Primavera – Young Australian Artists
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.
Through works of various media, including installation, video, painting, sculpture, mark-making and text, the six artists – Tiyan Baker, Christopher Bassi, Moorina Bonini, Nikki Lam, Sarah Poulgrain and Truc Truong – draw on their lived experience to disrupt the dynamics of power and deliver compelling alternatives to the status quo.
Primavera was initiated in 1992 by MCA Australia in collaboration with Dr Edward Jackson AM and Mrs Cynthia Jackson AM, in memory of their daughter Belinda. Since its inception, Primavera has played an influential role in the development of contemporary art in Australia, introducing a generation of artists at an early stage of their careers to a broader public. Each year the curator of Primavera undertakes extensive research, travelling across the country to meet young artists.
Visit the Primavera website here.
About the Artists
Tiyan Baker
Tiyan Baker is a Malaysian Bidayǔh-Anglo Australian artist who works with installation, photography, video, and sculpture. Her practice draws on historical research, language, digital processes, and material play to trace unseen relationships between words, place, and stories.
Christopher Bassi
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
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.
Nikki Lam
Nikki Lam is a Hong Kong-born artist, curator and producer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Working primarily with moving images, her work explores hybridity and memory through the contemplation of time, space and impermanence.
Sarah Poulgrain
Sarah Poulgrain’s practice draws on self-sustainability and artist-led pedagogy to expand what art institutions can do. Though they produce sculptures, their practice is primarily concerned with building and sustaining respectful and non-hierarchical relationships.
Truc Truong
Truc Truong is a visual artist based on Peramangk and Kaurna Country, Adelaide. Her art practice is primarily focused on assemblage and installation.
About the Curator
Talia Smith is an artist and curator from Aotearoa who is now based in Sydney, Australia. She has curated exhibitions for organisations such as the Singapore International Photography Festival, IMA, UTS Gallery, Ballarat Foto Biennale and Cement Fondu among others. Her writing has appeared in various publications such as Memo Review, Art New Zealand and artist catalogue essays and books. She has completed research residencies in Singapore and Germany and currently works as the curator at Blacktown Arts.
- Previously AtThe Condensery - Somerset Regional Art Gallery (QLD)13th July - 1st September 2024
- Previously At: Noosa Regional Gallery (QLD)14th September - 3rd November 2024
- Previously At: Cowra Regional Art Gallery (NSW)15th December 2024 - 2nd February 2025
- Previously At: Goulburn Regional Art Gallery (NSW)14th February - 22nd March 2025
- Previously At: Bank Art Museum Moree | BAMM (NSW)4th April - 31st May 2025
- Previously At: Blue Mountains Cultural Centre (NSW)21st June - 10th August 2025
- Previously At: Wangaratta Art Gallery (VIC)23rd August - 19th October 2025
- Previously At: Glasshouse Regional Gallery (NSW)14th February - 19th April 2026
- Previously At: Murray Bridge Regional Gallery (SA)6th June - 26th July 2026
Map showing NETS exhibition tour locations across Australia. A text list of the locations follows.
- The Condensery - Somerset Regional Art Gallery (QLD)
- Noosa Regional Gallery (QLD)
- Cowra Regional Art Gallery (NSW)
- Goulburn Regional Art Gallery (NSW)
- Bank Art Museum Moree | BAMM (NSW)
- Blue Mountains Cultural Centre (NSW)
- Wangaratta Art Gallery (VIC)
- Glasshouse Regional Gallery (NSW)
- Murray Bridge Regional Gallery (SA)