FUTURE COUNTRY – COUNTRY ROAD + NGV
FIRST NATIONS COMMISSIONS 2026: NGV Australia

Yhonnie Scarce

20 Mar - 13 Sep 2026

FUTURE COUNTRY is the second iteration of the Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions initiative. This national mentorship program pairs eight emerging First Nations artists and designers with established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creatives, presenting a unique opportunity to connect and share intergenerational knowledge and foster artistic and professional growth.

FUTURE COUNTRY celebrates land, legacy, community and cultural continuity. In response to the exhibition’s key themes of ancestral memory, re-storying, truth-telling and future-making, participating artists have created deeply personal, culturally significant and innovative works that engage Indigenous futures and envision alternative realities. Spanning weaving, photography, sculpture, possum-skin- cloak making, moving image, sound and design, the eight new commissions explore non-linear notions of time, honour intergenerational knowledge, and convey embodied and relational understandings of place.

Yhonnie Scarce is the mentor for Carly Tarkari Dodd

Each of the artists share an empowering message affirming the strength, resilience and sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, languages, and cultures past, present and future. Presented together in FUTURE COUNTRY, the artists collectively reflect the dynamism and depth of contemporary First Nations art and design by emerging practitioners.

FUTURE COUNTRY: Artist Journeys
Sat 21 Mar, 11am–2pm

Celebrating the opening of FUTURE COUNTRY: Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions, exhibiting artists and their mentors share the stories behind their commissions and their experience working together, hosted by NGV Senior Curator of First Nations Art, Dr Jessica Clark.

Hear insights into the individual and collective histories, perspectives and practices that make up the exhibition, and the unique journeys these artists have been on.

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square
Level 3, First Nations Art