Exhibitions Open to the Public
Once Known
Opened for the first time at the Old Perth Boys’ School, Once Known, presents a selection of meticulous reproductions of the delicate and treasured artworks created by Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families and detained at the Carrolup Native Settlement in the 1940s.
Mamang-miyel-ang Djinang / Seeing with the whale’s eye
An exhibition of illustrations from the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories mob from the South Coast of Western Australia
Upcoming Events
Fantastic Forms Curator Tour
Join us for a Curator Tour with ‘Fantastic Forms’ Curator, Sophie O’Brien
Twilight Hours at JCG
Open until 7pm, visit us for a twilight viewing at JCG
Dirt Feeling Curator Tour
Join us for a Curator Tour with ‘Dirt Feeling’ Curator, Lia McKnight
Everyday Myths and Legends Curator Tour
Join us for a Curator Tour with ‘Everyday Myths and Legends’ Curator, Susanna Castleden
Upcoming Exhibitions
Fantastic Forms
A touring exhibition from the Bundanon Collection, in dialogue with new drawings, ceramics, sculptures and animation.
Dirt Feeling
Featuring ceramics works from the Curtin University Art Collection
Everyday, Myths and Legends
An exhibition of works from the Curtin University Art Collection that explore everyday mythmaking.
Kattidj Nagãr [Peaceful Quiet Reflection]
Kattidj Nagãr features artworks and personal objects created by the children who were forcibly removed from their families and detained at the Carrolup Native Settlement in the 1940s
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🎨 Fantastic Forms Curator Tour!
Don’t miss this chance to dive deeper into Fantastic Forms and hear directly from one of its curators.
🗓️ Friday, October 3 | 2:00pm – 3:00pm
📍John Curtin Gallery: Free, open to public
🔗 Registration required: Link in bio!
Colourful, swaying forms — join us for an exciting curator tour with Sophie O’Brien (Head of Curatorial and Learning at Bundanon, and co-curator of Fantastic Forms) as she shares insights into the exhibition’s vision, selection and storytelling.
@australianceramicstriennale @curtinbfagrads @bundanontrust
Fantastic Forms is a Bundanon touring exhibition. This exhibition is supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
Photo: Zan Wimberley.
#JohnCurtinGallery #CuratorTour #FantasticForms #PerthArt #GalleryEvent
Join us this Thursday October 2 for the opening night of three new exhibitions! 🙌
🎨 Fantastic Forms: A celebration of endless imagination (on tour from @bundanontrust).
🎨 Dirt Feeling: Exploring the sensual qualities of clay with works by 70+ artists (curated by @lia_mcknight ).
🎨 Everyday, Myths and Legends: @curtinalumni share stories from real and imagined worlds (curated by @susannacastleden ).
📅 Thursday October 2
🕕 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Free event, open to the public
📍 John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University
✨Join us for an evening of art, ideas and celebration, we’d love to see you there!
🔗 Link in bio to RSVP / event details
#JohnCurtinGallery #PerthArt #ContemporaryArt#ExhibitionOpening
Open from October 3 ✨ Embrace the joy of artmaking and its connection to everyday life with three new exhibitions.
🎨 Fantastic Forms, Dirt Feeling & Everyday, Myths and Legends.
✨ Fantastic Forms — a celebration of endless imagination (on tour from @bundanontrust).
✨ Dirt Feeling — attune to the sensual qulaities of clay with a showcase of over 70 artists (curated by @lia_mcknight).
✨ Everyday, Myths and Legends — Curtin alumni exposé into stories, experiences, and insights into imagined and real worlds. (curated by @susannacastleden).
🔗 Link in bio!
Fantastic Froms is a Bundanon touring exhibition. This exhibition is supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
All works in Dirt Feeling and EML are courtesy of the Curtin University Art Collection. This exhibition is made possible through the support of The Navigators.
@curtinalumni @curtinlifeaustralia @curtinbfagrads
#JohnCurtinGallery #PerthArt #ContemporaryArt #ExhibitionOpening
We want you 🫵 to come see us 139 St Georges Terrace!
Not only is it Perth`s oldest educational landmark (Old Perth Boys` School), it`s currently home to Once Known, a Carrolup Centre for Truth-telling exhibition presented by the John Curtin Gallery!
This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see the extraordinary reproductions of the fragile artworks created by children forcibly taken from their families and detained at the Carrolup Native Settlement in the 1940s.
⏰ Open 11am - 4pm. Closed Wednesdays and Weekends.
🎟️ Free entry, open to the public.
📷 - Marnie Richardson.
Proudly supported by: @bfplperth @lotterywest @inside_bhp @colgateuniversity and #navigators
The Herbert Mayer Collection of Carrolup Artwork was generously donated for educational and research purposes by Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA.
