A painting by Mitch Cairns is included in the National Art School’s 2026 KALEIDOSCOPE Gala Live Auction, raising funds to support Mitch’s alma mater. The Silent Auction, featuring more than 50 works, is now live online, with bidding open until 10pm Thursday 15.10.26. Visit the National Art School website at this link for auction details and to bid.

The second iteration of Mitch Cairns’ major twenty-year survey exhibition, Artist’s Mouth, opens this week at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Exhibition dates: 10.10.26 – 20.12.26. Opening celebration Friday 9 October, 6–8pm. Join the artist in conversation with curators Lucy Latella and Robert Leonard on Saturday 10 October at 2pm.

The Commercial is looking forward to exhibiting at Sydney Contemporary at Carriageworks. We are presenting a group exhibition with works by Archie Moore, Augusta Vinall Richardson, Lillian O'Neil, Mitch Cairns and Stephen Ralph in Booth B07. Contact the gallery for preview of works. Jazz Money's exhibition continues at the gallery in Marrickville during the fair and will be open for visiting usual gallery hours. 03.09.26 – 06.09.26.

In the final week of the Sydney iteration of his 20-year survey exhibition, Mitch Cairns: Artist's Mouth, join co-curator Lucy Latella in conversation with artists Mitch Cairns, Agatha Gothe-Snape, and NAS Acting Head of Painting Elizabeth Pulie as they reflect on Cairns’ practice over the past two decades – from his time as a National Art School student in the early 2000s to his position as a leading figure in contemporary Australian art. National Art School Gallery, Thursday 09.07.26, 6pm.

NOW IN STOCK: Accompanying Mitch Cairns’ 20-year survey exhibition, presented by the National Art School Gallery, Sydney, and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, and curated by Lucy Latella and Robert Leonard, is a 200-page fully illustrated catalogue featuring essays by the curators, Wes Hill and Kate Lilley. The book is now available at The Commercial for pickup or online purchase for $60 plus postage.

Mitch Cairns and Agatha Gothe-Snape in The Guardian. On the occasion of his 20-year survey exhibition at the National Art School Gallery, Sydney, Cairns speaks to Doosie Morris about how he met Gothe-Snape, their ongoing relationship and how the story of their relationship unfolds throughout the Mitch Cairns: Artist's Mouth exhibition.

Congratulations to Mitch Cairns and Tim Schultz announced today as finalists in the 2026 Archibald and Sulman Prizes respectively at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Cairns with his portrait of writer, Gerald Murnane, Schultz with his painting Singularities selected by 2026 Sulman judge, Del Kathryn Barton. Exhibitions: 09.05.26 – 16.08.26.

To coincide with Mitch Cairns: Artist's Mouth, the 20-year survey exhibition of his work at NAS Gallery, Sydney, co-presented by the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Mitch Cairns is curating a group exhibition of invited artists at The Commercial. Good fortune to a flame includes the work of Aldo Iacobelli (Adelaide), Bill Hawkins (Melbourne) and Elizabeth Pulie (Sydney). The exhibition opens Saturday 20.05.26, 2 – 4pm.

Mitch Cairns: Artist's Mouth, a major survey exhibition spanning 20 years of the artist's practice, jointly presented by NAS Gallery (Sydney) and Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane). Sydney opening celebration Thursday 30.04.26, 6 – 9pm.

The Commercial features in Vogue Australia's coverage of Australian galleries at this year's Art Basel Hong Kong.

The Commercial is exhibiting for the first time at Art Basel Hong Kong. We are in the main Galleries section in Booth 3C28 with a group exhibition of works by Agatha Gothe-Snape, Anna Kristensen, Archie Moore, Augusta Vinall Richardson, Jude Rae and Mitch Cairns. Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, preview days 25–26 March, public days 27–29 March.

NAS Gallery, Sydney, and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, are partnering to present a solo survey exhibition of Mitch Cairns' work spanning 20 years. Mitch Cairns: Artist's Mouth is being curated by Lucy Latella and Robert Leonard. The exhibition will include over 40 works borrowed from institutions and private collections and will be accompanied by a monograph with four new essays. NAS Gallery: 01.05.2025 – 11.07.2026; IMA: 10.10.2026 – 20.12.2026

Huge congratulations to Mitch Cairns announced by Mosman Art Gallery and The Balnaves Foundation last night as the inaugural recipient of The Neil Balnaves Fellowship. "Valued at $80,000 and in honour of the late Neil Balnaves AO, this is a major initiative to support the development of a significant piece of research or creative endeavour over a two-year period.”

