Free exhibitions are a great way to encounter art, whether it is at your local gallery or a big institution.
Here is a hand-picked list of free exhibitions in SA this August.
Free exhibitions: quick links
South Australian Living Artists (SALA) Festival (1-31 August)
SALA is an open-access visual arts festival that runs throughout August across the state. Over 700 events are included in the program this year and the vast majority are free exhibitions.
Highlights include 2025 SALA Feature artist Sue Kneebone’s The Last Tide Waiter at Adelaide Central Gallery and Way Too Wild at Art Gallery of South Australia, The Garden of Un/Belonging by Sahr Bashir at Walkerville Town Hall, Got a Light? featuring miniature works by Joshua Smith at Gallery Flaneur and Pukarari: Slow down at Adelaide Town Hall.
Opening times vary; check individual exhibitions for more info.
Mark Valenzuela: Bantay-Salakay at Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (2 August to 20 September)
In Bantay-Salakay, Valenzuela explores the offensive and defensive strategies embedded in our environments, and the role of power in determining whether these strategies represent resistance or oppression. Audiences will enter a hostile environment of spikes, weeds, walls, shards, and noise, in an installation that combines ceramics, steel, timber, textiles, sound, and more.
Opening night 1 August 5-7pm; exhibition open Tuesday to Saturday 11am-4pm.
Zaachariaha Fielding: Ngangkali (Night Sky) and World Expo 2025 at Hugo Michell Gallery (until 16 August)
Zaachariaha Fielding’s Ngangkali (Night Sky) continues his exploration of ancestral narratives and songlines. His paintings pay homage to his inherited Tjukurpa (ancestral knowledge and law) through a vivid palette and expressive use of Pitjantjatjara language. Fielding was winner of the Wynne Art Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2023.
World Expo 2025 featuring Daniel To and Emma Aiston captures the unique moments intertwined with exploring new places and the experiences shared, resulting in a still life scene of furniture and objects embodying magic memories.
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday 11am-4pm.
Ramsay Art Prize 2025 at Art Gallery of South Australia (until 31 August)
The Ramsay Art Prize is Australia’s most generous prize for Australian artists under 40, this year selecting Jack Ball as its winner. Ball’s work, Heavy Grit, was developed in response to a collection of scrapbooks held by the Australian Queer Archives. Check out the exhibition featuring 22 finalists.
Also on view until 17 August is another at AGSA is 50 years of Donald Judd’s Untitled, 1974-75. AGSA regularly presents free exhibitions.
Open everyday 10am-5pm.
Erin Renfrey: Once Upon a Lemon Drop at The Mill (until 5 September)
Once Upon a Lemon Drop is a new solo exhibition by watercolour artist Erin Renfrey. Invoking a sense of childlike curiosity, her compositions encourage viewers to see the world through new eyes.
Open Monday to Friday 10am-4pm.
JamFactory ICON 2025 Aunty Ellen Trevorrow at JamFactory (until 14 September)
JamFactory’s ICON series celebrates the achievements of South Australia’s most influential visual artists working in craft-based media. Aunty Ellen Trevorrow is a proud Ngarrindjeri woman and a prolific, internationally acclaimed weaver with over 40 years of weaving experience. Weaving through Time is a celebration of Aunty Ellen’s unwavering dedication to culture, community and innovation in contemporary Ngarrindjeri weaving.
Open everyday 11am-5pm.
Frank Bauer at Samstag Museum of Art (until 29 September)
Focusing on the sculptural nature of Bauer’s practice, this major exhibition of metal and light works considers matters of movement, longevity, repetition and change – both in an artist’s long career and, more broadly, in our everyday.
Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am-5pm
Ride on, shine on: The East Kimberley Art Movement at SA Museum (until 14 December)
Ride on, shine on: The East Kimberley Art Movement showcases 14 precious early paintings by the founding members of the contemporary East Kimberley art movement of Western Australia, representing the beginnings of what became a major episode in Australian art.
Open everyday 10am-5pm.
