What's On at John Curtin Gallery

Bridging to Next: Truth and Reclamation Exhibition
26 May - 6 June 2025

Drawing upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks within the Curtin University Art Collection, five third-year Curtin University Fine Art students have been invited to showcase artists that reflect this year’s Reconciliation theme, Bridging Now to Next.

This year’s students, Phoebe Campbell, Yasmin Gane, Di-Andra Holt, Angus Bowskill and Leza Howie, will be mentored by gallery staff member, Bardi, Jawi Aamba (Man) Ron Bradfield Jnr, to assist them in their consideration and investigation of artworks available to them within the collection.

For this inaugural Student Reconciliation Exhibition, Bridging to Next: Truth and Reclamation, the non-Aboriginal students have been encouraged to consider the tenacity, creativity, and humanity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Western Australia and reflect this in their selected artworks.

Lunchtime talk on Thurs 29 May - For more info & to register, see LINK in BIO or visit curtin.edu.au/jcg

@curtinbfagrads @curtinalumni @curtinuniversity #NRWK2025 #artcollection
Image: Sharyn Egan, Basket (vessel), 2021, Kwel (she-oak) needles, thread and emu feather, 13.5 x 25 x 23 cm.

A huge shoutout and congratulations to the artists recently selected in some of Australia’s big art prizes!! 🙌 Curtin Alumni, previous and upcoming exhibiting artists – we are thrilled for your success and wish you all the very best.

Included in the Ramsay Art Prize finalists are Emma Buswell with her amazing work ‘The Pool’, which was exhibited here in 2024. We are excited to welcome her back later in the year for the ‘Everyday Myths and Legends’ exhibition featuring a newly commissioned work.

Also selected is James Tylor whose major solo exhibition is up next at the JCG, alongside Nan Goldin (opening night July 3 – subscribe for further details via our website).
Congratulations as well go to Jack Ball and David Attwood 👏

And way to go to Perth festival 2024 JCG exhibitor Robert Fielding for being chosen for not only the Archibald, but also the Wynn and Sulman Prizes! ❤️

Shoutouts also go to Abdul Abdullah for being an Archibald finalist and winner of its Packing Room Prize 🏆 and to Joan Ross for her selection as a finalist.

Tessa MacKay’s selection in the Wynn Prize and Helen Smith’s inclusion in the Sulman Prize.

Well done to all, we champion you!!

@embuzza1 @jack__ball_ @sweet.pea.arts #jamestylor @davidattwood @agsaadelaide #ramsayartprize @robertfielding_ @mimili_maku_arts
@abdul_abdullah @wecallthisatree @archibaldprize @artgalleryofnsw
@tessamackayart #wynneprize2025 @helensmi1h

@curtinuniversity @curtinalumni @curtinbfagrads

LAST DAY Thurs 17 April ✨

Our Perth Festival exhibitions for 2025 will soon come to an end.
It has been a joy and a priviledge to feature the amazing work of Alice Guiness `Burndud Ground` & Mai Nguyễn-Long `Doba Nation`

🎁 Looking for a gift? Check out our Gallery Shop while you are here!

Burndud Ground is a @perthfest and @juluwarluartgroup commission and is part of the Boorloo Contemporary Program in partnership with @wesfarmersarts

‘Doba Nation’ is presented with @perthfest
@mainguyenlong is represented by @michaelreidsydney

✨ Our latest Carrolup exhibition, ‘Once Known’ opened to the public last week at the Old Perth Boys’ School at 139 St Georges Terrace as part of the Lotterywest Boorloo Heritage Festival.

Curated by former Director Chris Malcolm in consultation with the Carrolup Centre for Truth-telling Reference Group, ‘Once Known’ shares meticulous reproductions from the delicate originals, providing greater accessibility to the artworks in the lead up to the opening of the Carrolup Centre for Truth-telling within the John Curtin Gallery at Curtin University, Bentley campus where the original artworks will be on year-round display from 2026. While hundreds of children were detained at Carrolup, only 17 artists have been attributed to works in the Herbert Mayer Collection of Carrolup Artwork. The ‘Once Known’ exhibition is a reminder that each child had a name, a family, and a story.

