Newcastle Art Gallery has unveiled new exhibitions for this year, including rarely seen works by internationally renowned First Nations artist Brian Robinson.
On Friday, May 22, gallery director Lauretta Morton pulled back the curtains on the first three temporary exhibits from the 2026 program.
The temporary exhibitions by Brian Robinson, Tiyan Baker and a collection donated by philanthropists Simon Mordant and Catriona Mordant will open to the public on Saturday May 23.
Torres Strait Islander artist Robinson's work will feature in an exhibition called Multiverse, which brings together mythology, history and imaginations through linocut prints, larger-than-life sculptures and digital animation.
Robinson is known for his bold works of art and distinctive graphic language that combines Torres Strait design with contemporary concepts.
The Newcastle exhibit will feature the state premiere of his first immersive installation, Zugubal: The winds and the tides set the pace.
"Together, these works create a space where cultural knowledge, imagination, and transformation converge- a place where past, present, and future continue to move in rhythm with one another," Robinson said.
Tickets for his exhibition will cost $20 for adults, $18 for concession, $15 for tertiary students, and $8 for five to 17-year-olds.
Newcastle-based artist Tiyan Baker will launch her first major solo show with Mouth Mnemonica. Her multi-channel video work centres on her mother's endangered language, Bukar, which is spoken by the Bukar Bidayh people in south-western Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.
Baker said it was an honour to share her family's stories and culture through the exhibition.
"This new body of work combines my poetic verse and my mum's with found records of our oral poetry culture before colonisation, creating an intergenerational poem about forgetting, remembering and what we pass down over generations," she said.
Gallery-goers on Saturday will get a first look at works donated by philanthropists Simon Mordant and Catriona Mordant, which highlights 26 works by 16 local, national and global artists.
Ms Morton said launching the shows was an exciting milestone for the reimagined gallery.
"We are thrilled to now be moving into our ambitious 2026 program, which will showcase significant exhibitions from local, national and internationally renowned artists," she said.
Ms Morton said the collection works would remain in the ground floor galleries and in three gallery spaces upstairs, while temporary exhibits would go in the remaining spaces.
"The expansion of the gallery opens up opportunities to explore exhibitions of a size, scale and number that we were previously unable to present due to the limitations of our original building," she said.
The new exhibitions mark the first changeover at the gallery since it fully reopened in February after the expansion project.
The expansion took the building from five to 13 galleries and included a new cafe and shop, and multipurpose and educational program spaces.
The Newcastle Herald reported in April that more than 80,000 people had walked through the doors since September last year, more than 70 per cent of those since the expansion opened in February.
