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‘I can use it, I can abuse it’: Tony Albert spent decades collecting racist ‘Aboriginalia’. Now he wants to turn yours into art

Tony Albert, a 45-year-old artist of Girramay, Yidinji, and Kuku-Yalanji heritage, has spent decades collecting thousands of objects he terms 'Aboriginalia'—kitsch, caricatured, and often racist depictions of Aboriginal people created by non-Indigenous Australians. His solo exhibition 'Not a Souvenir' opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney on 21 May, showcasing over 3,000 items from his collection alongside transformed artworks. The MCA is inviting the public to donate additional Aboriginalia items to Albert's collection, which is housed in his Brisbane studio.

25th Biennale of Sydney – Rememory

The 25th Biennale of Sydney, titled 'Rememory,' opened on March 14, 2026, across multiple venues including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, White Bay Power Station, and the Sydney Opera House. Artistic director Hoor Al Qasimi curated the event around the concept of 'rememory,' inspired by Toni Morrison's novel *Beloved*, featuring over 143 works by 83 artists and collectives from 37 countries. The biennale centers First Nations voices and diasporic communities, with standout pieces like the Ngurrara Artists' *Ngurrara Canvas II* (1997) and works by Yaritji Young. However, the event has faced controversy due to Al Qasimi's opposition to the war in Gaza, leading to criticism from donors and board members, as well as logistical disruptions from the Iran war affecting the curator and artists.

Your Australian art guide for May 2026 is here

May 2026 brings a packed calendar of art exhibitions across Australia, with highlights including Rone's 'Another TIME' at COMA Gallery in Sydney, the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes at the Art Gallery of NSW, and solo shows by Eleanor Louise Butt, Jordan Gogos, Natalya Hughes, Patricia Piccinini, and Michaela Gleave. Regional venues like Bundanon and Ngununggula also feature major exhibitions, including a posthumous show of Rosalie Gascoigne alongside new commissions by First Nations women artists.

Adelaide’s Tarnanthi is going on tour

Tarnanthi, the Art Gallery of South Australia's annual exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, is launching a national tour titled 'Tarnanthi on Tour: Too Deadly' starting July. The touring exhibition features over 30 works from the past decade of the festival, many conceived for Tarnanthi and never seen outside Adelaide. It will visit six regional galleries across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia over the next two years, including Rockhampton Museum of Art, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Ngununggula, Caboolture Art Gallery, Geelong Gallery, and Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.

Of This Earth: Transforming Culture and Country Through First Nations Ceramics

The National Gallery of Australia presents 'Of This Earth: Transforming Culture and Country Through First Nations Ceramics,' an exhibition featuring over thirty works by twenty-eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, including Thancoupie, Billy Bain, Nicole Foreshew, and Janet Fieldhouse. The show highlights diverse ceramic techniques and narratives drawn from the National Collection, emphasizing cultural continuity and contemporary expression.

New Exhibitions Unveiled At Expanded Art Gallery

Newcastle Art Gallery in Australia has unveiled the first three exhibitions from its 2026 program, marking the first changeover since its major expansion reopened in February. The shows include "Multiverse," a survey of Torres Strait Islander artist Brian Robinson featuring over 30 new and rarely seen works, including his first immersive installation; a debut solo exhibition by Newcastle-based artist Tiyan Baker; and "The Mordant Family Gift," presenting 25 works donated by philanthropists Simon Mordant AO and Catriona Mordant AM from artists including Ian Abdulla, María Fernanda Cardoso, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

'Significant' at D Lan Galleries, Melbourne on 14 May–27 Jun 2026

D Lan Galleries is presenting 'Significant', a major exhibition of secondary-market Australian First Nations art, running from 14 May to 27 June 2026 across its spaces in Melbourne, Sydney, and New York. The show features the Carey Lyon and Jo Crosby Collection, including rare early Papunya paintings from 1971–1972, such as Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi's 'Man Dreaming 1972' and Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa's 'Honey Ant Travelling Dreaming 1971', alongside later works by Emily Kam Kngwarray, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, and Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu.

This First Nations artist wants your racist 'Aboriginalia' – video

Indigenous artist Tony Albert has issued a public call for Australians to donate their 'Aboriginalia'—objects that depict Aboriginal people and designs but were created by non-Indigenous people, often as caricatures or exoticized souvenirs. Over 3,000 items from Albert's own collection, including tea towels, ashtrays, and playing cards, are now on display in his solo exhibition 'Not a Souvenir' at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney, opening on 21 May.

