HI-VIS: AUSTRALIAN POSTERS 1979–2019 is an exhibition of screen-printed posters that provide a visual commentary of politics and life in Australia over the last four decades. Renowned for their high visibility, particularly in the 1980s with their saturated fluorescent colors, these posters describe the times and events that have engaged socially active artists throughout recent periods of major change.

Many of the topics addressed in these posters remain relevant today including Indigenous rights, gender politics, unemployment, and the environment. Contemporary Australian artists are reinvigorating the screen printed poster as a form of protest and information sharing by pasting the work onto the wall and value adding to its potency by posting on social media.

These wonderful posters, with their ability to encapsulate ideas into a single image, continue to provoke debate, galvanize ideas into action, and invigorate those working toward an equitable and just society.

From the collection of Alison Alder.

Poster credits for the above, clockwise from top left: Alison Alder and Leonie Lane, Redback Graphix, Art and Working Life Festival, 1985, Screenprint; Michael Callaghan, Redback Graphix, What Now Mr Mao, Dance?, 1979, Screenprint; Colin Russell, Alison Alder and Neil Roberts, Megalo Print Studio, Greetings from Canberra, 1983, Screenprint;Wendy Murray, We All Need Nuclear Energy, 2011, Screenprint; Gregor Cullen, Redback Graphix, The Workplace is No Place for Racism, 1985, Screenprint.