arts

Potter Museum of Art opens major exhibition exploring the enduring significance of Australia's iconic gum tree

Phoebe Blogg Published July 10, 2026 at 11.30am (AWST)

Installation view of Ngarn Wa’ngal: Art of the gum tree, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, 2026. (Image: Christian Capurro)

The University of Melbourne's Potter Museum of Art has opened a major new exhibition: Ngarn Wa'ngal: Art of the gum tree.

Running until November 21, the exhibition explores this tree as a source of creative inspiration across First Nations, colonial, twentieth-century and contemporary practice, and includes five significant new artist commissions.

Taking its title from the Woi Wurrung language — Ngarn wa'ngal meaning 'breathing for us' - the exhibition reflects the deep cultural and ecological significance of the gum tree as both a living presence and a powerful symbolic force.

To celebrate the exhibition's opening, Potter Museum of Art will host a day of free public talks on Saturday July 11, bringing together commissioned artists Jane E. Brown, Dean Cross, Megan Evans, Janet Laurence and Jazz Money alongside acclaimed artist Julie Gough, the exhibition's curators and University of Melbourne academics.

The opening weekend marks the beginning of a dynamic public program that will continue throughout the exhibition, featuring after-hours conversations, guided gum tree walks through the University of Melbourne's Parkville campus with Petrichor Collaborative, and hands-on workshops exploring the cultural, ecological and artistic significance of the gum tree.

Curated by Alisa Bunbury, senior curator of the Grimwade Collection at the University of Melbourne, and guest curator Sophie Gerhard, the exhibition features over 175 artworks including colonial paintings by John Glover, Eugene von Guérard and Frederick McCubbin, twentieth-century art by Hans Heysen, Albert Namatjira, Jessie Traill, Arthur Boyd and Margaret Stones alongside leading contemporary artists including Nici Cumpston, Vincent Namatjira, Joan Ross and Gaypalani Wanambi.

Alongside artworks from the University of Melbourne's collections and major loans from across Australia, the exhibition also presents five new commissions.

"Ngarn Wa'ngal encourages us to reflect upon the fundamental role of eucalypts in our society and within Australia's natural and built environments," Bunbury said.

"Surveying the many ways in which artists have used the gum tree to reflect their own relationships with this most familiar of trees, we see clearly their enduring hold on our emotions, memories, and personal and national identities.

"Through this recognition, it also asks us to accept responsibility for their continuity and survival as we negotiate the escalating climate emergency."

Gerhard noted that the gum tree is "embedded in Australia's consciousness as a formative symbol of nationhood".

"For many, it carries the power to unify and celebrates something fundamental about this country. But national iconography across a colonised land is never simple," she said.

"This exhibition celebrates the eucalypt while drawing attention to how artists have harnessed it as a symbol of Indigenous sovereignty, colonial conquest and contemporary climate action.

"An exhibition that brings together such diverse artworks, voices and conversations, while holding space for the sheer joy of being among trees, is something really special. It's been a pleasure to work with the team at the Potter in bringing this exhibition to life."

"The gum tree is one of the most recognisable and complex symbols in Australian life," said Charlotte Day, Director of Art Museums at the University of Melbourne.

"This exhibition brings together historical and contemporary perspectives to reveal its many meanings — from deep cultural knowledge and connection to Country, to its role in shaping national identity and our understanding of the environment today. Ngarn Wa'ngal: Art of the gum tree invites audiences to reconsider the eucalypt not simply as an icon, but as a living subject that continues to shape artistic, cultural and environmental narratives across generations."

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication Ngarn Wa'ngal: Art of the gum tree, published by The Miegunyah Press, an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing.

The richly illustrated book brings together artists, Aboriginal Elders, art historians, ecologists, poets and writers to reflect upon the eucalypt's role in our social and art history.

This exhibition was inspired by Russell Grimwade's love of eucalypts. Grimwade (1879-1955) had a life-long association with Melbourne University, bequeathing an art collection, library and support for future research, exhibiting, publishing and collection development.

The exhibition is supported by the Russell and Mab Grimwade Miegunyah Fund,Eucalypt Australia and Bosisto's Australia. The publication is supported by the Russell and Mab Grimwade Miegunyah Fund and The Gordon Darling Foundation.

Participating artists include: Khadim Ali, Ethel Atkinson, Thelma Austin, Rex Battarbee, Dorrit Black, John Blogg, Arthur Boyd, Merric Boyd, John Brack, Jane E. Brown, Nikki Browne, Hector Tjupuru Burton, Louis Buvelot, Robert Campbell Junior, Harold Cazneaux, Maree Clarke, Selma Nunay Coulthard, Dean Cross, Nici Cumpston, Jess Dare, Shay Docking, Peter Dombrovskis, Julie Dowling, Russell Drysdale, AW Eustace, megan evans, Adrian Feint, Rosa Fiveash, Sue Ford, William Ford, Helen Fuller, Deanne Gilson, Joshua Wickett Gliddon, John Gollings, Julie Gough, John Glover, Russell Grimwade, Henry Gritten, Eugene von Guérard, Treahna Hamm, Matthew Harris, Hans Heysen, Naomi Hobson, Wendy Hubert, Dianne Jones, Narelle Jubelin, Tjilpi Kunmanara Robin Kankapankatja, John Kauffmann, Kiah Kraftsrafts, Rosemary Laing, Janet Laurence, Lefebure and Sons, Jenna Lee, John Lewin, Sydney Long, Mildred Lovett, Brian Martin, Robyn Mayo, Frederick McCubbin, Rob McHaffie, Louisa Anne Meredith, Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni, Hal Missingham, Jazz Money, Eirene Mort, Albert Namatjira, Vincent Namatjira, Frederick Polydore Nodder, Ian North, Lin Onus, Jill Orr, Sydney Parkinson, Marylin Brown Petyarr, Tali Tali Pompey, Robert Prenzel, Margaret Preston, Shirley Purdie, Anita Mbitjana Ratara, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Carol Panangka Rontji, David Rose, Joan Ross, Mervyn Rubuntja, Alfred Sells, Alexander Schramm, Rebecca Selleck, Grace Cossington Smith, Yasmin Smith, Margaret Stones, Arthur Streeton, William Strutt, Stefan Szonyi, Christian Thompson, Mary Tonkin, Jessie Traill, Peter Tully, James Tylor, Hossein Valamanesh, May Vale, Gaypalani Waṉambi, Wukun Waṉambi, Lewis Wandin-Bursill, Sera Waters, Fred Williams, Dino Wilson, John Wolseley, Pedro Wonaeamirri, Gertie Yabbu, and Wanapati Yunupiŋu

For more fashion, arts, culture and lifestyle news subscribe for free to the Style Up newsletter.