New major exhibition opens at Manningham Gallery

Published
6 May 2025
Liveable Places and Spaces Doncaster
Three women in the Manningham Art Gallery viewing paintings from the Painted Country exhibition.
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Painted Country – a new major exhibition featuring the work of five First Nations artists – is now open at the Manningham Art Gallery in Doncaster. 

The artists – Nellie Ngampa Coulthard, Brenda Napaltjarri, Clara Napurrula, Rene Sundown and Adrian Jurra Tjungurrayi – bring diverse practices and perspectives to reveal their unique depictions of the Australian landscape in their work.

The senior and emerging artists represent two Indigenous arts centres – Iwantja Arts in South Australia and Papunya Tula Artists in the Northern Territory.

The exhibition has been timed to coincide with National Reconciliation Week, which is held each year from 27 May to 3 June, with the 2025 theme Bridging Now to Next.

Aboriginal writer, artist, arts worker and Aboriginal affairs advocate from Cape York Peninsula Jack Wilki-Jans has described the 14 artworks featured in Painted Country as “hypnotic visions” of the artists’ Country.

“Visions of a wide country, a country of colour and texture, of sand dunes and salt lakes, scorched earth and radiant sunsets, of brushes and sweeping tufts of grasses with flowers – Australia!” Jack Wilki-Jans  said.

“It isn’t the hand that paints which this exhibition exalts, it’s the eyes which see.”

This celebration of First Nations contemporary painting is presented in collaboration with Alcaston Art Gallery, with special thanks to the artists, Iwantja Arts in South Australia and Papunya Tula Artists in the Northern Territory.

Join us for Art at Dusk

Thursday 22 May
5.00pm to 8.00pm

You’re invited to an exclusive after-hours event to celebrate Painted Country on Thursday 22 May, ahead of National Reconciliation Week. 

Drop in anytime between 5.00pm and 8.00pm to see the exhibition, with Manningham Mayor, Cr Deirdre Diamante, formally opening the evening at 5.30pm. 

There will also be the opportunity to see our installation for Melbourne Design Week, Beyond the Table: The Dinner Party Reimagined, by local artists Isobel Goodman and Jade Piltz.

A painting of mostly orange, pink and yellow colours comprised of dots and small brushstrokes by First Nations arts Nellie Ngampa Coulthard.

Thursday 22 May
5.00pm to 8.00pm

Join us for an exclusive after-hours event at Manningham Art Gallery to celebrate our two latest exhibitions. 

A detail of a painting of a vase of yellow flowers on a dining table.

Thursday 15 May to Saturday 28 June

An interactive reimagining of a traditional dinner party, with a nod to 1970s nostalgia and celebrating one of the key gathering spaces in our homes, the humble dining table.

Gallery opening hours

Manningham Art Gallery, 687 Doncaster Road, Doncaster, is open Wednesday to Saturday, 11.00am to 4.00pm.