of 2018

Memo Review asked three of our contributors to write on a show they have especially liked but that we haven't had a chance to review. As a special mid-week issue we publish these reviews from Tiarney Miekus, Amelia Winata and Giles Fielke.

Ella Sowinska, 80 Ways, recess, Friday 30 March – 30 April 2018

By Tiarne...

^{Christian Thompson, Othering the Explorer, James Cook, from the Museum of Others series, 2015–16, type-C photograph on metallic paper. Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.}

Colony: Australia 1770–1861, Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, until 15 July.

Colony: Frontier Wars, Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, until 30 September.

Colony is undoubtedly the best show the NGV has put on since Australian Impressionists in France in 2013. And I’...

^{Andrew Browne, Silver spill 2018, Oil on linen, 61 x 41cm, courtesy the artist and Tolarno Galleries.}

Andrew Browne, Spill, Tolarno Galleries, Level 4/104 Exhibition Street, 7 June – 7 July 2018

In the final chapter of his 1931 book, An Account of French Painting, Clive Bell attempts to explain what he calls 19th century French painting's (i.e., modernism's) 'momentous lapse in taste'. Of course, he meant a lapse from the perspective of those trained in the 19th century Academy's traditi...

^{Lenton Parr, Vega, 1969, posthumously enlarged and fabricated 2012, painted steel.}

Point Leo Estate sculpture park, 3649 Frankston-Flinders Road, Merricks, VIC

That the Mornington Peninsula now boasts three privately endowed sculpture parks is a remarkable fact given the relatively small geographic area. Joining the long-standing McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park (founded and chiefly supported – up until recently – by the late Dame Elisabeth Murdoch) are two new additions, both attached...

^{Lucina Lane and Nigel Lendon, Teach the kids to strike. Photo: Christo Crocker}

Lucina Lane and Nigel Lendon – Teach the kids to strike, Neon Parc, 18 May – 16 June

I’ve not noticed the terazzo tiles on the floor of Neon Parc’s city gallery. And I’ve been visiting shows at the Bourke Street space for years now. It took Lucina Lane and Nigel Lendon’s collaborative exhibition Teach the kids to strike for me to look hard at just how extraordinarily worn the floors really are. When I ask ga...

^{Raquel Ormella, This Dream, 2013, nylon, 150 x 210 cm. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Purchased: Rudy Komon Memorial Fund, 2013.}

Raquel Ormella, I Hope You Get This, Shepparton Art Museum, 26 May–12 August, 2018

Raquel Ormella’s artworks have been included in a number of thematic exhibitions exploring the relationships between art and activism in recent years; examples include Direct Democracy, at MUMA in 2013 and See You at the Barricades, at AGNSW in 2015. These exhibitio...

^{Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits, Heide Museum of Modern Art, photograph: Christian Capurro}

Diane Arbus: American Portraits, Heide Museum of Art, 21 March – 17 June 2018.

“You can’t take any photos”, I was told at the front desk. The request was unexpected, as restrictions of this kind for an exhibition seemed slightly dated considering how accessible and abundant images have become in our digitally soaked, super-sharing culture – not to mention how widely available many...