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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

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Canberra Contemporary

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

24/06/2026

Entries are now open for the Canberra Contemporary 2026 Members Show!

The Members Show is an exciting exhibition that brings together artist from across our community. All financial Canberra Contemporary members (General or Concession) are warmly invited to enter an artwork for exhibition at Platform.

Free entry and no theme. All eligible entries will be exhibited.

A prize pool worth over $1,000 will be awarded on opening night, courtesy of our friends at Lerida Estate , Into Tomorrow Accounting, Bookrunner , and The Jetty.

⏰Entries close: Sunday 16 August, 6pm Exhibition opening: Friday 21 August, 6pm Exhibition dates: 22 August – 13 September 2026

Read the guidelines and enter via the link in our bio.

20/06/2026

LAST DAYS

It's the last weekend to visit Platform and see ‘Rematriate’ by Jessika Spencer. ‘Rematriate’ is a feminist, First Nations reimagining of “repatriate,” recentring matriarchal knowledge, cultural care, and Indigenous sovereignty.

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

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

Images: Installation view of 'Rematriate' by Jessika Spencer. Photography by Fiona Little.

19/06/2026

PLATFORM EXHIBITION OPENING

Join us at Platform on Thursday 25 June at 6pm for the opening of ‘Haunted Treasures’ by Maggie Douglas and Sandy Ma.

Every system, object, experience has been designed and created with human intention and intervention.

Reflecting on lived histories, Douglas and Ma reframe their lost treasures by centring reflection, humour, and joy through slow, craft practices. The act of craft thus becomes an act of resistance, against the colony, against capitalistic machines. Introducing two brand new major works, this exhibition reflects on the human hands that uphold insidious and oppressive systems and invites the human hands into resisting these systems.

Learn more about this exhibition on our website.

Exhibition dates: 26 June - 19 July 2026
Gallery Hours: 11am - 5pm, Friday to Sunday

douglas

Image: Miah-Tya Gowland

17/06/2026

It’s the last few days to catch BLAZE at Canberra Contemporary featuring 8 emerging Kamberri/Canberra artists; Asil Habara, Isaac Kozlovskis, Nathan Nhan, Eliott O’Dowd, Litia Roko, Florence Steel, Natasha Tareen and Jackson Taylor.

🌟Join us for the artist talk with Jackson Taylor, Florence Steel, Litia Roko and Nathan Nhan at 12pm on Saturday June 20.

Exhibition dates: 2 May - 20 June 2026
Gallery Hours: 11am - 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday

wet.sahara
Isaac Kozlovskis
Nathan Nhan
eliott (lio) june
Litia Roko
Florence Steel
natasha tareen | artist ⋆𖦹 ⋆°✩
Jackson Taylor

Image: BLAZE installation view. Photography by Brenton McGeachie.

16/06/2026

ARTIST PROFILE: JACKSON TAYLOR

Jackson Taylor is a faux-naïve figurative genre painter whose practice centres on an ongoing fascination with shared experience and the human condition. Working primarily in painting, Taylor explores everyday moments as sites of quiet tension, humour, and familiarity. His works are characterised by flattened geometric picture planes, elongated limbs, and scenes drawn from the in-betweens of life. From logos, domestic and public settings to the subtle body language of his figures Taylor uses each detail as a tool to evoke viewers to recognise themselves within the narratives depicted. He is represented by King Street Gallery on William.

See Taylor’s work at Canberra Contemporary as part of BLAZE.

Join us this Saturday (20 June) at 12pm for artist talks with Jackson Taylor, Florence Steel, Litia Roko and Nathan Nhan.

