Ready for 2026? MCA Australia’s Artistic Program Revealed

Ready for 2026? MCA Australia’s Artistic Program Revealed

-Australian contemporary art takes centre-stage with ground-breaking First Nations artists leading a vibrant year of commissions, global premieres and exhibitions from around the world for MCA Australia’s 2026 program

Media Release /Sydney/27 January 2026

Step into a year of bold contemporary art at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia), where over 50 artists from across Australia and the globe are showcased across 10 powerful new exhibitions and three new artist commissions. A focus on First Nations artists and multidisciplinary activations bring the Museum to life. From emerging voices to acclaimed names, the MCA highlights the vibrancy and diversity of contemporary art at its boldest, most joyous, and most experimental.

Kicking off the 2026 program on 5 March, the MCA brings Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s acclaimed moving image operatic work Drama 1882, a highlight of the 2024 Venice Biennale, to the Museum for its Australian premiere.

In May, Tony Albert, one of Australia’s most prominent First Nations artists, will bring his signature humour and energy to the MCA for the Museum’s major winter show Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir (21 May 2026 –19 October 2026), his largest exhibition to date. This exhibition is supported by Destination NSW.

Through the year, commissions from Australian artists Nell and John Prince Siddon, Walmajarri man of the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia will delight visitors with their fearless fun and a touch of surreal pop on the Museum’s iconic rooftop Sculpture Terrace (August) and the vast Foyer Wall (April). In May, the MCA’s facade will be transformed for Vivid Sydney by a nightly light projection by an MCA Collection artist.

In June, Primavera 2026: Young Australian Artists returns, presenting the work of the next generation of artists from across the country.

In July, one of Australia’s foremost contemporary sculptors Hany Armanious will take over the Macgregor Gallery transforming found objects into hyperreal forms, inviting visitors to discover the beauty and wonder in the everyday.

The MCA Collection continues to be a major draw card for visitors from Australia and abroad. In August, Australian artists will take the global stage in Collection: MCA x Tate, with a powerfully curated framing of Australian art now, featuring key works from the 2016–2022 MCA x Tate International Joint Acquisition Program.

Following the success of Ancient Feelings by British artist Thomas J Price, in September the MCA Australia unveils the second Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission on Warrane/Sydney Harbour, continuing its commitment to public art and place-making. The 2026 Lawn Commission artist will be announced later in the year.

October brings the extraordinary life and career of Sydney-born Robyn Kahukiwa(1938–2025, Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngāti Konohi, Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare), one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s preeminent painters, to the MCA in her first major exhibition in Australia.

Closing the year in November 2026, MCA Australia will present its major Summer International Exhibition. Details to be announced soon.

Beyond the Museum’s walls, MCA Australia’s influential C3West program, working with contemporary artists and communities in Western and Greater Sydney, launches three new projects. Meanwhile, MCA Australia’s touring exhibitions of Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise and Primavera 2023: Young Australian Artists continue to exhibit across regional Australian galleries.

Throughout the year MCA Australia will be offering free entry days thanks to its Into Art Partner Telstra. The Museum will also extend its opening hours every Thursday night until 9pm.

MCA Australia Director Suzanne Cotter said: “Australian artists and ideas are at the heart of an immensely varied and creative global contemporary art scene, and the MCA is the home of that conversation here in Australia. In 2026 we offer a dynamic program that spans Sydney and across NSW of inspirational experiences, big ideas, big questions and big thinking. I am excited to welcome visitors to enjoy and make connections with the remarkable energy of contemporary art and artists in the world today.”

Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir is proudly supported by the NSW Government via its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW.

NSW Minister for Jobs and Tourism, Steve Kamper said: “The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is set for another spectacular year, with bold, innovative exhibitions that will engage local and visiting art lovers. By curating some of the very best contemporary artists from around the world, the MCA not only enriches our state’s vibrant arts scene but also attracts visitors from across the country and the globe, supporting businesses and jobs and showcasing NSW as Australia’s leading destination for world-class cultural experiences.”

For further comprehensive details of the MCA Australia 2026 Artistic Program please see below.

Australia Autumn 2026

Directed, choreographed and composed by Shawky, Drama 1882 is a sweeping, immersive drama filmed inside an historic theatre in Alexandria and sung entirely in classical Arabic with a cast and crew of over 400 Egyptian performers, spectacular costumes and atmospheric settings, the work presents an operatic retelling of a pivotal moment in modern Egyptian history: the Urabi Revolt (1879–1882).

Hypnotic in its staging, the opera unfolds across eight meticulously crafted scenes that recount the political and social upheavals leading to the uprising—events that ultimately marked the beginning of British colonial rule in Egypt.

This marks Siddon’s largest work to date, bringing his vibrant, surrealist style to the east coast of Australia for the first time at this scale. Living and working between Broome, WA, and the remote township of Fitzroy Crossing in the West Kimberley, Siddon draws from the traditional craft of boab nut carving, blending desert iconography, personal narrative, and ancestral creation stories with imagery inspired by global current affairs. His works challenge conventional notions of Indigenous painting, offering piercing commentary on issues ranging from climate change and endangered species to war, politics and the destruction of sacred sites.

