Museum of Contemporary Art Australia exhibition comes to Wangaratta
Published on 15 August 2025
National touring exhibition Primavera: Young Australian Artists comes to Wangaratta this month. Curated by Sydney based curator Talia Smith the exhibition features work by young and emerging artists, all under the age of 35 including Tiyan Baker (NSW), Christopher Bassi (QLD), Moorina Bonini (VIC), Nikki Lam (VIC), Sarah Poulgrain (QLD), and Truc Truong (SA).
Working across video, painting, sculpture, installation and text, the exhibition considers themes of protest, perseverance, identity, and history. While the work is predominantly autobiographical, there are broad themes exploring Australian cultural identity that will be intriguing for any visitor.
Artist Christopher Bassi’s paintings explore the material culture that represents Torres Strait Islander experiences, particularly ways to tell stories about home and place. While artist Truc Truong creates colourful installations of objects such as toys, fruit, and household items that look at childhood and the experience of growing up as a second generation Vietnamese Australian.
As curator, Talia Smith comments:
What brings these artists together is the way they reckon with the perils of history, education, culture, and language, to question authoritative structures and systems. They assert that there is more than one way of living and offer impressions of how it might look.
Since its inception in 1992 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney, Primavera: Young Australian Artists has played an influential role in the development of contemporary art in Australia, introducing the work and ideas of a generation of artists at an early stage of their careers to a broader public. Over the last three decades, more than 250 artists aged 35 years and under have presented their work in the exhibition at the MCA, with many going on to exhibit nationally and internationally. Every year the selected curator undertakes extensive research, travelling across the country to meet young artists.
Wangaratta Art Gallery Director, Rachel Arndt emphasised how important it is to have touring exhibitions like this come to Wangaratta:
It is a pleasure to host Primavera: Young Australian Artists touring exhibition, which was made possible through the Federal Government’s Visions of Australia program. This funding allows more Australians to experience and appreciate important Australian art. It’s been said before, art is not just for people in metropolitan cities, it is for all Australians. This exhibition in particular allows audiences to see the new energy and ideas coming from young artists across the country.
The exhibition has travelled from regional Queensland through NSW and will conclude in Murray Bridge in regional South Australia in 2026 following an eight-venue tour.
Primavera 2023: Young Australian Artists, guest curated by Talia Smith, is touring across the country, proudly supported by Museums & Galleries of NSW, and made possible by the Federal Government’s Visions of Australia program, which supports organisations to tour major Australian art exhibitions to regional areas.
Primavera will be opened by curator Talia Smith on Saturday 23 August from 4pm at Wangaratta Art Gallery. To book your free ticket, please visit: www.wangarattaartgallery.com.au
The launch will also celebrate the opening of Us an exhibition by Gillian Bencke, presented in Gallery 2. All welcome.
When 23 August - 19 October 2025, Tuesday – Sunday, 10am - 4pm
Where Gallery 1, Wangaratta Art Gallery, 56 Ovens Street, Wangaratta