What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 11am - 5pm Wednesday 11am - 5pm Thursday 11am - 5pm Friday 11am - 5pm Saturday 11am - 5pm

Canberra Contemporary

Name: Canberra Contemporary
Address: 44 Queen Elizabeth Terrace, Parkes, ACT, 2600, AU
Telephone: +61262470188
Price range: Not applicable

Home
Australia
Parkes, ACT
Canberra Contemporary

ON NGUNNAWAL AND NGAMBRI COUNTRY. CANBERRA’S CENTRE FOR INNOVATION, NEW IDEAS AND DIRECTIONS IN CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS

02/06/2026

ARTIST PROFILE: NATHAN NHAN

Nathan Nhan (b. 1997, Canberra, ACT) is a ceramicist whose practice uses experimental making and the ceramic process as a tool to create, investigate and manifest identities within his work. Responding to the inherent materiality and cultural significance of ceramics, Nhan reflects upon concepts of place, community and identity from an Asian Australian perspective. He often employs traditional vessels as a foundation, transforming historical forms into contemporary vehicles that play with the medium’s enduring epic narrative of both Eastern and Western perspectives imbued with personal stories and social commentary.
�
Nhan currently lives and works in Canberra, ACT. Nhan has been represented by KSGoW since 2025.

See Nhan’s work at Canberra Contemporary as part of BLAZE.
🎤Join us at 12pm on June 20 for artist talks with Nathan Nhan, Litia Roko, Florence Steel and Jackson Taylor.

1.Nathan Nhan at the exhibition opening of BLAZE at Canberra Contemporary. Photograph by Cassie Abraham
Photographs 3 - 6 by Brenton McGeachie:
�3.Nathan Nhan, ‘Trophy #81 Gruelling green grass’, 2026, clay and glaze, 70.3 x 41.5 x 39.2 cm
4.Nathan Nhan, ’Trophy #56 Chef Gibson’, 2024, clay and glaze, 18 x 15 x 16 cm
5.Nathan Nhan, ’Trophy #73 Honours’, 2024, clay and glaze, 15 x 14.3 x 16.5 cm
6.Nathan Nhan, ’Trophy #47 A Plain Game’, 2024, clay and glaze, 20 x 14.2 x 15.5 cm

30/05/2026

Thank you for joining us last night at the opening of ‘Rematriate’ by Jessika Spencer. Visit the gallery this weekend to see the exhibition.

‘Rematriate’ is a feminist, First Nations reimagining of “repatriate,” recentring matriarchal knowledge, cultural care, and Indigenous sovereignty. Through woven banners and textile installations made from secondhand and naturally dyed materials, Spencer expands her weaving practise into acts of cultural resistance and craft activism.

Jessika Spencer is the recipient of our inaugural 2026 Platform First Peoples Program.

Exhibition dates: 29 May - 21 June 2026
Gallery hours: 11am - 5pm, Friday to Sunday

Image: Jessika Spencer and visitors at the exhibition opening of 'Rematriate.'

29/05/2026

ARTIST PROFILE: NATASHA TAREEN

Natasha Tareen is an emerging artist whose practice explores identity, memory and embodiment through a multidisciplinary approach. She developed her practice on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country (Canberra) and currently works from Wurundjeri Country (Melbourne).

Working across painting, charcoal and textiles, Tareen draws on diasporic family histories and symbolic forms to examine brown femininity, myth, bodily autonomy and generational memory. Her work traces layered, intuitive narratives that move between personal and cultural histories, revisiting past and present generations to explore connection and healing.

Tareen was a finalist in the ANU School of Art & Design Drawing Prize and exhibited in ‘Everything I Am Not’ (2024) at Platform by Canberra Contemporary. Her debut solo exhibition, ‘SPLIT OPEN,’ held at M16 Gallery, presented large-scale scrolls, painted garments and object-based works concerned with transformation, protection and self-authorship.

