This NAIDOC Week, Museums & Galleries of NSW celebrates the strength, creativity and cultural leadership of First Nations artists and curators featured across our national touring exhibitions program. Through powerful contemporary artworks, these exhibitions invite audiences to engage with diverse First Nations perspectives, histories and connections to Country.
Explore where these exhibitions are currently touring and celebrate the voices and stories of First Nations artists this NAIDOC Week.
Primavera 2023: Young Australian Artists
Currently on until 26 July at Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, SA
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s annual Primavera: Young Australian Artists exhibition showcases the work of Australian artists aged 35 years and under. In its 32nd year, Primavera has been guest curated by Talia Smith, who considers what artists are creating to challenge society’s prescribed structures.
Christopher Bassi, Monuments to the South/West Waters of a Great Ocean, 2023. Series of 9 works.
Christopher Bassi is an artist of Meriam, Yupungathi and British descent. Working with archetypal models of representational painting, his work engages with the medium as sociological and historical text and as a means of addressing issues surrounding cultural identity, alternative genealogies, and colonial legacies in Australia and the South Pacific.
Moorina Bonini, dapalama (between), 2023. Series of five vinyl texts.
Moorina Bonini is a descendant of the Yorta Yorta Dhulunyagen family clan of Ulupna and the Yorta Yorta, Wurundjeri, and Wiradjuri Briggs/McCrae family. An artist whose works are informed by her experiences as an Aboriginal and Italian woman, her practice attempts to disrupt and critique Eurocentric ideas of the Indigenous, especially within western institutions.
Dennis Golding | POWER – The Future is Here
On until 22 August South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA), NSW
POWER – The Future is Here is the result of a collaboration between artist Dennis Golding and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from Alexandria Park Community School.
As superheroes, Golding and his young collaborators are empowered and reminded of the strength of their culture in forming their identity and connection to Country. Individually and together, the capes critique social, political and cultural representations of contemporary First Nations experience.
Artist Dennis Golding
Golding is a Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist from the north west of NSW and was born and raised on Gadigal Land (Redfern, Sydney). Working in a range of mixed media including painting, video, photography and installation, Golding critiques the social, political and cultural representations of race and identity. His practice is drawn from his own experiences living in urban environments and through childhood memories.
Curator Kyra Kum-Sing
Kyra Kum-Sing is a Malera Bandjalan, Mitakoodi woman. Kyra has paved a unique and important path within the arts as both an artist and curator. Kyra is the curator at Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative and has curated a number of significant and acclaimed exhibitions.
Dr Christian Thompson AO | House of Gold
On until 13 September at Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, QLD
Dr Christian Thompson AO is a Bidjara/Irish/Chinese-Australian contemporary artist whose work explores notions of identity, cultural hybridity & history. Formally trained as a sculptor, Thompson’s multidisciplinary practice engages mediums such as photography, video, sculpture, performance & sound. His work focuses on the exploration of identity, sexuality, gender, race and memory. In his live performances and conceptual portraits he inhabits a range of personas achieved through handcrafted costumes & carefully orchestrated poses & backdrops.
