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.
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Migrating Modernism Talks

Calling student art and architecture enthusiasts - apply now to deliver a floor talk at the Chau Chak Wing Museum!

A photograph of the Cité Internationale des Arts

2026 Paris Art Residency Fellows

Meet the artists who will be staying at our Paris studio in 2026.

Books

All books
Cover of Paul B. Jaskot's book The Tyranny of the Object

The Tyranny of the Object: An Introduction to the Barbarism of Art History
By: Paul B. Jaskot

$35.00AUD
'It is by seeing the roles culture takes in various human struggles for power and resources that we can also make out the shape of systems in all of their oppressive structure. Let us put that at the centre of our art-historical analysis. [...] Let us examine the barbarism supported by and emanating from art.' —Paul B. Jaskot
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, and the definitive reference for Young’s transformative recent practice and its urgent reckoning with history as unfinished business.

Digital publications

All projects
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The Womanifesto Way

The Womanifesto Way is a Digital Edition by Power Publications. It allows the reader to explore the history of Womanifesto a women-centred arts collective that began in Thailand in 1995, through essays, images, videos and networked connections.

The Imperial City in Hue, Vietnam.

Site and Space in Southeast Asia

Site and Space in Southeast Asia explores the intersections of urban space, art and culture in three cities—Yangon, Penang, and Huế—through collaborative, site-based research.