A painting of space

Welcome to the Power Institute. 

We are a Foundation based at the University of Sydney dedicated to understanding the visual world, through art and visual culture. We support research, publish texts, and organise events.

JW Power, [Untitled], c. 1938, Chau Chak Wing Museum, PW1961.347.

Events

More events
A man looks at an abstract artwork

Wed, 24 September 2025

12:30PM

Big Power Talks #2

Leighlyn Aguilar, Taleah Rust, and Valesca de Jongh

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Thu, 9 October 2025

3:00PM

Tania Bruguera’s Permanent Revolution

Hilary Thurlow

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Olga Boichak, Michael Richardson, and Ann Elias

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Wed, 29 October 2025

6:00PM

Survival as Care in Hong Kong Art

Yeewan Koon

Geometric instruments still life, ogee panel, c.1939

JW Power: Artist, Benefactor and Legacy

The Schaeffer Fine Arts Library is honoured to present an exhibition "J.W. Power: Art, war and the avant-garde", curated in collaboration with the Chau Chak Wing Museum and Fisher Library, celebrating the life and legacy of JW Power.

The logo for Blue Art Journal

Power Institute supports Blue Art Journal

Blue Art Journal is the first publication in Australia dedicated to critical writing about local and global First Nations art. With support from the University and its Power Institute, the journal will revolutionise how we think about Indigenous art.

A photograph of Dipti Khera superimposed on a watercolour drawing on paper.

Scholar in Residence: Dipti Khera

The Power Institute is proud to be hosting Dipti Khera as our 2025 Sydney Asian Art Series Scholar in Residence.

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Celebrating 25 Years of the Schaeffer Fine Arts Library

On Thursday, 22 May 2025, the Schaeffer Fine Arts Library proudly celebrated a major milestone — 25 years of inspiring scholarship, creativity, and cultural memory.

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Schaeffer Library imagines its future

The Power Institute’s Schaeffer Fine Art Library at the University of Sydney, which opened in 2000, is marking its 25th anniversary with a celebration of its past and a bold vision for what research on art and visual culture will look like in the future.  

Schaeffer Fine Art Library

More about the library
Geometric instruments still life, ogee panel, c. 1939 [oil on board, PW1961.119.1, Chau Chak Wing Museum]

Mon, 1 September 2025

9:00PM

JW Power: Artist, Benefactor, and Legacy

The Archive in Diaspora

Mon, 1 September 2025

9:00PM

Curating New Perspectives

Books

All books
John Young History Projects Cover

John Young: The History Projects
By: Olivier Krischer

$50.00AUD
Between 2005 and 2019, Hong Kong-born Australian artist John Young Zerunge created 11 art series which he called ‘The History Projects’. This book is a critical guide to this expansive body of artworks, which explore diasporic memory, transcultural identity, and what Young describes as an ‘ethical responsibility’ towards the past. Featuring more than 400 images, and a wide variety of texts—including new essays and interviews, key republished articles, poetry, artist reflections, and diary pages—this book is a definitive reference for Young’s transformative recent practice and its urgent reckoning with history as unfinished business.
Ian_Burn_Collected_Writings_1966-1993_Front_Cover

Ian Burn: Collected Writings 1966–1993
By: Ann Stephen

$49.00AUD
Ian Burn has been described as many things: an activist, a trade-unionist, a journalist, an art critic, a curator and an art historian—or, as he once described himself in a moment of self-deprecating alienation, ‘an ex-conceptual artist’. Edited by Burn’s friend, frequent collaborator and eminent art historian, Dr Ann Stephen, this volume brings together 49 pieces of Burn’s own agile and expansive writings alongside a vast collection of his artworks. The collection concludes with reflections on Burn’s life and work from prominent figures and past collaborators in the form of memorial lectures.