Green Room: AGSA solo show for Kaurna artist, Country Arts SA 2026 program, WOMAD callout
South Australian arts and culture news in brief.
James Tylor solo show slated for AGSA 2026 program
The Art Gallery of Australia has dropped the last pieces of its 2026 puzzle this week, having already announced the lineup for the 2026 Adelaide Biennial Yield Strength and Monet to Matisse: Defying Tradition – the first in the gallery’s four-year, $15 million Winter Art series that will bring 57 pieces from the Toledo Museum of Art to Adelaide.
With the downstairs galleries devoted to Monet to Matisse, the gallery’s temporary exhibition space upstairs will host Turrangka…in the shadows, a major survey exhibition from multidisciplinary Kaurna artist James Tylor. The exhibition, which includes Tylor’s vast body of daguerreotype photography and hand-made Kaurna cultural objects, will give local audiences a chance to experience Tylor’s long-running project of reframing and decolonising the landscape and histories of ‘South Australia’.
It will be a homecoming of sorts for the 2020 Adelaide Biennial featured artist and repeat Ramsay Art Prize finalist, with the exhibition originally presented at the University of New South Wales before touring nationally. It will run from July 31 to November 1.
Other new announcements include Two Islands, One Thread: Textiles of Lombok & Bali, an exhibition tracing the overlapping artistic lineages of the Indonesian islands Bali and Lombok. The exhibition will draw heavily from works donated by Michael Abbott AO KC, along with loans from the West Nusa Tenggara State Museum in Lombok.
Closing out the year, Dressed Up: Fashion & Photography 1850 – 1920 will celebrate the gallery’s deep collection of historical fashion and photography from South Australia. Building on years of curatorial research, the exhibition promises to explore interwoven narratives of class, gender and colonial south Australian society through pieces that are rarely displayed – century-old garments and ambrotype photography are often as fragile as they are revelatory. It will run from December 5 to March 21 2027.
“In 2026 the Art Gallery of South Australia offers an inspiring program that celebrates artistic excellence, creative innovation and our rich collection,” AGSA director Jason Smith said of the gallery’s 2026 plans. “Anchored by exhibitions that speak to the complexities of our time, AGSA’s 2026 exhibition program champions the enduring power of artists to propose new ideas that transform our sense of self and the world we inhabit.”
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New slate for Holden Street Theatres
Mile End’s home of independent theatre, Holden Street Theatres, has laid out its own 2026 slate with a season that artistic director Martha Lott says is its boldest yet. She’ll be leading the charge herself with the world premiere of The Debate, a new play written by and starring Lott as a political speechwriter and former champion debater called into the principal’s office at her daughter’s school. Her daughter (Amelia Lott-Watson) incidentally, is also an aspiring champion debater, whose path to glory will set them both on a collision course.
The Debate is the first taste of HST’s 2026 Fringe program, and will be directed by Nick Fagan who has also been named Holden Street’s new Director in Residence.
“HST has always punched above its weight,” Fagan says of the news. “I’m honoured to join a company that backs artists so fiercely and brings audiences work that is honest, provocative and beautifully crafted.”
Check out the rest of the 2026 reveal here, and stay tuned for the rest if Holden Street’s Fringe offering.
Country Arts SA
A divisive chapter in South Australia’s not-too-distant past will be revisited in a major, multi-part art project that forms the centrepiece of Country Arts SA’s 2026 program announcement last week.
Kumarangk will reflect on the impact of the Hindmarsh Island bridge construction, and the story of the Ngarrindjeri women who resisted the controversial project. The project which will roll out across 2026 and 2027, encompasses a visual art exhibition at Adelaide Contemporary Experimental as part of the 2026 Adelaide Festival program, a documentary film slated for the Adelaide Film Festival, and a performance on-Country to be mounted in Goolwa.
The project is guided by the Ngarrindjeri mi:minar Cultural Authority, who are Sandra Saunders, Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, Aunty Margaret Brodie (representing her late mother, Aunty Veronica Brodie) and Tahlia and Illira Wanganeen (representing their nana, the late Dr Doreen Kartinyeri).
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Country Arts’ 2026 program also includes the 15th anniversary season of Nunga Screen, a short film program formerly known as Black Screen, that will screen during NAIDOC and Reconciliation Week, along with regional tours of Belvoir St Theatre’s Lose to Win and State Theatre Company South Australia’s Trophy Boys.
Regional live music will also be supported through a new contemporary music touring program Soundworks, while cabaret performer Michelle Pearson will tour her critically acclaimed show SKINNY around the state in May.
Slingsby’s A Concise Compendium of Wonder, slated to premiere at Adelaide Festival, will also tour to Whyalla’s Civic Park for a two week residency – keep reading InReview over the next few weeks for more about the project.
“We are proud to present our 2026 season, which foregrounds women, non-binary, First Nations and diverse voices across new work, reflecting who’s writing Australian stories now,” Country Arts SA chief executive Anthony Peluso said.
Bricks in the Cedars
We’re having a very Heysen-themed time at InReview this week, The Cedars, the Adelaide Hills heartland of the Heysen art dynasty is, moving closer to the opening of a new $9 million gallery next year. While the new gallery is slated to welcome visitors in March 2026, the project has launched an ‘Etched in History’ campaign to help get it to over the finish line. The campaign invites supporters to literally pave the way to the shiny new gallery by buying personalised bricks for the pathway linking it to Hans Heysen’s original studio.
Find out more and chip in here.
Call out for local WOMADelaide acts
With the full 2026 WOMADelaide lineup landing this week, the festival is also issuing an open call for local acts to join the party.
Since 2020 the Academy Stage at WOMADelaide has provided a pipeline between Adelaide’s grassroots music scene and one of its biggest annual music festivals. With the festival’s first 2026 lineup drop arriving earlier this month, organisers are opening the floor to emerging artists to throw their hat in the ring for next year’s Academy Stage.
While the initiative has previously been linked to the Elizabeth-based Northern Sound System educational program, this year’s call-out is open to any artists or groups aged between 18 and 30, with 50% of members currently residing in South Australia, who have a 30-minute set of original music good to go.
Head here for more details.
Green Room is a regular column for InReview, providing quick news for people interested, or involved, in South Australian arts and culture. Get in touch by emailing us at [email protected]