Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
4TH NATIONAL INDIGENOUS
ART TRIENNIAL
CEREMONY
27 January - 19 May 2024
Ceremony remains central to the creative practice of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. This exhibition and program of events will animate and heal to reveal how ceremony is at the nexus of Country, of culture and of community.
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From the intimate and personal to the collective and collaborative, ceremonies manifest through visual art, film, music and dance. Ceremonial practice has a performative element. At its heart is the concept of iteration, the artist’s conscious engagement with what has come before. Iteration can be expressed in the painted minutiae of tali (sandhills) or the click of a shutter.
The Triennial is the National Gallery’s flagship exhibition of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. The National Indigenous Art Triennial is made possible through the continued generosity of the National Gallery’s Indigenous Arts Partner Wesfarmers Arts and key philanthropic supporters.
Curated by Hetti Perkins, Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples, Senior Curator-at-large, with National Gallery Curators
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OPENING EVENT: 10 February 2024, 2pm
Image credit: Joel Bray, Wiradjuri people, Giraaru Galing Gaanhagirri (still), 2022, commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony, created in consultation with Uncle James Ingram and Wagga Wagga Elders, and with support from City of Melbourne, Phillip Keir and Sarah Benjamin (the Keir Foundation), City of Port Phillip, Create NSW, Blacktown Arts, Arts Centre Melbourne, and Yirramboi Festival 2020, image courtesy and © the artist
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THE BEST OF THE BALD ARCHY PRIZE
20 April - 11 August 2024
​The Bald Archy Prize, is a comic portrait competition established to satirise similar art competitions, such as the renowned Archibald Prize. It has grown to become one of the leading art events on the Australian Art calendar. These irreverent and provocative caricatures of news worthy Australians, are now held permanently by the Museum of the Riverina. The Best of the Baldy Archy Prize is a survey exhibitions featuring past winners from the last 15 years.
Image Credit: Marty Steel, Never a Dull Moment, 2023, Acrylic on paper. Image courtesy © Museum of the Riverina
FROM THE VAULT
BEST IN SHOW:
150 YEARS OF THE DUBBO SHOW
16 October 2023 - 5 May 2024
Are you going to the show? - a question asked each year as the Dubbo showground is transformed, with rides and stalls, animals and ribbons, handmade cakes, quilts and of course the Dagwood Dog.
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The Show, a distinctly Australian event, is more than just an agricultural festival promoting farming and produce, it offers a blend of entertainment, commerce, and education that celebrates our communities. Even today, more Australian’s visit their local show each year than any other single event. This year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Dubbo Show with an exhibition that explores the history and significance of this cultural icon.
From the Vault is supported by Create NSW
Curated by Simone Taylor
Image Credit: L-R: Simone Taylor, Dubbo Show 2023, Dubbo Regional Council; Photographer Unknown, Horse and rider in demonstration, Dubbo Agricultural Show, April 1932. Local studies Collection, Dubbo Regional Council, 1994_425_PHO/ Simone Taylor, Dubbo Show 2023, Dubbo Regional Council
FROM THE VAULT
A WOMAN'S PLACE
10 May - 8 November 2024
This exhibition will explore the stories of three local women of Dubbo, from three different time periods dating from the late 1800s through to the 1940s. The stories of these women reflect a broader discussion around women’s roles in the public sphere.
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Mrs Blanche Soane was a prominent Suffragette, Nurse Mary Adams, the Matron of a Lying Hospital, and Mrs ‘Kep’ Wilkins, a prominent producers and organiser in Dubbo’s Theatrical community, how do we understand such prominent and respected local women in an era when it was firmly held view that a ‘woman’s place’ was in the home?
From the Vault is supported by Create NSW
Curated by Simone Taylor
​Image Credit: Photographer Unknown, Group portrait of nurses including Mary McDonald, later Matron Adams, Local Studies Collection, Dubbo Regional Council, 2015_222_PHO
YEAR OF PACKAGING
WASTE 2 ART
25 May - 21 July 2024
Waste 2 Art is an annual community art exhibition and competition that features artworks created by community members using recycled and unwanted materials. The results are imaginative and thought-provoking with the artworks showcasing recycling and sustainable living.
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With this creative use of waste materials, Waste 2 Art also provides an innovative approach to waste education. Schools and community groups take up the challenge and create artworks out of materials that might otherwise be thrown away.
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The theme for this year's exhibition is Packaging.
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Dubbo Regional Council is a proud NetWaste member and supports commitment to re-use and recycle through creative expression.
