The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

Traversing time and space, Wurrdha Marra is an ongoing exhibition celebrating the diversity of First Nations art and design. Since late 2023, the ground floor and foyer of the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia has become home to a dynamic and ever-changing exhibition space that displays masterpieces and never-before-shown works from the NGV’s First Nations collection. Translating to ‘many mobs’ in the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung language, Wurrdha Marra showcases pieces from emerging and established artists from across Australia, including Tony Abert, Treahna Hamn, Kent Morris, Marlene Gilson, Rover Thomas, Christian Thompson, Gary Lee, Nicole Monks, Gali Yalkarriwuy, Dhambit Mungunggurr, Nonggirrnga Marawili and more.  Highlights of the free exhibition include a large-scale installation of fish traps produced by Burrara women from Maningrida – the objects have been crafted over weeks using vines from the bush. Also on display is a new collection of contemporary resin boomerangs by Keemon Williams, a First Nations queer artist hailing from Meanjin/Brisbane. Another unseen work is titled History Repeats by Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku Yalanji contemporary artist Tony Albert, who has used mass-produced objects – from tea towels to ashtrays – to reframe Indigenous histories.  More recently, the exhibition has been updated to include the largest-ever display of the NGV's expansive collection of bark paintings. Bark Salon subverts the traditional European salons of the 18th and 19th...

If you've ever come face to face with an Atong Atem photograph, there's probably still a part of your brain that remembers it. These vibrant self-portraits vibrate with technicolour hues and often showcase her South Sudanese culture, seamlessly blending history, heritage and a vivid transendence that genuinely stops you in your tracks. Using her own body as the ultimate canvas, Atem morphs herself into a kind of mythological storyteller, creating rich worlds that sing with memory, myth and political commentary, always underpinned by a celebration of the beauty of her Dinka Bor culture and Melbourne's African diaspora. It's wildly colourful, deeply thought provoking and utterly unexpected.  Atong Atem's work has made waves all over the world, but now, in an exciting world premiere, the NGV is set to stage her first-ever major solo exhibition in the city she calls home. Opening on October 30, Passage: The Art of Atong Atem will showcase bespoke works, as well as a number of other series that are getting either their Australian or world debut moment. We're talking more than 65 pieces all up, which will be the most comprehensive collection of Atem's art on record.  Running until May next year, the exhibition will center around the theme of journeys and movement. This is a personal exploration for Atem, who was born to South Sudanese parents in Ethiopia, immigrating with her family to Australia in 1997. Atem's work taps deeply into the memories and mythologies of migration...