EXHIBITIONS
Ongoing Exhibitions
Participating museums all have permanent collections of art and objects from PNG with selections on display in their galleries. Here we highlight the special exhibitions in participating museums
Contemporary Painting in Papua New Guinea: Mathias Kauage and His Family
de Young - San Francisco, USA March 30, 2024 – March 15, 2026
Mathias Kauage (ca. 1944–2003) is acclaimed for his boldly colorful paintings of a world radically changing around him in the late 20th century. This exhibition features four paintings from our collection by Mathias and his family, on view for the first time. During his lifetime, Mathias experienced dramatic societal shifts — not only during the decades under colonial Australian administration but also after Papua New Guinea achieved independence in 1975. Both periods are a focus of his work. In the late 1970s, Mathias and later his wife, Elizabeth (Elisabet), led the contemporary arts movement in the newly independent country, which explored nationhood and technological advancement. Later works also addressed issues such as the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The circle of artists working in their style grew to encompass their children, including a nephew and adopted son Apa Hugo. They, along with Elizabeth, continue their father’s artistic legacy today as professional painters.
High Colour
31 May 2025 – 9 August 2026
Art Gallery of New South Wales - Sydney, Australia
High Colour is an immersive exploration of local and global Indigenous perspectives on colour. Inspired by Richard Bell’s 2012 work Colour theory, the exhibition considers the role of colour in creating contemporary interpretations of Indigeneity, as well as the use of colour as a form of categorisation. High Colour brings together First Nations artists belonging to or working in Australia, the Great Ocean region, and North America. For these artists, colour is identity, belonging, history and inheritance. This is the first exhibition that considers the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ rich First Nations collection within global Indigenous curatorial discourse. Significant recent acquisitions from the Art Gallery’s collection feature alongside newly commissioned works, including aute (barkcloth) by Indigenous youth at Frank Baxter Youth Justice Centre, made through the Art Gallery’s Djamu Youth Justice Program with artist Nikau Hindin (Ngāpuhi/Te Rarawa/Ngai Tūpoto).
Stories through time: Living cultures, enduring connections
Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland
3 March - 14 November 2025
Generations of Indigenous Australian and Pacific peoples have worked to preserve and celebrate cultural continuity through making, sharing and documenting the everyday objects and practices of Country and Custom. Over the past seventy-five years thousands of objects have made their way into the Anthropology Museum’s custodianship. The Museum has been a place for critical discourse and this exhibition celebrates the collaborative relationships forged between Indigenous and non-Indigenous producers and scholars. Since the 1950s makers, storytellers and knowledge holders have connected with their material culture in the collection, to re-imagine cultural continuity for future generations. This exhibition presents key collections which contain and convey some of these deeply significant social, spiritual and economic ties. Reflecting on these collaborations, the Anthropology Museum acknowledge the many artists and community researchers who continue to share valuable insights into the dynamism of living cultures with deep connections to Country and Custom.
Pippi’s Papa and a Totally True Story from the Pacific
MARKK - Hamburg, Germany
6 September 2024 - January 2027
The stories about Pippi Longstocking and her father Efraim, who rules as king over a Pacific island, figure among the most popular works of European children’s literature. But did a Swedish “South Sea king” truly exist? The biography of the Swede Carl Pettersson (1875 – 1937) shows astonishing parallels to the tales in the Pippi books. Based on the life circumstances of Pettersson, his Pacific wife Singdo and their children, the exhibition tells the story of German colonialism in the Pacific in a playful and interactive manner for children and families. It also aims to inspire reflection on how we should deal with colonial world views in classical children‘s books today.
13 September 2025 - 12 April 2026
Bilong Papua New Guinea 50 years of Independence
National Gallery of Art, Canberra, Australia
Bilong Papua New Guinea marks the 50th anniversary of Papua New Guinea’s independence and the birth of a new nation on September 16, 1975. Prior to this date, Papua New Guinea was under Australian colonial rule from 1906, preceded by British and German rule from 1884.Papua New Guinea is a nation with over 800 languages, each of which identifies a distinct cultural community. In the lead up to Independence, bringing together these diverse communities under one nation was acknowledged as a complex undertaking by Papua New Guinea’s first Prime Minister, Michael Somare, in 1974: ‘One of the most important and difficult tasks facing any new country is the creation of a national identity. In order to weld together the multiplicity of cultures and languages that make up Papua New Guinea, we must first of all know what our complex cultural heritage is.’ The National Gallery holds the largest collection of Papua New Guinea urban art outside the country. Each of the works selected for Bilong Papua New Guinea presents a story, reflecting on cultural heritage, historical moments, the influence of ancestors, Christianity, kastom, societal changes and new technologies. In this exhibition, traditional styles and contemporary artistic practices merge in the works of artists such as Mathias Kauage, Gazellah Bruder, John Siune, and Yuriyal Bridgeman. Through their examination of the political and social contexts of post-independence Papua New Guinea, these artists have helped to mould a cohesive national identity, while shaping Papua New Guinea’s contemporary creative practices.
Curators: Crispin Howarth, Curator, Pacific Arts & Danielle Toua, Curator, Pacific Arts
‘THE CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS ARE OUR NATIONAL TREASURES, THE WORLD’S TREASURES, FOR IN THE REAL SENSE THEY EXPRESS WHAT LIES DEEP IN OUR HEARTS’
BERNARD M. NAROKOBI OBE
There are no upcoming events at this time.