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Magic, mystery, cosmology and comics have all cast their spell on Waiben-born (Thursday Island) artist Brian Robinson, so much that his new commission for Newcastle Art Gallery is called Abracadabra, a word deployed by ancient Roman physicians through to vaudevillian magicians that seems perfectly positioned to encapsulate his spectrum of influences.
The large vinyl-cut print work consists of four panels, each two metres high by a metre wide, showing a series of shelved mythological objects that supposedly contain magical powers, from skulls and traditional Torres Strait objects sourced from the Newcastle University ethnographic collection through science fiction iconography and proton energy packs made famous in the Ghostbusters films.
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The late Anmatyerr artist Emily Kam Kngwarray captivated the world with her batik prints and large acrylic paintings, produced from her remote desert home of Utopia, north-east of Alice Springs.
She went on to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale (posthumously, alongside Yvonne Koolmatrie and Judy Watson), and her work continues to resonate globally, commanding an eponymous solo blockbuster at Tate Modern in London, which ran from mid-2025 into early 2026.
Working with extraordinary intensity in the final years of her life, Kngwarray made upwards of 3000 canvases before her death in 1996, in her mid-80s.
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Six-time Archibald prize finalist Richard Lewer had wanted to paint Pitjantjatjara Elder, artist and healer Iluwanti Ken for a long time, and the wait has paid off with his first win of the $100,000 portrait prize.
“I was a very lucky man to paint Iluwanti,” said Lewer, motioning towards his subject, who had journeyed from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands of South Australia to the Art Gallery of New South Wales to see the artist receive the 2026 honour.
“It’s an absolute pleasure that you gave me your time [on] your Country and you let me paint you.”
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