CANBERRA.- The National Gallery of Australia has commissioned leading First Nations artists to create 10 immersive projects for the upcoming 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial, set to open this summer.

Opening in Kamberri/Canberra on 6 December 2025, the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain, will see the vision of Artistic Director, Tony Albert, Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji peoples, come to life through 10 multidisciplinary installations by contemporary artists from across Australia.

Albert has brought together emerging and established artists from as far as Erub in the far north-east of Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait to Ntaria/Hermannsburg in Central Australia and Naarm/Melbourne to create ambitious projects responding to the theme of After the Rain. From large-scale murals and video works to intimate painting and soft sculpture, After the Rain includes projects by Alair Pambegan, Aretha Brown, Blaklash, Dylan Mooney, Hermannsburg Potters, Itja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre, and Vincent Namatjira, Jimmy John Thaiday, Naminapu Maymuru-White, Thea Anamara Perkins, Yarrenyty Arltere Artists and Grace Kemarre Robinya, and Warraba Weatherall.

Building upon existing relationships cultivated over many years, Albert has been working closely with the exhibiting artists to challenge them to produce their most ambitious works to date. These projects celebrate inter-generational legacies and cultural warriors of the past, present and future – representing rebirth, cycles of cleansing and new beginnings.

Tony Albert, Artistic Director, After the Rain: ‘After the Rain is about new beginnings and looking to the future, while recognising the past. These 10 projects are ambitious and bring together diverse voices that honour culture, challenge systems and reimagine our shared future. It has been a privilege to work alongside these talented artists and friends to see these projects begin to come to life, and I cannot wait for the official unveiling at the National Gallery this December.’

Supported by the National Gallery’s First Nations Arts Partner Wesfarmers Arts, the National Indigenous Art Triennial is vital to the Gallery’s and Wesfarmers Arts’ shared commitment to elevating First Nations voices through art. The presentation of After the Rain in Kamberri/Canberra will be celebrated with a publication and an exciting program of events, with a national tour to follow.

Nick Mitzevich, Director, National Gallery: ‘The National Indigenous Triennial is an important recurring exhibition of First Nations art in Australia, offering a crucial platform for contemporary First Nations voices. After the Rain will present 10 ground-breaking projects that speak to resilience, imagination and cultural strength. Under the direction of one of the country’s foremost contemporary artists, Tony Albert, this summer’s Triennial will elevate First Nations perspectives and inspire audiences to reflect on our country’s history, present and future.’

Beginning with a breakthrough mural by Aretha Brown and concluding with a Blaklash-takeover presentation of First Nations design, fashion and art, visitors to After the Rain will journey through the below projects:

Aretha Brown’s (Gumbaynggirr people) ongoing THE TEACH BLAK HISTORY PROJECT includes large-scale public murals, performances and merchandise that seek to foster awareness and real change through conversation and self-reflection. For After the Rain, Brown will create a major new mural titled THE BIRTH OF A NATION: THE TRUE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA as well as present her DECOLONISE YO’ SELF! Conversation Cards For The Thoughtful Ally. In a closing week performance, Brown will ceremonially remove the mural, honouring the legacy of Gordon Bennett.

Wik-Mungkan artist Alair Pambegan will present Kalben-aw story place of Wuku and Mukam the flying fox brothers, an installation of over 500 suspended flying fox sculptures crafted with ochre and wood. Pambegan is a custodian for Kalben-aw, a significant ancestral narrative and story place along the Archer River that is connected to the creation of the Milky Way. He continues his Ancestors’ traditions with innovative sculptures that use the distinctive red, white and black ochre from his Country in Cape York Peninsula.

Kamilaroi artist Warraba Weatherall’s Mother-Tongue examines the profound relationship between body and land. Culture and Country are interconnected forms of knowledge, memory and care that require active maintenance to thrive. This is embedded in Kamilaroi language that shares words between the anatomy of the body and that of a tree. Mother-Tongue elaborates on how land, cultural knowledge and bodily experience form an interconnected system and invites viewers to recognise their position and consider their responsibilities toward cultural and environmental sustainability.

Sitting at the heart of After the Rain, House of Namatjira presents a multidisciplinary installation featuring innovative new commissions and historical works of art from the national collection. This project has brought together 57 artists from Ntaria/Hermannsburg and the broader Namatjira family and Community for the first time, including Vincent Namatjira, Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre and Hermannsburg Potters, in a landmark intergenerational celebration of legacy, resilience and Blak excellence.

Resilience in Bloom is an unabashed celebration of queer love among people of colour. Large scale banners will adorn the gallery walls featuring Yuwi, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander artist Dylan Mooney’s portraits of couples embraced and entwined in vibrant Country. In these colourful and detailed images droplets of water appear as glistening jewels, sweat and tears, revealing how the personal and political are combined. In this installation visitors will be invited to write a letter of love and respect to someone important in their lives.

Jimmy John Thaiday (Kuz/Peiudu peoples, Erub, Zenadth Kes) conveys environmental grief into urgent activism with Just Beneath the Surface, combining ghost net sculpture and award-winning video art to highlight climate crisis impacts on Torres Strait Communities. With a flock of ghost net waumer (frigate birds) leading visitors into the installation, the work is a call to action and desperate cry to adopt practices that prioritise and embrace the preservation of our environment.

Mangalili artist Naminapu Maymuru-White’s Milŋiyawuy (Milky Way) invites audiences into deep time, sharing the artist’s Yolŋu perspective of the universe from her Maŋgalili homeland, Djarrakpi. Featuring major bark paintings held in the national collection and exhibited for the first time in Kamberri/Canberra, audiences will be invited to slow down and be immersed by Yolŋu ways of being and understanding that have existing on this continent since the first star shone in the sky.

Thea Anamara Perkins (Arrernte/Kalkadoon peoples) will present Still I Rise, a series of new paintings presented alongside works from her archive. This project invites audiences to experience Perkins’ dynamic storytelling, drawn from her deep observation of family history and the world around her while asserting resilience and refuting the misrepresentation of Aboriginal people. The title echoes the sentiment in the famous quote of the artist’s maternal grandfather, Charles Perkins: ‘We know we cannot live in the past but the past lives in us.’

Kukawarra kwatja, pmara nhanhanama marra inthurra, soft rain, strong Country
Yarrenyty Arltere Artists and Grace Kemarre Robinya’s Kukawarra kwatja, pmara nhanhanama marra inthurra, soft rain, strong Country shares Country that is rich, colourful and cleansed by rain. Yarrenyty Arltere Artists’ major new soft sculpture installation features flocks of birds gathered around tactile fabric droplets and an ancestral woman, Beautiful Ulkumanu (old woman), after the rain 2025, carrying plentiful bush foods. Grace Kemarre Robinya’s Kwatjala nhama timela (Raining time) 2024–2025, the artist’s largest painting to date, captures rain, clouds and Country through different cycles of weather. Inspired by their families, kinship relationships and the importance of rain to regenerate desert Country, these works share a positive and empowering message to continue moving onwards and upwards.

ALWAYS remember the rain is a contemporary lifestyle presentation of First Nations design, fashion and art conceived and produced by Blaklash. The installation offers a space for reflection, relaxation and renewal at the conclusion of After the Rain. Featuring new furniture range, ALWAYS remember the rain embeds Blaklash’s core philosophy that ‘it always starts with Country’. This work responds to the underrepresentation of First Nations creative economies and connects to and extends the legacy of Aboriginal enterprise.