A Long-Awaited Return to ACCA’s Roots: NEW26 at ACCA
The NEW26 exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art introduces us to a new wave of compelling artistic voices. Ahead of the exhibition’s opening, VAULT heard from the artists of NEW26 to discuss the most pressing issues facing the next generation of contemporary artists.
Image credit: NEW26, 2026, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Naarm/Melbourne. Photograph: Carmen Zammit
Given contemporary artists’ ongoing drive to defy convention, it can be easy to overlook the artistic legacies that have paved the way for today’s experimentation. At the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), the revival of its NEW exhibition series offers a reminder of those enduring legacies, bringing a new generation of artists into conversation with the artists and ideas that came before them.
NEW26 represents the return of the series after a decade-long hiatus. The NEW exhibition program was one of ACCA’s early initiatives to propel the work of emerging artists. The revitalised NEW series will follow a biennial format, designed to platform the work of notable contemporary artists. The series is renowned for commissioning entirely new, site-specific artwork from each invited artist.
But, what do leading art galleries deem ‘new’ and how does this contribute to the broader arts ecology?
NEW26 features commissions from Amanda Bell, Amanda Bennetts, Nicholas Currie, Naveed Farro, Caesar Florence-Howard, Diego Ramirez and EJ Son.
Prior to the show’s opening, I spoke with a few of the artists about the legacy of the NEW exhibition series and the contradictions present when creating ‘new’ work. Despite the mental picture I had formed from the artists’ descriptions, the all-consuming worlds they conjured were beyond my expectations.
Image credit: Amanda Bennetts, Axis Mundi, 2026, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Naarm/Melbourne. Photograph: Carmen Zammit
Immediately, you are greeted by the ominous echo of Amanda Bennetts’ looming installation. Standing in the shadow of Axis Mundi, a towering installation combining video works, protruding handrails and data-centre infrastructure, you are confronted with the unfeeling face of Big Tech. Bennetts employs this sleek tower to unpack her own experiences after being diagnosed with a degenerative medical condition. “Honestly, it started with a coffin ad. It showed up in my feed not long after I was diagnosed... No mysticism, no guesswork, just a cold prediction, aggregated from my searches, my location, the things I hovered over.” Against this violent reminder of her own surveillance, Bennetts painstakingly assembled Axis Mundi to unveil the hidden infrastructure that upholds digital algorithms and cloud networks. These sinister roots permeate the work, conveyed through the haunting audio and the foreboding insertion of handrails, typically used as an accessible measure, jutting from the tower’s uniform surface. The combined effect is one of domination. Here, Bennetts forces us to confront the material impacts of technological surveillance, concretely presenting the consequences of depersonalising and categorising human bodies.
Image credit: Naveed Farro, No More Kings, 2026, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Naarm/Melbourne. Photograph: Carmen Zammit
In a similar manner, Naveed Farro applies the commission to its fullest capacity in No More Kings. The work presents a documentary-style film against three photographs and life-size replicas of architecture from the ancient city of Persepolis. At first glance, the archaeological findings Farro stages would seem at home in a museum. However, under ACCA’s roof, Farro implores us to reject such easy categorisations. No More Kings is the result of meticulous digital reconstruction, created through a combination of digital scans, 3D printing and CGI. By invoking deception as an artistic device, Farro explains, “No More Kings is interested not simply in whether an image is real or fake, but in who has the authority to make an image appear truthful, who gets to write history, and what happens when those systems of authority become increasingly difficult to trust.” This project emerged from Farro’s ongoing efforts to connect with his ancestral homeland as a member of the Iranian diaspora. While unable to visit Iran, Farro visited the Louvre to see ancient Persian artefacts. In doing so, Farro recognises the nuanced promise of colonial archives, which offer a window into cultural inheritance yet remain coloured by colonial bias. Through No More Kings, Farro highlights the fraught nature of archival materials, and the fallacy of accepting history as absolute.
Image credit: Diego Ramirez, Bureausis, 2026, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Naarm/Melbourne. Photograph: Carmen Zammit
Across the hall, Diego Ramirez negotiates similar contradictions in Bureausis. Continuing the exhibition’s pattern of ambitious installations, Ramirez presents a multi-faceted work centred around a 52-000 word book of his invention. The novel follows an artist returning to Mexico after an extended diaspora in Australia, only to discover the art world’s intimate entanglement with bureaucracy across public, private and non-profit branches. The brilliance of Bureausis lies in its self-awareness. Against the white-walled backdrop of ACCA, Ramirez deliberates on his own responsibility as an artist confined within institutional bureaucracy. His interventions into the gallery resound accordingly, reflected across a selection of faux leather office chairs, draped grey carpet and a wooden desk housing stacks of Bureausis. Ramirez commandeers his artwork as both commentary and commodity, selling the novel for $35 at ACCA’s gift shop. Implicit in this choice is the artwork’s contractual obligation within the exhibition, which once sold, steadily disappears. Ramirez makes this theoretical commentary tangible by removing a section of the gallery wall, fittingly extending the installation to encompass the institution itself. In doing so, ACCA’s commission enables Ramirez to reckon with the impossibility of evading institutional control, even within a profession dedicated to the freedom of expression.
For all the anticipation around the return of the NEW series, this cohort prove themselves eminently capable of taking up this mantle. The impactful works of Bennetts, Farro and Ramirez are testament to the creativity that emerges from allowing artists time, space and support to push their work to a grander scale. By reclaiming what is ‘new,’ ACCA consciously engages with the most topical concerns affecting Australian contemporary art, spanning introspective explorations of technology and AI, colonial legacies, desire, identity, institutional authority and medium-specific practice.
The series reaffirms ACCA’s place in the arts ecology as a champion of uninhibited experimentation. NEW26 attests to the strength and diversity of practices explored by contemporary Australian artists, heralding the next generation in contemporary art’s unfolding trajectory.