Open during the Lotterywest Boorloo Heritage Festival: 4 – 17 Apr 2025, weekdays 11am – 3pm then reopening to the public Monday 28 Apr. Opening Hours: Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri: 11am – 4pm (closed Wednesdays and Weekends).

For more information and to see our upcoming events for ‘Once Known’, visit www.curtin.edu.au/jcg/exhibitions/carrolup-once-known/ or LINK in BIO

Photography by Marnie Richardson

@curtinuniversity #Carrolup #CarrolupCentreforTruthtelling #OnceKnown #OldPerthBoysSchool #JohnCurtinGallery #CurtinUniversity #BoorlooHeritageFestival

Mai Nguyễn-Long
Doba Nation

The clusters of ceramic forms that comprise Doba Nation are humorously defiant. Eyes bulge, mouths expel tongues and vomit, tiny Poo Balls are scattered throughout. Positioned on travel crates, repurposed as plinths, there is a sense of things being impermanent, unstable or on the move. This is a ramshackle chorus of rejected selves, claiming space and community.

Mai Nguyễn-Long’s cylindrical forms are inspired by post-Vietnam War bomb shell casings that some residents of rural Vietnam have repurposed for practical use. Other disturbing connections to war have also found their way into her work – the striking orange of her Vomit Girl figures alludes to the notorious use of the defoliant ‘Agent Orange’ by US forces. These characteristic figures seem to be evolving into increasingly complex, rhythmic forms with holes, prongs and looping appendages jostling over the surface. Other slip painted forms appear to be in the process of transformation or disintegration. Tubular shapes reach out, holes searching like blind mouths or nostrils. At times complete faces are represented; their diversely stumpy, mutating shapes a reminder of Vomit Girl’s genesis. There is a clear evolution here that suggests an eventual reunification of lost parts. This transformative aspect underpins a provocative complexity to Mai Nguyễn-Long’s work that is deeply compelling.

Lia McKnight, Curator

Only a few weeks left!
Exhibition ends 17 Apr.
For more information, visit curtin.edu.au/jcg or LINK in BIO

‘Doba Nation’ is presented with @perthfest
@mainguyenlong is represented by @michaelreidsydney

📸 Portrait by Ezra Alcantra. Installation views by John Curtin Gallery.
Images 3 & 6: Doba Nation (details), 2023. Photos by Daniel Soma, courtesy of the artist and Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin.

Alice Guiness
Burndud Ground

The Burndud ceremony is a special and unique cultural obligation where each member of Yindjibarndi must attend and participate . . . It also reminds us that there is a harmony within our lives that incorporates all living things on Ngurra (country).

As we see Mum Alice paint the Burndud, we are reminded of her personal ability and her everyday challenges she faces to communicate her feelings and what drives her to make the Burndud her main piece and focus when doing her artwork.

I have learnt over the years that her Burndud depictions are deep messages of what she sees as important things in our lives – Ceremony, Family, Galharra, Ngurra and the Songs . . . Through art she is teaching us the true meaning of balancing our two worlds.

Art is her nourishment; she communicates through it. Art is a human creativity. And it matters when we want to make sense of life. Mum Alice is desperately helping us to make sense of her life, she is telling us her story . . . When we start to listen to each other, that’s when the healing happens.

Lorraine Coppin
Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation
Excerpt from a catalogue essay, January 2025

Only a few weeks left!
Exhibition ends 17 Apr.
For more information, visit curtin.edu.au/jcg or LINK in BIO

Burndud Ground is a @perthfest and @juluwarluartgroup commission and is part of the Boorloo Contemporary Program in partnership with @wesfarmersarts

📸 Portrait by Marnie Richardson, courtesy of Perth Festival. Installation views by John Curtin Gallery.