A photograph of artists Doreen Jinggarrabarra and Stephanie Ali in ManingridaI is now being used in outdoor display in Melbourne to promote the upcoming NGV x Country Road: FUTURE COUNTRY 2026 project. You can see it on the exit wall at NGV International and the external facade of the studio at NGV Australia over at Fed Square.

The Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions is a national, biennial mentorship and exhibition program that supports emerging Australian First Nations artists and designers. This initiative brings together eight emerging creatives with leading industry mentors, fostering a unique opportunity for both artistic and professional growth. Through this collaboration, mentors offer guidance, encouragement and expertise, supporting the artists to realise their most ambitious work to date.

In 2026, FUTURE COUNTRY – the second iteration of the Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions – invites artists to look to the future while simultaneously acknowledging the past. Working across diverse mediums and innovative practices, the selected artists respond to the exhibition’s key themes of ancestral memory, truth-telling, restorying, and future-making.

The resulting commissions explore and reflect non-linear notions of time, honour intergenerational knowledges, and an embodied and relational understanding of place. Collectively, the works artists’ new commissions featured in FUTURE COUNTRY convey the strength and breadth of contemporary Australian First Nations art and design practice across the country.