#BridgingNowtoNext #OnceKnown #NAIDOC #OldPerthBoysSchool #exhibition #StolenGeneration #Carrolup #CarrolupCentreForTruthTelling #CarrolupCentre #CarrolupArt #FirstNations #AboriginalArt #Noongar #Nyungar #Indigenous #Aboriginal #Heritage #Identity #Belonging #Colonisation #CurtinUniversity #WesternAustralia #JohnCurtinGallery #ColgateUniversity #alwayswasalwayswillbe
That`s a wrap! 👏
Our production and collection teams have been hard at work deinstalling our Makuru exhibitions, Nan Goldin: The ballad of sexual dependency and James Tylor - Turrangka...in the shadows.
While we`re sad to see them go, we can`t wait to bring our next set of exhibitions to you on October 3. 👀
🔗 - Find out what`s coming via the link in our bio.
Thanks to @jamesptylor and @nationalgalleryaus for making Makuru at JCG special!
#NanGoldin #ArtAcrossAustralia #art #photography #firstnationsart #JamesTylor #Turrangkaintheshadows #johncurtingallery #photoraphy #curtinuniversity
Let`s take a final scroll through Nan Goldin: The ballad of sexual dependency ➡️
A gift to her community, made up of everything from artists and musicians, to actors and filmmakers, Goldin`s images were originally shown as slideshows in underground clubs, arranged into themes and performed with a soundtrack. 🪩
This ever-shifting, ever-evolving visual diary of her life would coalesce in time into The ballad of sexual dependency.
In 1985, the slideshow was shown at the Whitney Biennial and the following year the Aperture Foundation published The ballad as a photobook comprised of a selection of 126 images from the 700 or so that made up the slideshow. The National Gallery acquired the last set in the edition in October 2021 from Goldin’s personal collection.
Intensely saturated, glossy, almost impossibly seductive, the prints pulsate as the projected slides had, as if lit within. Goldin doesn’t see very well and perceives the world in hazy blocks of colour. Her use of blurry focus and veils of colour pull us in.
It’s as if the emotion has bled across the surface of the image. 📸
"It’s about trying to feel what another person is feeling. There’s a glass wall between people, and I want to break it." - Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin: The ballad of sexual dependency leaves John Curtin Gallery on Sunday September 14! 😢
🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio.
Nan Goldin: The ballad of sexual dependency is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition presented as part of the Bowness Family Foundation Photography Touring Program.
@nationalgalleryaus @curtinuniversity @curtinlifeaustralia @perthcentreforphotography
#NanGoldin #ArtAcrossAustralia #art #photography #johncurtingallery #curtinuniversity
Leaving this Sunday 14 September! 🤯
There`s less than one week left to see some truly amazing photography from Nan Goldin and James Tylor.
Come and celebrate the end of a successful Makuru season with us, and explore an expansive catalogue of images from Nan Goldin: The ballad of sexual dependency and James Tylor - Turrangka...in the shadows.
If you`ve already seen these exhibitions, let us know what you think down below ... or come and see them again 👀
The gallery will be closed from Monday 15 September to allow for the installation of our upcoming exhibitions on 2 October.
📷 - Ezra Alcantra
#NanGoldin #ArtAcrossAustralia #art #photography #firstnationsart #JamesTylor #Turrangkaintheshadows #johncurtingallery #photoraphy #curtinuniversity
Nan Goldin: The ballad of sexual dependency is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition presented as part of the Bowness Family Foundation Photography Touring Program.
James Tylor – Turrangka...In the shadows is a UNSW Galleries exhibition. This exhibition is made possible through the support of Lotterywest, Lendlease and The Navigators.
@jamesptylor @unswgalleries @nationalgalleryaus @curtinuniversity @curtinlifeaustralia @curtinbfagrads
John Curtin Gallery would like to welcome Curator Zali Morgan (@zalimorgan) to the team! ✨
A Noongar woman with ancestral connections to Whadjuk, Balladong, and Wilman Boodjar - born and raised near Wooditchup on Wardandi Boodjar - and now based near Boorloo, Zali has a deep passion for working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.
As an artist, curator, and cultural worker Zali has curated several exhibitions at various institutions across Western Australia, and will be taking care of the Carrolup Collection as well as the inaugural exhibition for the new Carrolup Centre for Truth-telling.👏
You may have seen some of Zali`s previous curatorial work at places such as @pica_perth, @fremantleartscentre, John Curtin Gallery, Edith Cowan University Gallery, and @bragwa , as well as at the @nas_au.
Post tuition free week blues? 😢
If you`re in need of a pick me up, make sure you keep an eye out for some more of Curtin University`s Public Art Displays!
