ESCAPE PLANS

The new-season performance by the awe-inspiring Bangarra Dance Theatre touring Australia, what to catch at the Sydney Film Festival and a fresh series of art books to treasure.

A new performance by Bangarra Dance Theatre, what to catch at the Sydney Film Festival and a fresh series of art books to treasure.

PORTRAIT P OF AN ARTIST

Celebrating Australia’s most illustrious female artists, Mini Monographs is a new series of books with each 96-page volume dedicated to a single artist and serving as a compact portfolio of her most captivating works. Edited by notable art curator Natalie King, the first two releases feature two-time Archibald Prize winner Del Kathryn Barton and award-winning late photographer Polixeni Papapetrou. As well as offering a visual deep dive into each artist, the book also includes an essay inspired by the artist’s work penned by a luminary from another creative field – in this instance, writer Sarah Darmody (Barton) and playwright, screenwriter and novelist Joanna Murray-Smith (Papapetrou).

Above: the cover and inside images from Mini Monographs: Del Kathryn Barton (Thames & Hudson, $29.99), one of two new releases from an ongoing series profiling prominent Australian female artists.