New and rarely seen works by internationally recognised First Nations artist Brian Robinson will be unveiled tomorrow as Newcastle Art Gallery opens the first three exhibitions from its 2026 program.
The new installations will also provide a first look at works donated to the Gallery by leading philanthropists Simon Mordant AO and Catriona Mordant AM, as well as the debut solo show by Newcastle-based artist Tiyan Baker.
Newcastle-based artist Tiyan Baker, Newcastle Art Gallery Director Lauretta Morton OAM and Torres Strait Island artist Brian Robinson celebrate the launch of their new exhibitions at the Gallery.
This will be the first changeover of exhibitions at the Gallery since it reopened in February as the largest public gallery in NSW outside of Sydney.
Newcastle Art Gallery Director Lauretta Morton OAM said launching the first shows from the 2026 temporary exhibition program was an exciting milestone for the reimagined Gallery.
"The response to the Gallery has been nothing short of remarkable, with more than 80,000 visitors already surpassing our previous annual visitation record," Ms Morton said.
"Showcasing the breadth and significance of the Gallery's $145 million collection when we reopened through the Iconic, Loved, Unexpected exhibition was an important way to reintroduce ourselves to the community following the expansion project.
"While the collection works will remain in the ground floor galleries and in three gallery spaces upstairs, we are thrilled to now be moving into our ambitious 2026 program, which will showcase significant exhibitions from local, national and internationally renowned artists.
"The expansion of the Gallery opens up opportunities to explore exhibitions of a size, scale and number that we were previously unable to present due to the limitations of our original building.
"We can't wait for our community to see what else is in store throughout the 2026 program and beyond."
Brian Robinson grew up on Waiben (Thursday Island) in the Torres Strait with Maluyligal and Wuthathi cultural heritage and is renowned for weaving ancestral iconography with contemporary popular culture, mythology, personal history and humour.
Multiverse is a considered survey of Robinson's practice over the past decade, featuring more than 30 new and rarely seen works including the NSW premiere of the artist's first immersive installation, Zugubal: The winds and the tides set the pace, and a series of major vinyl cut prints, commissioned by Newcastle Art Gallery and inspired by objects within the University of Newcastle collection.
Robinson said the exhibition speaks to his ongoing fascination with storytelling, cosmology, memory and the ways Indigenous knowledge systems continue to evolve and expand across time.
"To present this exhibition at Newcastle Art Gallery this month is incredibly significant. Multiverse represents one of the most considered surveys of my practice to date, and I am honoured to share it with audiences in Newcastle through such a major institutional presentation," Robinson said.
"The exhibition includes my first immersive installation, Zugubal: The winds and the tides set the pace, alongside a new series of major vinyl cut prints commissioned by the Gallery and inspired by some objects within the University of Newcastle collection that exist somewhere between magic, invention, and scientific curiosity.
"Together, these works create a space where cultural knowledge, imagination, and transformation converge - a place where past, present, and future continue to move in rhythm with one another."
The Mordant Family Gift presents 25 works across paintings, photography, textiles, installations, prints and sculptures by Australian and international artists Ian Abdulla, María Fernanda Cardoso, Brent Harris, Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, Janet Laurence, Hiroyuki Kita, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Jamie North, Raquel Ormella, Sangeeta Sandrasegar, Tim Silver, Gemma Smith, Yuken Teruya, Brendan Van Hek and John Young.
The exhibition celebrates the significance of the gift to the Gallery, the largest number of works the Mordant family has ever donated to one institution, and marks the first time these works will be presented collectively to the public.
Newcastle-based artist Tiyan Baker's first institutional solo exhibition Mouth Mnemonica centres around a newly commissioned video work that engages with the endangered language Bukar, spoken by her mother and other Bukar Bidayǔh people of south-western Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.
Blending poetic verse, memory, and historical record, the exhibition draws together moving image, sound and sculptural elements to explore language as a living vessel for intergenerational cultural knowledge.
Baker said it is an honour to share her family's stories and culture through this exhibition.
"This new body of work combines my poetic verse and my mum's with found records of our oral poetry culture before colonisation, creating an intergenerational poem about forgetting, remembering and what we pass down over generations," Baker said.
"Through this I hope to give new life to our endangered language and the knowledge it holds.
"I'm incredibly honoured to have my work, my research and my deeply personal stories about our family and our land premiere in some of the first programming for the new Newcastle Art Gallery."
Art lovers are invited to attend a special launch party at the gallery tonight from 5.30pm, before the exhibitions officially open to the public tomorrow. Tickets for the launch can be purchased via the Art Gallery's website.
Multiverse will run from 23 May - 30 August 2026, with tickets on sale now. Brian Robinson will take part in an artist talk at the Gallery from 11am on Saturday 23 May, taking audiences behind the scenes of his artistic practice, processes and the stories that shape his work.
Entry to The Mordant Family Gift (23 May - 8 November 2026) and Mouth Mnemonica (23 May - 6 September 2026) is free. Tiyan Baker will share the ideas, processes and stories behind her groundbreaking exhibition with a free artist talk at the Gallery from 2pm on Sunday 24 May.