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OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 1 June, 2pm
Image Credit: Jemima Tink, Dancing Queen, 2023, Mixed Media- Coles plastic bags, chicken wire, papier mache, baling twine and Coke cans, image courtesy of Dubbo Regional Council
JODI CRAMOND
ORNIBIOGRAPHY
25 May - 15 September 2024
Ornibiography is a mixed media exhibition by Dubbo-based artist Jodi Cramond that explores her relationships with birds and the similarities she views between her struggles with mental health and how society perceives beauty. Cramond’s practice incorporates mediums such as clay, paint and carbon to transform and challenge society’s perception and definition of societal beauty standards. Ornibiography is a body of work that highlights the delicate and fragile nature of birds in relation to the human psyche, emphasising and appreciating their idiosyncrasies, as a way to transform current societal perceptions.
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Curated by Mariam Abboud.
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This is a HomeGround exhibition, produced by the WPCC and supported by Orana Arts. HomeGround is sponsored by Wingewarra Dental.
Image Credit : Jodi Cramond, Collection of Birds, 2023, BRT clay with underglaze and glaze. Image courtesy © artist
RAUSCHENBERG AND JOHNS
SIGNIFICANT OTHERS
1 June - 15 September 2024
Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns are considered two of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. While their work is credited with changing the course of American art history, their individual artistic styles are a result of a private creative dialogue that began when they were young artists in a relationship. Deliberately moving against the grain of Abstract Expressionism, the dominant art movement of the time, became the crucible for both their lifelong practices.
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Rauschenberg and Johns: Significant Others draws upon the National Gallery’s Kenneth Tyler Collection of prints by both Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns produced between 1968 – 1973.
Image credit: Jasper Johns, Figure 7 from Color numeral series, 1968–69, published by Gemini Graphic Editions Limited, Los Angeles, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1973 © Jasper Johns/Copyright Agency, 2023
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LIFE AT HOME IN A WORLD AT WAR
CAPTURING THE HOME FRONT
17 August - 17 November 2024
Famous American photographer Dorothea Lange established her reputation as a documentarian when she was commissioned by the government to travel the United States in the 1930s to capture and reveal the devastation wrought on Americans by The Great Depression.
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During WWII Lange was commissioned by the US Office of War Information to photograph America’s factories, shipyards and farms as the nation went to war.
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Her unvarnished depictions of the forced internment of Japanese Americans from coastal California to inland camps in 1942 were considered too realistic and raw for public consumption and Ansel Adams was commissioned to document the desolate camp at Manzanar in a better light.
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In Australia photographers Sam Hood, William Cranstone, Jim Fitzpatrick and Hedley Cullen captured the WWII home front, the sad farewells, the factories, the country towns and our remote internment camps for Japanese and other enemy aliens.
Produced by the Australian National Maritime Museum.
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An exhibition supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund.
Image Credit: Smiling Soldier, Edward Cranstone (Reproduction). Collection Australian War Memorial.
WYNNE PRIZE 2024
28 September - 24 November 2024
The annual Wynne Prize was first awarded in 1897 in honour of the official opening of the Art Gallery of New South Wales at its present site.
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Judged by the trustees of the Art Gallery, the prize is awarded to the best landscape painting of Australian scenery or for the best example of figure sculpture by an Australian artist.
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The Wynne Prize reflects the diversity of figurative sculptural practice, while the paintings are a dynamic reflection of Australian artists’ response to the land, reflecting contemporary aesthetics, environmental and stewardship concerns, and conceptions of Country.
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This touring exhibition is an opportunity to see the finalists in the Wynne Prize 2024.
PEOPLE PLACES POSSESSIONS
DUBBO STORIES
Permanent Exhibition
The history of Dubbo told through the people who lived here. Stories of hardship, perseverance, ingenuity, tragedy and joy – Dubbo’s past is at once surprising and enlightening.
Telling the story of a place and its people is made easier by examining the myriad of ways we document, express and articulate our experiences. For a museum, the photographs, books, objects and official records help us to record history. The archives held by the WPCC allow community members to access this material for research or general interest. From diaries and ledgers to photographs that transport us back in time, the WPCC Collection provides a unique portal to our past.
Image Credit: Maker unknown, Shoe – Female – Chinese, date unknown. Red satin. Braid edging continues down to the toe. Calico sole with embroidery under the heel. Bird and flower embroidery. Orange tie embroidered in shades of blue. Designed for the custom of bound feet. Collection WPCC.