Image: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
‘Passage: The Art of Atong Atem’ opens at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square, on 30 October 2026 and runs through 14 June 2027, with free entry. It is Atem’s first major solo exhibition in Australia and presents new and existing photographic works.
The exhibition is presented as a portrait of modern Australian culture viewed through migration, family, mysticism and gender. Through portrait photography, Melbourne-based South Sudanese artist Atong Atem uses her body as a canvas, adorning it with textiles, paint and symbolic objects.
Her work explores inherited traditions and ancestral memories, societal norms around gender and race, and both emotional and physical scars. Richly layered and vibrant, Atem’s photographs connect beauty and design with a lineage of African studio photography, feminist aesthetics and diasporic narratives. ‘Henna 1’ (2021) is from the Banksia series 2021.
Atem’s art tells a story of a culture that persists amid displacement, war and colonialism, tracing a transcontinental and intergenerational journey that echoes the often-coerced movements of people and tells a story of enduring resilience. Noting the neglect of East African contributions in mainstream art history, Atem centres her community and herself in her work while honouring Dinka Bor myths and culture.
“We carry the presence of people we’ve never met but who live on through us through names, practices and photographs,” Atem said in 2025.
