Southern Highlands regional art gallery, Ngununggula, has announced its 2026 exhibition program, which sees five major exhibitions spanning First Nations practices, new commissions, international loans and a joyful summer celebration of the great Australian road trip.
Located within Retford Park, a property of the National Trust (NSW) and led by a dedicated team, Ngununggula — meaning 'belonging' in the traditional language of the Gundungurra peoples — is an award-winning regional art gallery in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Ngununggula director Susi Muddiman said 2026 presents as an exciting year for the gallery.
"It builds on extraordinary momentum: in 2025 we welcomed 65,565 visitors from the Southern Highlands and well beyond, and that speaks to the deep appetite for strong cultural programming in regional Australia," she said.
"We cannot wait to share what is ahead."
Ngununggula opened the year with one of Australia's oldest and most prestigious art awards, the Wynne Prize 2025, which is currently on display until April 6th.
Established in 1897, the Wynne Prize is awarded annually for the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours, or for the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists.
This year's touring exhibition brings together a diverse group of more than 50 artists, including Vincent Namatjira, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Lucy Culliton, and Betty Muffler, whose responses to land, Country, and contemporary aesthetics collectively map the full range of practice in painting and sculpture across Australia today.
Old Days, New Days | Arlta-imankinya, Arlta-errama (18 April - 14 June 2026) continues Ngununggula's annual commitment to celebrating the work of Australian female artists - a tradition inaugurated in 2022 with Kungka Kunpu.
The iteration focuses on the vital role women play within the family unit: gathering, nurturing, and sharing stories across generations.
Old Days, New Days foregrounds the deep creative relationships between Tangentyere Artists, Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, and celebrated Arrernte and Kalkadoon artist Thea Perkins. It also featuring existing and newly commissioned works by Grace Kemarre Robinya, Marjorie 'Nunga' Williams, Marlene Rubuntja, among others.
The project is supported by Ngununggula's Artist Circle, a collective of female donors committed to enhancing the visibility and recognition of women artists in Australia.
New Religion (27th June - 30th August 2026) is one of the most conceptually ambitious exhibitions in Ngununggula's history, placing eight newly commissioned contemporary works in dialogue with historic loans from the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, and the Chau Chak Wing Museum.
Artists including Hayley Millar Baker, Nell, Drew Connor Holland, and Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro engage with religious imagery, systems of belief, and symbolic form, interrogating how faith, power, and moral authority shape human behaviour across time.
The new commissions are presented alongside works by Albrecht Dürer, William Blake, Arthur Boyd, and Sidney Nolan, among others, creating a charged conversation between historical devotion and contemporary critique that asks why certain images and rituals continue to hold meaning.
Stories from a Small Country Town (12th September - 15th November 2026), curated by renowned Aboriginal curator, writer, artist and activist Djon Mundine, brings together two of Australia's most significant living artists — Archie Moore and Daniel Boyd — for a multifaceted investigation of portraiture, identity, and collective memory.
Together, the two artists trace the complexities of identity through the lens of community and place.
Road Trip (28th November 2026 - 7th February 2027) closes the year with an exhibition which draws on the enduring nostalgia of the great Australian drive.
Iconic 'Big Things', sweeping national landscapes, car snacks, unfolded maps, wildlife encounters, and soundtracks all feature in an exhibition for all ages.
Presented in conjunction with the National Gallery of Australia's concurrent summer exhibition Full Throttle, Road Trip features works by Gerwyn Davies, Ben Quilty, William Mackinnon, and more.
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