BEAT THE HEAT

Guaranteed air-con is enough to get us anywhere in the warmer months, but this summer there’s even more reason to beeline for the country’s leading art spots – there’s a bunch of exciting exhibits to send your culture cred skyrocketing while the temperature outside does the same. Don’t miss Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist’s colourfully heady video installations, which will be projected over an entire floor at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art in its major summer exhibition Pipilotti Rist:

Sip My Ocean, from November 1. Up in the Sunshine State, Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art will show more than 70 of dot-obsessed artist and Louis Vuitton-collaborator Yayoi Kusama’s works from November 4 in Life Is The Heart Of A Rainbow.

Come December 15, in what’s arguably the most ambitious exhibition of contemporary art ever held in Melbourne, the National Gallery of Victoria will play host to 78 artists from 32 countries in the NGV Triennial, reflecting on the current state of contemporary art through works from leading local and international artists Ben Quilty, Nick Cave, Iris van Herpen, Reko Rennie, Teamlab, Yayoi Kusama, Zanele Muholi and Adel Abidin. (Be sure to check out Israeli artist Einat Amir’s

Gogglebox-style installation, in which members of the public can take a seat in front of their favourite TV shows while fellow gallery visitors watch on.) And once 2018 rolls around, head to Tasmania for the Museum of Old and New Art’s Foma festival, the summer cousin to the beloved Dark Mofo, curated by Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie. mca.com.au; qagoma.qld.gov.au; ngv.vic.gov.au; mofo.net.au ]