SYDNEY.- Sullivan+Strumpf will present two powerful new bodies of work from acclaimed First Nations artist, curator and cultural ambassador, Tony Albert, in a new solo exhibition opening at their Gadigal/ Sydney gallery Thursday 17 September 2026.

A complement to his acclaimed survey exhibition, Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir, on now at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia until 19 October 2026, these two new bodies, Reverb & Still, examine the persistence of language, imagery and representation around the ways cultural attitudes continue to echo across generations.

In Reverb Tony Albert draws upon the vernacular of everyday Australia, subverting familiar expressions and cultural shorthand to turn colloquialisms back upon themselves, in a series of text-based works that explore how racism can reside within humour, nostalgia and seemingly innocuous everyday language.

At the centre of the exhibition a phrase recurs, AS THE TOPIC OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE ENTERED THE CONVERSATION, its repetition creating a rhythmic, almost melodic quality. SORRY BECAME JUST A WORD, A FAIR GO BECAME CONDITIONAL and THE CROWS GOT STONED; words and phrases become refrains, accumulating meaning.

Reverb describes what remains after the original sound has stopped. Words, images and attitudes reverberating through time, changing form while retaining power. A metaphor for history itself, the exhibition exposes not only what Australian language represents, but who it has historically left out.





In Still, Albert physically binds disparate histories together in a new series of collaged and hand stitched works on paper, centred upon his recurring target motif. Familiar figures from children’s books sit in uneasy proximity to racist caricatures and historical representations of Aboriginal people: the cherished and the offensive occupying the same visual field, revealing how prejudice becomes normalised through repetition, familiarity and popular culture.

The act of stitching, an intimate gesture of mending and healing oneself, while the target’s concentric circles suggest impact, consequence and reverberation.

Across these two bodies, the past does not simply disappear. It echoes, travels, is reworked and returns, asking us to consider not only what we inherit, but what we choose to carry forward.