Images:
1.Jackson Taylor at the exhibition opening of BLAZE. Photograph by Cassie Abraham
3.Jackson Taylor, ’Working from home’, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 90 cm. Photograph by Brenton McGeachie�
4.Jackson Taylor, ’Untitled (Industrial Area)’, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 102 x 122 cm. Photograph by Brenton McGeachie
�5.Jackson Taylor, ’Where is Open?’, 2026, acrylic on canvas, 102 x 122 cm. Photograph by Brenton McGeachie

13/06/2026

Visit Canberra Contemporary this week to see the 2026 iteration of BLAZE featuring 8 emerging Kamberri/Canberra artists; Asil Habara, Isaac Kozlovskis, Nathan Nhan, Eliott O’Dowd, Litia Roko, Florence Steel, Natasha Tareen and Jackson Taylor.

🌟Join us for the artist talk with Jackson Taylor, Florence Steel, Litia Roko and Nathan Nhan at 12pm on Saturday June 20.

Exhibition dates: 2 May - 20 June 2026
Gallery Hours: 11am - 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday
saharakozlovskis
june.art

tareen

Image: BLAZE installation view. Photography by Brenton McGeachie.

12/06/2026

SHOWING NOW

Visit Platform this weekend to see ‘Rematriate’ by Jessika Spencer.

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, Jessika Spencer expands her weaving practise into acts of cultural resistance and craft activism.

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

Image: Installation view of 'Rematriate' by Jessika Spencer. Photography by Fiona Little

11/06/2026

ARTIST PROFILE: FLORENCE STEEL

Florence Steel is an emerging visual artist working predominantly on Ngunawal/Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country (Canberra, ACT). Florence holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Art History & Curatorship from ANU (2025), and has work in public and private collections.

Through symbolic oil painting, Steel explores personal and cultural relationships to the universe. Their work sits at the intersection of art history, metaphysics, and cosmology, referencing both historical and contemporary iconographic languages to explore how knowledge is constructed through symbolic and material processes.

Steel’s work is currently on display at Canberra Contemporary as part of BLAZE.

Join us for the artist talk with Florence Steel, Litia Roko, Nathan Nhan and Jackson Taylor at 12pm on June 20, 2026.

Image credits:
1.Florence Steel at the exhibition opening of BLAZE. Photograph by Cassie Abraham
3.Florence Steel, ‘The body is the threshold,’ 2026, oil on canvas, 31 x 25.5 cm each. Photograph by Brenton McGeachie.
4.Macrocosm (dark), 2025, oil on canvas, 190 x 153 cm. Photograph by Brenton McGeachie.

10/06/2026

For almost 40 years, Canberra Contemporary has been a dedicated space for emerging and early career artists on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land.

As part of our commitment to art and artists in 2025, we invested more into Platform, our project space in Manuka.

Why? Because we believe that sustained investment in artists is essential, particularly in today’s economic, political, environmental and social climate. And without bold and daring artistic voices, our community misses out on opportunities for open dialogue, challenging ideas, and creative thinking.

This led to a number of exciting new programs and initiatives including: an inaugural First Peoples Program, a revised Member’s Show initiative, and a new inter-state exhibition exchange with Firstdraft, Sydney. Now imagine what we can do with your support?

As part of our 2026 EOFY campaign, we are inviting our community to get behind the next generation of artists and help us platform them, with a donation before June 30.

Donation link in bio. https://www.canberracontemporary.com.au/donations-1

Image: Exhibition opening of 'Is this us?' by Jackson Taylor, 2025. Photograph by Hilary Wardhaugh.

09/06/2026

Join us on Saturday 20 June at 12pm to celebrate the closing weekend of BLAZE in conversation with artists Nathan Nhan, Litia Roko, Florence Steel and Jackson Taylor. This artist talk will be led by exhibition curator and Artistic Director & CEO of Canberra Contemporary, Sophia Cai.

The last day to visit BLAZE, featuring works by Asil Habara, Isaac Kozlovskis, Nathan Nhan, Eliott June O’Dowd, Litia Roko, Florence Steel, Natasha Tareen and Jackson Taylor is Saturday 20 June 2026.

Free event, no bookings required.
Gallery hours: 11am-5pm, Tuesday to Saturday.

Florence Steel

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/

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