Mitch Cairns: Artist's Mouth

Signed Edition

Published by the National Art School (NAS) and Institute of Modern Art (IMA) to accompany the major survey exhibition Mitch Cairns: Artist’s Mouth, this catalogue is the first dedicated publication on the Sydney-based artist’s career. Since graduating from NAS in 2006, Cairns has become a key figure in Australian art, developing a rich, cross-referenced practice spanning painting, drawing, printmaking, and concrete poetry. Featuring essays by curators Lucy Latella and Robert Leonard, alongside commissioned texts by Dr Wes Hill and Dr Kate Lilley, the book is richly illustrated with colour reproductions of Cairns’ works—including his painting plates in print for the first time—along with a comprehensive biography and list of works. It also includes the first edition of Cairns’s poetry collection, Penne & Other Shorter Written Works. 

Artist’s Mouth is the most comprehensive presentation of Cairns’s work to date. It brings together works from major public and private collections across Australia, charting two decades of practice from student work to recent series, including his 2017 Archibald Prize–winning portrait. While his distinctive visual language draws on early modernism, it is animated by humour, personal narrative, and contemporary references, offering insight into the complexity of his inquiry. Developed as a joint project with IMA, Meanjin/Brisbane, the exhibition marks the twentieth anniversary of both Cairns’s graduation and the opening of NAS Gallery.