Since 2012, the Foyer Commission has been the site of memorable works from some of Australia’s most loved artists Helen Eager (2012), Guan Wei (2013), Daniel Boyd (2014), Stephen Bush (2016), Khadim Ali (2017), Gemma Smith (2018), Vincent Namatjira (2021) and Diena Georgetti (2025). In 2024 the Iraqi-Swedish-American artist Hayv Kahraman was invited to create the eighth iteration of the Foyer Commission series as part of the 24th Biennale of Sydney: Ten Thousand Suns.

Guest curated by Indigenous Australian curator Bruce Johnson McLean (Wierdi people), the exhibition brings together Albert’s work across sculpture, photography, installation, painting, and assemblage alongside major new commissions, affirming his reputation as one of the most fearless and influential voices in Australian contemporary art.

Developed in close collaboration with the artist, Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir takes inspiration from MCA Australia’s location on Sydney Harbour at Tallawoladah and The Rocks, a profoundly significant site of early colonial contact now synonymous with tourism and souvenir culture.

Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir explores the commodification and misrepresentation of Aboriginal people and culture while celebrating survival and cultural pride.

Armanious will invite visitors to see beauty and wonder in unexpected places by transforming found objects taken from mundane contexts into new forms. His hyperreal approach takes overlooked material from everyday life and turns it into objects of curiosity.

Born in Egypt in 1962, Armanious migrated to Australia as a child and grew up in Sydney where he currently lives and works. Armanious has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally since the 1990s. In 2011 Armanious represented Australia in the 54th Venice Biennale.

Following the success of A Year in Art: Australia 1992 at Tate Modern, which welcomed over a million visitors, this new exhibition reframes joint acquisitions for an Australian context, introducing rich new perspectives to audiences with new commissions, iconic works from the MCA Collection, and themes of exchange, migration, memory, resistance, and continuity.

Curated by MCA Australia’s Rebecca Ray (Curator, First Nations Art), Anneke Jaspers (Senior Curator, Collection) and Manya Sellers (Associate Curator, Collection) this exhibition comprises over forty works and features painting, sculpture and installation, printmaking, photomedia and video.

Artists include: Vernon Ah Kee, Christopher Bassi, Paddy Bedford (Nyunkuny), Richard Bell, Gordon Bennett, Daniel Boyd, Elisa Jane Carmichael, Frances Djulibing, Bonita Ely, Janet Fieldhouse, Gunybi Ganambarr, Helen Ganalmirriwuy Garrawurra, Melba Gunjarrwanga, Rosina Gunjarrwanga, D Harding, John Hughes, Helen Johnson, Mabel Juli, Peter Kennedy, Anchor Kulunba, Gail Mabo, Kyra Mancktelow, Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, Ricky Maynard, Hayley Millar-Baker, Balang John Mawurndjul AM, Yhonnie Scarce, Darrell Sibosado, Shireen Taweel, Ken Thaiday Snr, Esme Timbery and Judy Watson.

Nell has a long history with the MCA and first exhibited with MCA Australia in Primavera: Young Australian Artists in 1999 and her work is part of the MCA Collection which includes the spectacular, large-scale wall installation Unlimited Radiance (2001).

Past artists for this site-specific commission, which overlooks one of the best views of Sydney, include Ricky Swallow 2025, Kate Newby, 2024, Reko Rennie, 2023, Cameron Robbins, 2021, Danie Mellor, 2019, Caroline Rothwell, 2016, Sangeeta Sandrasegar, 2014, and Hany Armanious, 2012.

Kahukiwa was one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s preeminent painters, with vibrant dynamic paintings that feature an uncompromising focus on Māori life, culture and politics. The status of Māori women is a recurring theme within Kahukiwa’s work, in which they are portrayed as nurturers, deities, warriors, leaders, activists, superheroes, and symbols of strength and resilience for Indigenous women across the world.

Over many decades her work interrogated the ongoing impacts of colonisation for Māori –  she has said, “How can you paint about Māori and not paint about political issues? How can you separate the two?” This exhibition speaks to the experiences of Indigenous people globally and the struggle for identity and belonging in the face of land and language loss, migration and urbanisation.

Developed as a partnership between Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

MCA Touring exhibitions

Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise
Curator                             Manya Sellers

Exhibition dates
Bunjil Place, VIC: 27 November 2025 – 22 February 2026
Orange Regional Gallery, NSW: 6 March – 17 May 2026
Canberra Museum & Gallery, ACT: 30 May – 23 August 2026
Queen Victoria Museum & Gallery, TAS:  6 September – 22 November 2026

Guest curator                          Talia Smith

Exhibition dates
Glasshouse Gallery, Port Macqurie, NSW: 14 February – 19 April 2026
Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, SA: 16 May – 19 July 2026

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia) presents, collects and engages with the art of our time. Guided by the principles of belonging, connection and influence, we aim to be the defining platform for contemporary art and ideas in Australia and beyond. Located on Sydney Harbour at Tallawoladah, a home to stories, art and culture for over 65,000 years, we connect the widest possible public to contemporary art through exhibitions, events, creative learning and access programs. Our evolving Collection of over 4,700 artworks is the only public collection in Australia dedicated to the work of living artists, with over a third represented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. As an independent, not-for-profit organisation, MCA Australia raises over 85% of its revenue each year through donations and commercial activities to deliver its artistic and engagement programs.