Primavera 2026: Young Australian Artists (Group Exhibition), curated by Antares Wells. Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2026.
Spanning photography, film, installation, textiles and painting, Primavera 2026 presents new work by artists Mark Maurangi Carrol (NSW), Stanton Cornish-Ward & Trent Crawford (WA/VIC), Callum McGrath (QLD/VIC), Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis (VIC), Linda Sok (NSW), Jack Wansbrough (WA) and Rudi Williams (VIC). They approach the material and psychic traces of the past in diverse ways. These include irreverent and experimental approaches to archival material, acts of obsession and reparation, and making art at the edges of memory.
Dolly, (2021) Dolly, (2024) digital pigment prints on cotton rag
Skin to Skin, (2026) two-channel video, sound 5:50 minutes
Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis uses photography, film and spoken-word yarning to connect to her ancestral land, Pitta Pitta Country, in Queensland. Her work focuses on the experience of her great-grandmother Dolly. A member of the Stolen Generations, Dolly was forcibly removed from Pitta Pitta Country to Palm Island as a child. As an adult, she and her husband Harry were photographed by anthropologist Norman Tindale in 1938 on Palm Island. In Romanis' two photographs titled Dolly, the artist layers her own images of Pitta Pitta Country with Tindale's portraits of her great-grandmother, reuniting Dolly with Country.
Romanis' video Skin to Skin was made outside the South Australian Museum (where Tindale's portraits are located) during a major move of the museum's collection. Denied access to Dolly's photographs and unable to find out where they were at the time of filming, Romanis addresses Dolly directly in the work, asking Where is it that you rest now?If it can even be called rest! Fiercely tender, Skin to Skin affirms an unbroken bond across generations and asserts the rights of First Nations peoples to the management of their cultural heritage.
Special thanks and acknowledgement to the crew which made Skin to Skin possible. Gabriel Francis (Director of Photography), Sam Twidale (Camera Assistant), Charles Alderson (Sound Recordist) and Mimo Mukii (Producer).
More information about this exhibition can be found here: https://www.mca.com.au/exhibitions/primavera-2026/
Installation view, Primavera 2026: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, photograph: Jessica Maurer
Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis, Skin to Skin, 2026, installation view, Primavera 2026: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, photograph: Jessica Maurer
Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis, Skin to Skin, 2026, installation view, Primavera 2026: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, photograph: Jessica Maurer
Jahkarli Felicitas Romanis, Dolly 2021, Dolly 2024, installation view, Primavera 2026: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, photograph: Jessica Maurer