ABBOTSFORD.- The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art has announced the seven emerging artists selected for NEW26, reviving one of its most significant commissioning platforms a decade after its last presentation. Opening at ACCA from Friday 18 September to Sunday 22 November 2026, the exhibition brings together Amanda Bell, Amanda Bennetts, Nicholas Currie, Naveed Farro, Caesar Florence-Howard, Diego Ramrez and EJ Son, selected from across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia for the strength and ambition of their early-career practices.
Curated by Dr Shelley McSpedden and Sophie Prince, NEW26 will premiere seven major site-specific commissions by the selected artists, developed with ACCA to support the extension of their practices through ambitious experimentation within a major public institution. Spanning painting, moving image, ceramics, sound, installation, writing and architectural intervention, NEW26 engages with some of the defining questions of our time, including the accelerating influence of technology and AI, identity and subjectivity, the ongoing legacies of colonialism and the role and responsibility of cultural institutions.
ACCA Artistic Director and CEO Myles Russell-Cook said: “Supporting emerging artists, and those at pivotal points in their practice, to take risks and shape the cultural conversation, has always been central to ACCA’s purpose, and has never been more vital to the sector. Artists are always ahead of the curve when it comes to reading where culture is headed, and I'm delighted to bring back this significant series at a time when backing bold early-career work matters more than ever.”
ACCA Chair Terry Wu said: “The return of NEW is a powerful expression of ACCA’s purpose: to back artists at defining moments in their careers and give ambitious new ideas the space to be realised. The Board is proud to support the renewal of this landmark series and its next generation of artists, whose work will help shape the future of contemporary art in Australia.”
Originally presented from 2003 to 2016, NEW established itself as an important platform for early-career artists, providing space within a major public institution to experiment, take risks and create significant new work. Across its original run, the series involved more than 100 artists, 75 writers and 10 guest curators, with Fiona Connor, Destiny Deacon, Alicia Frankovich, Marco Fusinato, Angelica Mesiti, Kate Newby and Darren Sylvester part of the alumni. Many artists went on to achieve major recognition for their work, including representing Australia at the Venice Biennale, and presenting blockbuster institutional exhibitions.
Relaunched in a biennial format, the NEW series reaffirms ACCA’s commitment to experimental, critically engaged contemporary art, while giving artists and curators more time to research, test ideas and realise substantial new work.
Curators Dr Shelley McSpedden and Sophie Prince said: “NEW26 presents the work of seven outstanding artists from around Australia, who are at the forefront of contemporary art practice. Through their work, this exhibition captures the pulse of creative practice now, bringing together distinct bodies of work that reflect, question, and reshape artistic and social preoccupations defining our time.”
Together, the seven selected artists reflect the breadth of emerging contemporary practice across Australia:
• Amanda Bell is a Badimia Yamatji and Yued Noongar multidisciplinary artist based on Wardandi land near Goomburrup/Bunbury whose practice explores language, power and cultural identity through culturally grounded storytelling.
• Sunshine Coast-based artist Amanda Bennetts creates immersive installations shaped by her lived experience of chronic illness and disability, examining how health and wellness are influenced by culture, technology and infrastructure.
• Naarm/Melbourne-based Mununjali, Kuku Yalanji artist and curator Nicholas Currie works across painting, sculpture and performance to explore contemporary Indigenous perspectives, identity and hauntology.
• Living and working in Naarm/Melbourne, Iranian-Australian artist Naveed Farro combines sculpture, filmmaking and photography with digital technologies and traditional craftsmanship to reframe obscured histories and examine access to cultural knowledge across geopolitical borders.
• Naarm/Melbourne-based artist Caesar Florence-Howard creates paintings and drawings exploring accumulation, transformation and the instability of images through layering, erasure and revision.
• Diego Ramrez is a Mexican-Australian artist, writer and curator based in Naarm/Melbourne who works across disciplines to examine culture, institutions and the social and political conditions surrounding art.
• South Korean-born, Sydney-based artist EJ Son works across sculpture, installation and performance, using humour and provocation to explore paradox, desire, fear and the construction of subjectivity.
