We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of New South Wales stands.

Longing for Home

Photography titled the Broken heart but Ricky Maynard and Painting by Carlene West

Left to right: Ricky Maynard Broken heart 2005 (printed 2009). Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased with funds provided by the Aboriginal Collection Benefactors Group and the Photography Collection Benefactors Program 2009. © Ricky Maynard. Licenced by Copyright Agency; Carlene West Tjitjiti 2015. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Wendy Barron Bequest Fund 2016. © Carlene West. Licenced by Copyright Agency

Considers six artists’ longing for the place they or their family once called home

Longing for Home

6 March – 22 August 2021

Art Gallery of New South Wales

Naala Nura, our south building

Ground level

20th & 21st c Australian art

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Free admission

Longing for Home presents works by six Aboriginal artists from across mainland Australia who have documented their melancholic longing for Country, and how that emotion is characterised by both yearning and distance, time and space. Drawn from the Gallery’s collection, their works give voice to many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who desire to return to another time or location, when returning is often no longer possible.

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Artist Ricky Maynard interviewed by Erin Vink, Assistant curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. He discusses the creation of his two series 'Returning To Places That Name Us' and 'Portrait of a Distant Land', both featured in the exhibition 'Longing for Home'.