This exhibition spans from the 1980s until the present, with new acquisitions by Melbourne-based photomedia artists Destiny Deacon and Bindi Cole Chocka among the highlights.
Who's Afraid of Colour represents the broad range of Indigenous arts practice in Australia, from the late Emily Kam Kngwarreye’s paintings of Alhalkere country and the ‘Big Yam Dreaming’, to Margaret Rarru’s pandanus baskets from Elcho Island (Northern Territory), Samantha Hobson's abstract paintings, and Yhonnie Scarce’s glass sculptures inspired by the ravages of nuclear testing on her people and country, near Maralinga.
This exhibition is also a reaction, 35 years after the fact, to the NGV's 1981 exhibition Aboriginal Australia, which did not include a single named female Indigenous artist.