Image: Portland Art Museum
The Portland Art Museum will host a conversation on Australian Indigenous art on September 27, bringing together National Gallery of Victoria curator Dr. Jessica Clark and Tasmanian artist and documentary photographer Ricky Maynard. The one-hour program, titled ‘The Stars We Do Not See: Opening Conversation’, will take place at 2 p.m. in the museum’s Whitsell Auditorium in Portland, Oregon, and is included with general admission.
The discussion accompanies ‘The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art’, an exhibition on view at the Portland Art Museum from September 5, 2026, through January 3, 2027. Drawn exclusively from the collection of Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria, the exhibition presents more than 100 works by more than 130 artists and is described by the museum as an introduction for North American audiences to the distinct visual iconographies of Indigenous Australia.
The exhibition spans modern and contemporary Australian Indigenous art from the late 19th century to the present. Its scope includes ochre bark paintings, experimental weavings, immersive sound and video works, and photography. The museum’s presentation includes work by Anmatyerr artist Emily Kam Kngwarray, Senior Yolŋu artist Gulumbu Yunupiŋu, and contemporary artists Brook Andrew, Destiny Deacon, and Betty Muffler.
Maynard’s work will receive particular attention during the conversation. The museum identifies him as a documentary photographer, activist, and social commentator from Ben Lomond and Cape Portland in Tasmania. His work in the exhibition includes documentary series and portraits of Wik elders, the traditional custodians of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland.
Clark, a Trawlwoolway woman, is the Senior Curator of First Nations Art at the National Gallery of Victoria. She will appear alongside Maynard in a discussion moderated by Kathleen Ash-Milby, the Portland Art Museum’s Senior Curator of Native American Art and a member of the Navajo Nation. The program is set to address the living cultural traditions, artistic innovations, and socio-political themes represented in the exhibition, with a specific focus on Maynard’s practice.
‘The Stars We Do Not See’ is organized by the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with the Denver Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, and the Peabody Essex Museum. The exhibition is curated by Myles Russell-Cook, formerly Senior Curator of Australian and First Nations Art at the National Gallery of Victoria and now Artistic Director and CEO of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. In Portland, the presentation is coordinated by Ash-Milby. The opening conversation is scheduled for September 27 from 2 to 3 p.m. at 1219 SW Park Avenue.
