Australian Centre for Contemporary Art reveals seven artists for returning NEW26 exhibition

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art announces artists for NEW26 as landmark commissioning series returns

The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) has named Amanda Bell, Amanda Bennetts, Nicholas Currie, Naveed Farro, Caesar Florence-Howard, Diego Ramírez and EJ Son as the seven artists selected for NEW26.

Running from 18 September to 22 November 2026 at ACCA in Southbank, the exhibition will premiere seven major site-specific commissions developed with the artists. It is the first edition of a revitalised biennial format for NEW, which originally ran from 2003 to 2016.

Curated by Dr Shelley McSpedden and Sophie Prince, NEW26 brings together early-career practices from Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. Painting, moving image, ceramics, sound, sculpture, installation, writing and architectural interventions will feature across works examining subjects including artificial intelligence and technology, identity, colonial legacies and the responsibilities of cultural institutions.

The format returns to the principle on which NEW was founded: giving emerging artists the resources, curatorial support and physical scale to push their practices beyond what might otherwise be possible at that point in their careers. The series has historically focused on individual commissions rather than imposing a single exhibition theme.

Seven artists selected from across Australia

The NEW26 artists bring markedly different approaches to the exhibition.

Badimia Yamatji and Yued Noongar multidisciplinary artist Amanda Bell, based on Wardandi land near Goomburrup/Bunbury, explores language, power and cultural identity through culturally grounded storytelling.

Sunshine Coast artist Amanda Bennetts creates installations informed by her lived experience of chronic illness and disability, examining relationships between health, wellness, technology and infrastructure.

Naarm/Melbourne-based Mununjali and Kuku Yalanji artist and curator Nicholas Currie works across painting, sculpture and performance, while Iranian-Australian artist Naveed Farro combines sculpture, film, photography, digital technologies and traditional craftsmanship to consider obscured histories and access to cultural knowledge.

Also based in Naarm, Caesar Florence-Howard uses layering, erasure and revision in paintings and drawings concerned with transformation and unstable images. Mexican-Australian artist, writer and curator Diego Ramírez examines art, culture, institutions and their social and political settings through a multidisciplinary practice.

South Korean-born, Sydney-based EJ Son completes the group, using sculpture, installation and performance - often with humour and provocation - to investigate desire, fear, paradox and subjectivity.

A major ACCA series revived

NEW began in 2003, shortly after ACCA moved into its larger purpose-built Sturt Street home. Its inaugural edition commissioned six artists, including Emily Floyd, David Rosetzky and Louise Weaver, to produce work at a scale that represented a significant step in their developing practices.

Over its original run, NEW became a recurring marker of emerging Australian art, with alumni including Destiny Deacon, Marco Fusinato, Fiona Connor, Alicia Frankovich, Angelica Mesiti, Kate Newby and Darren Sylvester.

Its return as a biennial gives participating artists and curators an extended period to research, experiment and develop substantial new commissions while retaining the program's original emphasis on risk-taking and new ideas.



The return of NEW reflects ACCA's longstanding commitment to being always new, always now, always free.

NEW26 will be presented in ACCA's Main Exhibition Gallery at 111 Sturt Street, Southbank, from Friday 18 September to Sunday 22 November 2026. Entry is free. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday, 10am-5pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 11am-5pm.

NEW26

Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
18 September - 22 November 2026
Free entry