Indigenous Australian art in the context of Dot painting

Australian art is a broad spectrum of art created in or about Australia, or by Australians overseas, spanning from prehistoric times to the present day. The art forms include, but are not limited to, Aboriginal, Colonial, Landscape, Atelier, and Contemporary art.

The visual arts in Australia have a rich and extensive history, with Aboriginal art dating back at least 30,000 years. The country has been the birthplace of many notable artists from both Western and Indigenous Australian schools. These include the late-19th-century Heidelberg School plein air painters, the Antipodeans, the Central Australian Hermannsburg School watercolorists, and the Western Desert Art Movement. The Australian art scene also features significant examples of High modernism and Postmodern art.

A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal cultures of Australia which mark the route followed by localised "creator-beings" in the Dreaming. The paths of the songlines are recorded in traditional song cycles, stories, dance, and art, and are often the basis of ceremonies.

Ubirr, once referred to as Obiri Rock, so-named by C. P. Mountford, is a rock formation within the East Alligator region of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia, and is known for its rock art. It consists of a group of rock outcrops on the edge of the Nadab floodplain where there are several natural shelters that have a collection of Aboriginal rock paintings, some of which are many thousands of years old. The art depicts certain creation ancestors as well as animals from the area such as barramundi, catfish, mullet, goannas, long-necked turtles, pig-nosed turtles, rock ringtail possums, and wallabies.

From the top of Ubirr rock there is a panoramic view of the floodplains and escarpments.

Gunbalanya (also spelt Kunbarlanja, and historically referred to as Oenpelli) is a town in west Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) east of Darwin. The main language spoken in the community is Kunwinjku (a dialect of Bininj Kunwok). At the 2021 Australian census, Gunbalanya had a population of 1,177, of largely Aboriginal Australian identity.

Only accessible by air during the wet season, Gunbalanya is known for its Aboriginal art, in particular rock art and bark painting. It has a range of services, including a police station, school and community arts centre, Injalak Arts.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most important public gallery in Sydney and one of the largest in Australia.

The gallery's first public exhibition opened in 1874. Admission is free to the general exhibition space, which displays Australian art (including Indigenous Australian art), European and Asian art. A dedicated Asian Gallery was opened in 2003.

Albert Namatjira (pronounced [namacɪra]; born Elea Namatjira; 28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the most notable Australian artists. As a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was arguably one of the most famous Indigenous Australians of his generation. He was the first Aboriginal artist to receive popularity from a wide Australian audience.

A member of the Western Arrernte people, Namatjira was born and raised at the remote Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission, 126 km west-southwest from Alice Springs. He showed interest in art from an early age but it was not until 1934 (aged 32) and under the guidance of Rex Battarbee that he began to paint seriously. Namatjira's richly detailed, Western art-influenced watercolours of the outback departed significantly from the abstract designs and symbols of traditional Aboriginal art, and inspired the Hermannsburg School of painting. He became a household name in Australia and reproductions of his works hung in many homes throughout the nation.