Tareen’s work is part of BLAZE at Canberra Contemporary, showing until June 20, 2026.
tareen

Images:
1.Natasha Tareen at the exhibition opening of BLAZE. Photograph by Cassie Abraham
3+4. From left to right: Natasha Tareen, ‘As above so below,’ 2026, charcoal and acrylics on cotton duck canvas, 163 x 36 cm. + Natasha Tareen, ’Scorekeeper,’ 2026, charcoal and acrylics on cotton duck canvas, 330 x 184 cm. + Natasha Tareen, ’ Rewind,’ 2026, oil paint on found object, 30 x 20 x 6 cm. Photographs by Brenton McGeachie

26/05/2026

ARTIST PROFILE: ELIOTT JUNE O’DOWD

Eliott June O'Dowd is an emerging creative, born and raised on Yuin land, working now on Ngunnawal & Ngambri land. His multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture incorporating textile crafts, painting and occasional printmaking.

Through bold, organic and surreal forms, Eliott explores life and joy, through a distinctive and deeply personal perspective. His work invites audiences to immerse themselves in unfamiliar visual and emotional territory, encouraging moments of curiosity and reflection.

See O’Dowd’s work at Canberra Contemporary in group show BLAZE until June 20, 2026.
june.art

Images: �
1.Eliott June O’Dowd at the exhibtion opening of BLAZE. Photograph by Cassie Abraham
3.Eliott June O’Dowd, ‘Parb Persuot,’ 2025, mixed media sculpture with felt, 16 x 6 x 7 cm +
Eliott June O’Dowd, ’Sternslea Laro,’ mixed media sculpture with felt, 12 cm x 33 cm x 10 cm. Photograph by Brenton McGeachie.
4.Eliott June O’Dowd, ‘Lomin Croser Sal,’ 2025, mixed media sculpture with felt, 36 x 19 x 11 cm +
Eliott June O’Dowd, ’Wenser Fub Bayri,’ 2025, mixed media sculpture with felt, 16 x 6 x 5 cm +
Eliott June O’Dowd, ’La Gha,’ 2025, mixed media sculpture with felt, 31 x 11 x 13 cm. Photograph by Brenton McGeachie.
5.Eliott June O’Dowd, ’Kester Crul Docac Soop,’ 2025, mixed media sculpture with felt, 55 x 26 x 20 cm.Photograph by Brenton McGeachie.
6.Eliott June O’Dowd, ’Meg Pia,’ 2026, mixed media sculpture, 250 x 71 x 95 cm. Photograph by Brenton McGeachie.

21/05/2026

EXHIBITION OPENING | PLATFORM FIRST PEOPLES PROGRAM

Join us at Platform on Thursday 28 May at 6pm for the opening of ‘Rematriate’ by Jessica Spencer.

Canberra Contemporary is delighted to announce Jessika Spencer is the recipient of our inaugural 2026 Platform First Peoples Program.

Jessika Spencer is a Wiradjuri woman currently based on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country. Her practice weaves together traditional and contemporary fibre art techniques. Drawn to slow, ancestral processes, her artistic expression is hands on, with weaving, writing, and photography as her primary mediums.

Sustainability, land care, and cultural heritage are at the heart of Spencer’s practice. The materials she uses are biodegradable and respectfully gathered from Country. Empowerment and self determination underpin everything Spencer creates. Each work is an act of cultural strength and personal sovereignty.

Exhibition dates: 29 May - 21 June
Gallery hours: 11am - 5pm, Friday to Sunday
ru

Images courtesy of the artist:
1. Jessika Spencer, 'Woven Coolamon', 2025, Native Reeds, Raffia + Paperbark, 44 cms x 20 cm.
2. Jessika Spencer at the exhibtion opening of BLAZE, 2025.

20/05/2026

ARTIST PROFILE: ISAAC KOZLOVSKIS

Isaac Kozlovskis is a settler and artist working on stolen Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. He uses video, text, performance and objects as tools to understand the everyday and the strange in contemporary life. His work navigates themes of vulnerability, humour, and ego.

