Deep inside Barangaroo is a beach made from 1.1 million plastic balls.

Coming to the Sydney Festival this month is one of the brightest events of the year as Hyde Park is transformed into a world of big hair in The Hair Salon.

"It provides free and accessible space for experimental and emerging artists in the arts precinct, and there's nowhere else really like it in Australia."

Gaze into the eyes of one of Vernon Ah Kee's portraits of his family members and you can see the range of human emotion: tenderness, anger, curiosity, sorrow and surprise.

A Congolese-Australian playwright reveals the tale of a refugee boxer.

"It feels like you are at the centre of the Earth."

He skewed the art establishment, won the Booker Prize and his musings became staple at art schools the world over.

The renowned bird photographer took a roundabout route to finding her talent.

A new crop of artisan designers is taking back the power from big brands, thanks to social media.

• Art review

These prints constitute an exceptionally impressive body of work, non-figurative in its pictorial language and glittering in its technical virtuosity.

Head

There are some impressive works here but too much that is slight and silly in a show that tends overall to be a little flat.

These five exhibitions are indicative of Canberra's amazingly active and impressive visual arts scene in 2016.

An out-of-the-loop visitor to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City might be curious about the long queues.

The urgency of Sister Corita's imagery reflects the Zeitgeist. Her printing experiments with paper stencils and glue resist are technically audacious.

Artists often become less adventurous and productive as they grow older, this is not the case for David Hockney.

Airconditioned and entertaining for the whole family, these are the must-see shows if you're interstate this summer.

Cate Blanchett's idea of a "cultural ribbon" has been dumped in favour of a harbour walk by the City of Sydney.

Long before Sydney celebrated New Year's Eve with its extravagant fireworks, the kings of France were lighting up the skies over Versailles to show their power and prestige.

Who's afraid of colour? Not these Indigenous women artists

What's on in Canberra's arts scene from December 16.

Shia LaBeouf is in Sydney for the inaugural Bingefest, a 24-hour pop culture festival hosted by the Sydney Opera House. His event brings together broadcasters, artists, thinkers and humourists with vintage video game fans and cat video lovers is titled #AndInTheEnd.

Paris: A long-lost drawing by Leonardo da Vinci valued at €15 million ($21 million) and owned by a retired French doctor has been unveiled in Paris.