Here`s some facts on each piece pictured ✨
Janet Laurence`s CLIFF is made up of 159 WA rocks, minerals, gemstones, and crystals. Reaching a height of 18m the piece is designed to engage with all levels of Curtin`s School of Design and the Built Environment building. CLIFF celebrates the great zone of geology that is Western Australia and intersects between art, science, imagination and memory. 🪨
Howard Taylor`s Cyclops emerged from the studies of a nautilus shell. The sculpture`s glass mosaic tiles play with reflected light– as the viewer moves around the object, the changing patterns on the surface of the work mimic the sunlight falling on swaying leaves of the forest. Originally commissioned for ANZ Bank - Head Office in St Georges Tce in 1965, the piece is estimated to weigh seven tonnes!
Found on Level 7 of the T.L. Robertson Library Kelsey Ashe`s Land of a thousand myths is a response to mythologies Kelsey says `intrigue her`. The complicated blend of Indigo, Chlorophyll, Saffron and Henna Botanical inks Screen Printed on Canvas mixed with Photoluminescent Pigment and Wax is finally Mounted on Wood. 😵💫
Go even deeper via the link in our bio!
#curtinuniversity #johncurtingallery #publicart
@curtinlifeaustralia @curtinguild @curtin_exchange @explore_curtin
Take a scroll through James Tylor`s - Turrangka...in the shadows ➡️
This beautifully curated wall brings together James` expansive digital photographic series ‘From an Untouched Landscape` and blends them with hand-made contemporary renderings of traditional Kaurna cultural objects.
James` innovative photographic intervention, systematically alters the reading of Country by excising information from the photographic print. 📷
The handcrafted tools and weapons, symbolic of conflict over land, suggest the violence at the root of colonisation and the reason for the false appearance of landscapes as `untouched` before colonisation.
James Tylor - Turrangka ... in the shadows is on display until September 14!
🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio.
#ArtAcrossAustralia #art #photography #firstnationsart #JamesTylor #Turrangkaintheshadows #johncurtingallery #photoraphy #curtinuniversity
James Tylor – Turrangka...In the shadows is a UNSW Galleries exhibition. This exhibition is made possible through the support of Lotterywest, Lendlease and The Navigators.
@jamesptylor @unswgalleries @nationalgalleryaus @curtinuniversity @curtinlifeaustralia @curtinbfa
Join us at the intersection between art, storytelling and public health as award-winning participatory visual artist Lauri Parr (@la.sa.pa) and educational sexologist Kim Andreassen (@kimbo_legsa) discuss the prolific work of Nan Goldin.
Happening Tuesday 19 August, Reflections on Nan Goldin: The ballad of sexual dependency Lunchtime Talk will explore Nan`s ongoing legacy in both queer theory and photographic practice. 📷
Register via the link in our bio.
🗓️ - Tuesday 19 August
⏰ - 12.30pm - 1.30pm
📍- John Curtin Gallery
#NanGoldin #ArtAcrossAustralia #art #photography #johncurtingallery #photoraphy #Curtinuniversity
Nan Goldin: The ballad of sexual dependency is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition presented as part of the Bowness Family Foundation Photography Touring Program.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Curtin University
Huge congratulations to Emma Buswell (@embuzza1) on winning the Ramsay Art Prize 2025 People’s Choice for her work The Pool. 🙌✨
These amazing textile works are meticulously constructed on a 1960s hand-operated knitting machine and take inspiration from the matrilineal craft and knitting techniques passed down from her mother and grandmother. Full of wit and satire the colourful work investigates the nature of labour and identity through a distinctly Australian lens.
The Pool was exhibited at the John Curtin Gallery in 2024 and Emma will feature a newly commissioned work for our `Everyday, Myths and Legends` exhibition coming October 3! 👀
The People’s Choice is selected by public vote from the 22 Ramsay Art Prize finalists.
The Ramsay Art Prize 2025 exhibition is open until Sunday 31 August!
📷 - Art Gallery of South Australia, Photo: Saul Steed
@curtinuniversity @curtinalumni @curtinbfagrads #ramsayartprize2025 #EmmaBuswell #JohnCurtinGallery
Locations
John Curtin Gallery Curtin University
Building 200A Curtin University, Kent Street
Bentley, Western Australia 6102
Phone: 08 9266 4155
Open Mon to Fri 10:00 – 5:00pm and Sun 12:00 – 4:00pm
Once Known – A Carrolup Centre for Truth-telling exhibition
Presented at the Old Perth Boys’ School
Curtin 139 St Georges Terrace,
Perth, Western Australia 6000
11:00am – 4:00pm
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday (closed Wednesdays and Weekends)