Three recently acquired paintings by Mitch Cairns will feature in Framing Tomorrow, an exhibition commemorating 50 years of Murdoch University’s Art Collection. Exhibition: November 2025-August 2026

A review of Mitch Cairns' solo exhibition, Restless Legs, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales earlier this year, has been published in Artforum. "Does anyone paint a better line than Mitch Cairns? The forty-one-year-old Australian artist is known for his reliably rigorous treatment of painting’s essentials, taking color and form as subject matter." Wes Hill

Mitch Cairns' solo exhibition, Restless Legs, commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and curated by Nick Yelverton, opens this week at its second venue in an expanded form at Wollongong Art Gallery. The exhibition will be launched by Maud Page, Director AGNSW, at opening event Friday 05.09.25, 6-8pm. Exhibition continues until 30.11.25

Mitch Cairns is a finalist in the 2025 Mosman Art Prize with his painting Opera House. The exhibition of finalists opens at Mosman Art Gallery Friday 22.08.25 with announcement of winner selected by guest judge, Justin Paton, Head Curator of International Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Exhibition: 22.08.25 — 02.11.25

Memo Review has published a review of Mitch Cairns’ exhibition Restless Legs at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, written by Emma O’Neill. The exhibition, which ran from 8 March to 12 May 2025, featured a series of oil paintings and text-based bronze plates that explore themes of language, memory, and the interplay between text and image. Mitch Cairns: Restless Legs will be presented at Wollongong Art Gallery in an expanded form opening September this year. Read review.

"The Art Gallery of New South Wales has made the decision to close Mitch Cairns’ exhibition, Restless Legs, earlier than planned due to unfortunate, unforeseen circumstances. The Art Gallery apologises to the artist and anyone who did not have the opportunity to visit the solo exhibition, which was part of the Art Gallery’s Contemporary Projects series, before its early closure. If you can, we encourage you to visit the exhibition when it tours to Wollongong Art Gallery, where it will be on display from 6 September to 30 November 2025." Statement from AGNSW. View Mitch Cairns: Restless Legs online

Congratulations to Angela Brennan, Mitch Cairns and Jude Rae, announced as finalists in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Angela is in Archibald with a portrait of Bridget Brennan, award-winning Indigenous journalist and the artist's niece. Mitch is in the Archibald with a portrait of fellow artist, Stephen Ralph, an in the Sulman with a mixed media text piece. Jude is in the Wynne with her painting, Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal. Exhibitions open Friday 09.05.25

Angela Brennan and Mitch Cairns feature in Eye to Eye: The Susan Taylor and Peter Jones Collection at Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra. This significant private collection "was seeded from an initial interest in mid-century modern design and early twentieth century avant-gardes, blossoming into an embrace of non-objective and abstract art. Yet their collection has grown to revel in the intersections between conceptual art, geometric abstraction, seriality, non-objective painting, photography, contemporary jewellery and poetics to develop conjunctions across time, place and materiality." Opening event: 01.05.25, 6pm. Exhibition: 19.04.25 — 15.06.25.

Coverage by Steve Dow in Art Guide on Mitch Cairns: Restless Legs at Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Of late, Cairns has dubbed his works “perfume paintings”, in the sense of “something entering the air, a sensory acknowledgement”."

Coverage in today's Sydney Morning Herald of Mitch Cairns' solo exhibition, Restless Legs, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, by Michaela Boland.

Mitch Cairns will be in conversation at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with curator Nick Yelverton on the occasion of his solo exhibition, Restless Legs. Wednesday 12.03.24, 6.30pm. Further details on AGNSW website.

Mitch Cairns’ Adelaide Painting from his solo presentation by The Commercial at Sydney Contemporary in 2024 has been acquired by Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is presenting a solo show by Mitch Cairns in 2025. Restless Legs will be Mitch Cairns’ first solo exhibition at the AGNSW. His paintings ‘take inspiration from the world outside his inner-city studio, from nature and the built environment to the working lives of the people around him. […] Questions of class, labour, communication and regionalism appear elsewhere in the exhibition along with tributes to literary influences.' exhibition: 08.03.25 — 09.06.25