Did you know that 2025 is the 50th anniversary of International Women’s Year (IWY)? In 1975, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed it would celebrate women, setting in train events that would globally shift the way women were included, and perceived.
While some of the battles are still on the table 50 years later, to be inclusive in all aspects of life – economically, socially and politically – is key to the tenets of contemporary society. In Australia, Elizabeth Reid was part of the Australian delegation to the UN’s first World Conference on Women, which took place in Mexico City in June 1975. She was also Women’s Adviser to the newly elected Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
On International Women’s Day (8 March), Whitlam’s speech emphasised the need for attitudinal change: “Both men and women must be made aware of our habitual patterns of prejudice, which we often do not see as such, but whose existence manifests itself in our language and our behaviour,” as noted by The Conversation.
In the visual arts, the global Known My Name campaign has shifted the lens significantly over the last decade (it started in the US in 2016), and the work of The Countess Report, which has tirelessly tracked gender balance in the Australian creative sector.
ArtsHub calls out six exhibitions in 2025 that call attention to the significant contribution of women artists in the visual arts realm.
1. The Intelligence of Painting
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) takes the temperature of contemporary painting in Australia through the work of 14 women painters. Curated by MCA Director Suzanne Cotter and Associate Curator Manya Sellers, the exhibition The Intelligence of Painting turns to the work of Karen Black, Angela Brennan, Eleanor Louise Butt, Prudence Flint, Maria Madeira, Thea Anamara Perkins, Kerrie Poliness, Jude Rae, Jessica Rankin, Julie Nangala Robertson, Gemma Smith, Jelena Telecki, Jenny Watson and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. Showing 7 March – 20 July 2025, in Level 1 Macgregor Gallery.
2. Dangerously Modern Women
Exploring the art and lives of 50 women artists and revealing their vital role in the story of modernism, this exhibition has been curated in partnership between the Art Gallery of South Australia (24 May to 7 September 2025) and the Art Gallery of New South Wales (10 October 2025 to 1 February 2026).
3. A Tribute to Matrilineal Legacy
While not exclusively an exhibition by women artists, this Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) exhibition is all about women. The exhibition brings together seven Australian artists who pay homage to the women who have shaped their lives — grandmothers, mothers, artistic matriarchs, leaders, ancestors and forebears. In Her Footsteps: A Tribute to Matrilineal Legacy honours these transformative women shaping lives, and delves into themes of activism and empowerment, celebrating matrilineal heritage through compelling works. Catch it from 7 February – 30 March, to coincide with Perth Festival.
Read: Exhibition review: Marikit Santiago: Proclaim Your Death!, Campbelltown Arts Centre
4. A long overdue survey
AGNSW is presenting the first state art museum survey of one of Australia’s pre-eminent painters, Janet Dawson (b 1935). Curator Denise Mimmocchi delves into her seven-decade career as a pioneer of both abstraction and realism in Australian art in Janet Dawson: Faraway, So Close. The Gallery says, “Janet Dawson is an artist who refuses to be bound by rules and who remains impossible to neatly categorise.” The exhibition is free, and you can see if from 19 July 2025 – 18 January 2026.
Read: Defining First Nations exhibitions that will shape 2025
5. Breathing Helps
Curated by Director of TarraWarra Museum of Art, Dr Victoria Lynn, Breathing Helps will be an exhibition combining existing and new art works by Naarm-based artist Rose Nolan. While her large-scale text installations are best known, Nolan has a diverse practice, encompassing painting, installation, sculpture, photography and printmaking. Much of her work invites visitors to engage with space in new and unpredictable ways. For this exhibition, she has also invited artist Shelley Lasica to create a new choreography. The exhibition runs 9 August – 9 November at the TarraWarra Museum of Art in Healesville (Vic).
6. And Still I Rise
Curator Natalie Seiz explores the work of a culturally diverse group of women artists living in Australia, many of whom are internationally recognised if less familiar at home. And Still I Rise starts with work from the AGNSW’s collection, paired with new commissions to explore making and materiality through textiles, painting, metalwork, installation and video. This includes artists like Suzann Victor, the first female artist to represent Singapore in its inaugural showing in the 49th Venice Biennale, and Haji Oh, a third-generation Zainichi Korean artist born and raised in Japan, now practising in Australia using traditional textile techniques from Korea, Japan, Guatemala and Indonesia. Widening the horizons of contemporary Australian art, works by Mia Boe, Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, Jenna Lee, Bic Tieu, among others will shape the conversation. View it from 8 November 2025 – 2026 (free).
