Art Gallery at Ballarat

Sex, politics, religion, fashion, doctors and lawyers - everything is up for grabs through the eyes of the cartoonist.

In Your Face! is an exhibition celebrating the tradition of making social and political comment in the form of the cartoon and caricature about current affairs.

Drawn largely from the Art Gallery of Ballarat's own collection of cartoons and caricatures, In Your Face! combines a look back to Australian cartooning's British roots, with the work of satirists such as William Hogarth and James Gillray, and the turbulent world of colonial satire with insights into contemporary society and politics through the unique vision of such household names as Nicholson, Tandberg, Leunig and Spooner.

In this journey through two centuries of cartooning visitors will discover a range of themes, including John Spooner's personal selection of his favourite cartoons by the great 18th century artist James Gillray.

It will also celebrate the things that have tickled funny bones from the goldfields era to today: visitors may in fact be surprised to discover that the things which amuse, annoy, terrify and bamboozle us are in many cases the same as those which exercised the minds of our ancestors 200 years ago.

Sex, politics, religion, fashion, doctors and lawyers - everything is up for grabs through the eyes of the cartoonist. In Your Face! is an exhibition celebrating the tradition of making social and political comment in the form of the cartoon and caricature about current affairs. In Your Face! combines a look back to Australian cartooning's British roots, with the work of satirists such as William Hogarth and James Gillray, and the turbulent world of colonial satire with insights into contemporary society and politics through the unique vision of such household names as Nicholson, Tandberg, Leunig and Spooner.