New Religion: Ngununggula, Bowral

Johnathon World Peace Bush

27 Jun - 18 Oct 2026

A GROUP EXHIBITION BRINGING CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN COMMISSIONS INTO DIALOGUE WITH HISTORIC WORKS FROM MAJOR PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Artists: Drew Connor Holland
| Brent Harris
| Hayley Millar Baker
| Luke Thurgate
| Nell
| Johnathon World Peace Bush
| Julia Robinson
| Gian Manik
| Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro
| Albrecht Dürer
| Johan Wierix
| John Martin
| William Blake
| Arthur Boyd
| Sidney Nolan
| Justin O’Brien
| Cologne School
| Stefan Lochner
| Billy and Charley

New Religion fosters a dialogue between works of art and objects from both historical and contemporary origins. It intentionally places historic works within a modern context, asking us to consider why they continue to captivate us. The project will commission eight contemporary artists and collectives and present their work alongside loans from significant state and national collections.

Across the exhibition, contemporary artists engage with religious imagery, belief systems, and symbolic forms to consider how ideas of faith, power, and meaning take shape. Historic modes of devotion, morality, and reverence are reimagined through contemporary materials and perspectives, creating new points of connection between past and present. Some works reflect on belief as a source of comfort, continuity, and purpose, while others question its role in shaping authority, behaviour, and social structures. By bringing contemporary commissions into dialogue with historic works, New Religion invites reflection on why certain images, rituals, and systems of belief continue to resonate, and how they are reinterpreted across time, cultures, and lived experience.

EXHIBITION OPENING EVENT
SATURDAY 27 JUNE | 5PM – 7PM
You are warmly invited to the opening of New Religion. All are welcome. Event details and the booking link will be shared with our mailing list — sign up at the bottom of the page to receive your invitation.

Ngununggula
1 Art Gallery La, Bowral NSW