Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is launching the final exhibition season of 2026 on Friday 30 October, and is inviting the community to celebrate four new exhibitions spanning film, printmaking, painting, installation, performance and jewellery.
The Summer Exhibition Program Launch commences at 6pm, with official proceedings from 6:15pm, with the evening to include a film screening by the dynamic artist duo Soda Jerk.
Well-known for their intricate film remixes, Soda Jerk skilfully combines hundreds of visual references drawn from cinema history to produce new narratives, with sharp political and social critique.
Titled Hello Dankness, the film reimagines recent American history via a montage of film extracts, pop culture, conspiracy theories, satire and the absurdity of current political spectacle. It's a surreal political fable put together from fragments of popular culture.
The film opens at 7pm on Friday evening and runs for 70 minutes. Following the opening, Hello Dankness will screen daily at 11am and 2pm from 3 November to 20 December, with a single 11am screening on Sundays.
Presented in the Main Gallery, Breaking Off by Australian artist Mike Parr features a recent print series alongside Ships in the Night, a 20-metre installation of large-scale photographic documents drawn from Parr's performance archive spanning 1975 to 2005.
Wagga Wagga Art Gallery Director Megan Monte said: "Mike Parr is widely regarded as one of Australia's leading artists.
"Since staging his first solo exhibition in 1970, Parr has carved out a distinctive practice across performance, printmaking, painting, sculpture and installation.
"His work at the gallery has a real weight to it, and we're thrilled to bring it to the region."
Dionisia Salis' sweeping collection of new paintings and drawings will be presented in her solo exhibition, A Fistful of Light.
Delving into consciousness, subconsciousness and dreamlike realms, Salis's art blurs the line between reality and imagination, inviting you to explore the ever-shifting space where they meet.
Oracle + Riverine Nocturne is a joint initiative between Wagga Wagga Art Gallery and Griffith Regional Art Gallery, featuring pieces of jewellery from the National Art Glass Collection and the National Contemporary Jewellery Collection.
A new organic wall drawing by Sophie Chauncy is included alongside the jewellery, connecting the two collections and galleries across the Riverina.
"We're delighted to work with Griffith Regional Gallery, showcasing their magnificent pieces of jewellery alongside some of our own from the National Art Glass Collection," Megan Monte said.
"This exhibition will introduce our audiences to artworks they would not ordinarily encounter."
