The National Gallery of Victoria has unveiled the first major Australian solo exhibition by celebrated Melbourne artist Atong Atem, staging an expansive survey of her richly layered, diaspora-informed photographic practice.
Opening this Friday at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square, The Art of Atong Atem marks a significant institutional milestone for the practitioner, offering audiences a comprehensive encounter with her distinct visual language until 14 June. Entry to the exhibition remains free to the public.
A Tapestry of Studio Heritage and Myth
Atem, who arrived in Australia as a child following her family’s displacement from South Sudan, has earned international renown for portraits that collapse time, geography and cultural iconography. The Guardian Australia reported that the showcase references mid-century African studio portraiture, family archives, Catholic visual idioms and speculative science fiction, while anchoring itself firmly in the folklore and cultural resilience of the Dinka Bor people.
Her compositions are instantly recognisable for their deliberate, saturated hues, intricate body paint and ornate textile backdrops. Rather than adhering to conventional documentary realism, Atem draws on the theatricality of mid-twentieth-century West and Central African studio masters, using staged portraiture as a vessel for self-determination. In doing so, her sitters are elevated into mythic figures who transcend simple demographic categories, asserting sovereign identities that refuse to be flattened by the western gaze.
Reclaiming Archives Across Continents
Central to the presentation is an interrogation of historical memory and displacement. For diaspora communities, family photographs often serve as fragile remnants of histories disrupted by conflict and migration. Atem treats these archival records not merely as relics of the past, but as dynamic sites of creative reinvention.
By interweaving intimate personal memorabilia with the cosmic aesthetics of Afrofuturism, the exhibition highlights the duality experienced by first- and second-generation migrants. The artist frequently examines the intersections of post-colonial history, exploring how spiritual iconography—inherited partly through Catholic missionary histories in East Africa—mingles with ancestral Dinka traditions. The visual tension between reverence and subversion is palpable across the gallery spaces, where customary tribal markings and celestial motifs sit side by side.
Expanding the Australian Cultural Canon
The survey represents an important moment of institutional recognition for contemporary African-Australian art. In recent years, Atem’s work has resonated across the domestic and international arts landscape, challenging conventional definitions of Australian portraiture and identity. Her sitters, predominantly friends, peers and family members from Melbourne's diverse diaspora, are presented with a dignity and creative agency seldom afforded to non-white subjects in traditional gallery collections.
By positioning Atem’s practice within the flagship Australian collection at Federation Square, the NGV’s free presentation invites a broad public into a dialogue about modern Australian multiculturalism. Rather than framing the migrant experience solely through tropes of trauma or dislocation, the exhibition champions resilience, beauty, and speculative future-making—affirming Atem’s reputation as one of the country's most compelling visual storytellers.