In 2025, Isaac was included as a finalist in the National Still Life Award at YAM Coffs and the Gosford Moving Image Art Award for his work 'The Challenge' (2025).

He also makes bricks.

Kozlovskis' work is currently on display at Canberra Contemporary as part of BLAZE. This exhibition will run until 20 June, 2026.
kozlovskis

16/05/2026

ARTIST PROFILE: ASIL HABARA

Asil Habara / Wet Sahara is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice interrogates the vast intersections of Australian North African culture. Embracing material experimentation, her works oscillate between intimacy and spectacle, confronting the tensions embedded within our cultures' hybridity. Centering around process and repetition, through screen printing, installation and digital imagery, she draws attention to halftones, texture and the residue of making. Through a kitsch contemporary lens that envelops traditional and digital culture, her works continuously explore duality and contradictions that reveal complex cultural dialogues across identity, symbols and contemporary language.

Habara’s work is currently on display at Canberra Contemporary as part of BLAZE. This exhibition will run until 20 June, 2026.

15/05/2026

Visit Platform this week to see ‘Extra Padding’ and contribute your own patch to the Community Quilt!

In collaboration with the artists featured in ‘Extra Padding,’ you are invited to visit Platform, select one of the textile scraps available at the front desk and take it home with you to make your own patch! Artists from this exhibition have made patches related to the Kamberri/Canberra region and its histories, and they invite you to follow this theme or make whatever you feel like - be it personal, silly, informative, political or all of the above.

🌟Bring your patch back to Platform during exhibition times to pin onto the Community Quilt yourself, make one in your own time and post it to the artists for incorporation, or start your own individual masterpiece!

The artists would like to pay thanks and honour Jan knight, who passed away in 2025. The scraps provided for this project are part of her extensive quilting collection.

Email [email protected] for info about sharing and posting your patch.

This exhibition is showing until 24 May 2026.
Gallery hours: Friday - Sunday, 11am - 5pm

art

Image: Installation view of ‘Community collabrative quilt QUILTSTACON/QUESTAQUILT,’ 2026, (Andriana Carney, Emma Louise Hayman, Fiona Waters, Karena Keys, Phoenix Keys, Lois Waters, Margaret Goninon, Merryn Lloyd, Olivia Arnold, Owen Lewis, Phoebe Beard, Ruby Hoppen, Daisy Hoppen, Mads Kennedy) mixed textiles. Photography by Fiona Little

09/05/2026

Visit ‘Extra Padding’ at Platform this weekend!

Featuring artists; Andriana Carney, Emma Louise Hayman, Fiona Waters, Karena Keys, Lois Waters, Margaret Goninon, Merryn Lloyd, Olivia Arnold, Owen Lewis, Phoebe Beard and Ruby Hoppen.

What would happen if artists trained in fine art and working across performance, printmaking, object-making, ceramics and more, came together to explore textiles as a shared, unfamiliar ground? What might emerge through collaboration with a quilting guild, where quilts become sites of community, care and exchange, and the gallery becomes a safe space to work outside traditional fine art hierarchies?

This exhibition is showing at Platform until 24 May 2026.
Gallery hours: Friday - Sunday, 11am- 5pm

art

Image credit: Installation view of ‘Extra Padding,’ 2026. Photography by Fiona Little.

Address

44 Queen Elizabeth Terrace
Parkes, ACT
2600

Opening Hours

Tuesday	11am - 5pm
Wednesday	11am - 5pm
Thursday	11am - 5pm
Friday	11am - 5pm
Saturday	11am - 5pm

Telephone

+61262470188

Website

https://www.canberracontemporary.com.au/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Canberra Contemporary posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Canberra Contemporary:

Shortcuts

Address
Telephone
Opening Hours
Alerts
Contact The Museum
Claim ownership or report listing

Want your museum to be the top-listed Museum in Parkes?