I first visited Havana in November 2016, a few days after Fidel Castro died, and just under a year before Hurricane Irma hit Cuba in September 2017. Since then, much has changed, including the hand-painted signs that punctuate the journey from the airport to the city centre, which today do not celebrate the revolution so much as the 'Unidad y...

The exhibition Beyond Boundaries at Somerset House in London (12 March–2 April 2019) marked the historic contributions of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (CAFA) and the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, on the occasion of their 100th and 150th anniversaries, respectively. Spread across several rooms of Somerset House's...

The National 2019: New Australian Art features work by 70 contemporary Australia-based artists split across three venues: the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Carriageworks, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) (29 March–21 July 2019), as curated by Isobel Parker Philip, curator of photographs at AGNSW; Daniel Mudie Cunningham,...

Oliver Watts, Sydney-based artist, lecturer and curator, works across a range of media including painting, collage and video. Watts’ paintings are seductive, rich and complex. He paints with a restrained looseness, his mosaic-like brushstrokes languid and gestural. Permeating his works is the Australian landscape, the heat of the sun, the crunch of the forests and the deafening sound of cicadas.

Watts completed his PhD in art history and jurisprudence at the University of Sydney in 2009 and lectures at the College of Fine Arts (UNSW). He has been a selected entrant in prizes including the Mosman Art Prize, the Helen Lempriere Travelling Scholarship and the Brett Whitely Scholarship Exhibition and won the Noel Chettle Art Prize. He was a founding member of the Chaser Team, as cartoonist and illustrator.