Frist Art Museum Presents Exhibition Spanning 100 Years of Contemporary Indigenous Art, Highlighting a Continuum of Elders and Emerging Makers

The Frist Art Museum is presenting a new exhibition that spans 100 years of contemporary Indigenous art, featuring works from both established elders and emerging makers. The show aims to highlight the continuity and evolution of Indigenous artistic practices across generations.

UES Galleries Open Their Doors For Free Event This Weekend

45 galleries along Madison Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side will open their doors for the free Madison Avenue Spring Art Walk on Saturday, May 13, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Participating spaces include the newly opened Gagosian gallery, which is showing a Marcel Duchamp exhibition, as well as Di Donna (featuring Salvador Dalí works) and Acquavella Galleries (featuring Henri Matisse works). Several galleries will host artist talks, including Luxembourg + Co. on motorized technologies in 20th-century art and D Lan Galleries on Australian First Nations art. The event is co-hosted by the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District and ARTnews, and has been held every May and October since 2008.

Art Gallery of Swan Hill Opens Three Powerful First Nations Exhibition

The Art Gallery of Swan Hill in Victoria, Australia, will open three significant First Nations exhibitions on 29 May 2026. The shows are: 'JXSH MVIR: Forever I Live', the first major solo retrospective of the late Yorta Yorta, Gunditjmara and Barkindji artist Josh Muir, co-curated by his partner and mother; 'Gulgawarnigu | Thinking of Someone. Something', a touring digital portrait and landscape exhibition by young Indigenous artists from Roebourne, Western Australia, developed through a partnership with NEO-Learning and Big hART; and 'Big Place', a new exhibition drawn from the gallery's permanent collection featuring works from Western Australia, the Northern Territory, the Tiwi Islands and South Australia.

New exhibition charts motherhood from the 15th century to today

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has opened a new exhibition titled 'Mother,' curated almost entirely from its existing collection. The show traces the experience of motherhood from the 15th century to the present, beginning with a juxtaposition of Giovanni Toscani's Madonna and Child and a 1998 birth mat by Elizabeth Birritjama Ngalandjarri. Co-curators Sophie Gerhard and Katharina Prugger organized the exhibition around the 'life cycle' of a mother, covering themes from matrescence to loss. It features works by artists including Kate Just, Kyra Mancktelow, Destiny Deacon, and Hannah Brontë, with a strong emphasis on First Nations perspectives and fiber arts.

Flinders exhibition revives the ’60s-’70s

Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA) presents 'Anarchive: knowledge follows form', a solo exhibition by South Australian artist Bridget Currie running from 27 April to 19 June 2026. The show reimagines the archive as a living force, drawing on FUMA's 'Post-object and Documentation Art' collection from the 1960s and 1970s. It features works by Bonita Ely, Alison Goodwin, Poppy Johnson, Dorothy Thompson, and Eva Yuen Man-Wah, including Thompson's playful protest performances in bird costumes. The exhibition is co-presented with Adelaide Contemporary Experimental and includes a guest-edited issue of Artlink magazine.

Artist explores shifting perspective on family story

Artist Avi Amesbury has opened her new exhibition, 'Shifting Perspectives: The Self Reconciliation Project', at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery in Australia. The show combines ceramics, mixed media, and sound to explore her personal family history as a descendant of white settler colonists in Western Australia. Over three years, Amesbury traveled across the country for residencies at Fremantle Arts Centre and Central Craft in Alice Springs, collecting wild clays and collaborating with composer MJ from Those Who Ride With Giants to incorporate poems, writings, and landscape sounds into the installation.

Salt Lake Art Show Debuts, Bringing a Community-Centric Vision to the Rapidly Growing Western Art Market

The inaugural Salt Lake Art Show will debut May 14–17, 2026 at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, Utah. Founded by father-daughter team Kevin O’Keefe and Briana Dolan of Peaks Art Fairs and the Reno Tahoe International Art Show, the fair features nearly 200 exhibitors from 20 U.S. states and five countries, organized into six segments including Galleries, Studios & Collectives, Utah Treasures, Bespoke Furniture, Sculpture Walk, and First Nations, Indigenous Peoples. The show emphasizes accessibility, interdisciplinary programming, and community engagement, building on the Reno Tahoe model that has doubled in size twice and generated millions in art sales.

Emerging Indigenous artists reveal their stories in major showcase

Four emerging Indigenous artists from Nagula Jarndu, a women's art centre in Broome, have been selected to present their work at Revealed, an annual Perth showcase of new and emerging Western Australian Aboriginal artists. The artists—including Ebony Pierik—created large-scale silk pieces using hand-carved linocut blocks, now displayed in the main gallery of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA). The exhibition, curated by Whadjuk, Balladong and Wilman Noongar artist Zali Morgan, also features a large-scale art market where thousands of works are sold directly to buyers, with 100% of proceeds going to the artists.