A new group exhibition at Linden New Art, Coral Futures, brings together new and recent projects by First Nations and other contemporary Australian artists, considering coral’s importance to the survival of vital marine ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef.
“Coral Futures is the culmination of my time living in far north Queensland, and my research into how artists are responding to the climate crisis, and in particular, its impact on coral and reef ecosystems, in poetic, speculative and thoughtful ways,” says Curator Hamish Sawyer.
“As several artists who have worked with coral as both a material and subject matter are Melbourne-based, I’m thrilled that we can present the exhibition at Linden New Art.”
The starting point for Coral Futures was Budjalung/Lismore-based artist Marian Tubbs’ 2019 video essay Nervous Systems, which uses ripped online images, footage and sound to illustrate the life cycle of coral and its intersections with human activity.
For this exhibition, Tubbs presents the video alongside a new series of Lenticular photographs, a recent development in the artist’s assemblage-focused practice. In these works, thoughtful juxtapositions of incongruous imagery, including brutalist ruins inhabited by vertically climbing coral, propose alternative fertilities in an unprecedent era of mass bleaching and rising sea temperatures.
Rachel O’Reilly’s feature-length experimental documentary NORTHERN WATERS 2025 brings together various settler artists, citizen activists and Traditional Owners who have led ongoing campaigns against extractive industries and the multinational companies seeking to exploit the reef for profit. The film presents contemporary interviews with First Nations artists, activists, and scientists, as well as archival footage of past environmental campaigns.
Laresa Kosloff’s short film made from stock footage, The Bleaching (2024), imagines a world where saving the Great Barrier Reef is outsourced to artificial intelligence. Narrated by the satirical comedian Andrew Hansen and First Nations actress and director Rachael Maza, the film exposes the power structures underlying ecological crisis, including white supremacy, the military-industrial complex and the billionaire class.
Naarm/Melbourne-based Nicholas Mangan continues his decade-long examination of resource extraction in Core–Coralations (Bronchial Diversion) (2024), a major floor-based sculpture fabricated in coral composite material.
The work, cast from lung-like plastic PVC piping and appearing to have coral growing out of the structure, premiered as part of Mangan’s 2024 survey exhibition A World Undone at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and is being shown in Melbourne for the first time in Coral Futures.
Working across a range of media, Helga Groves rigorously investigates the physical properties of ancient matter and fleeting environmental episodes. A newly completed painting, , a woven fishing line textile, both reference the causal connection between sea surface temperatures and coral bleaching, using data from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
Shown alongside Deep Ocean Currents 2004, these works reflect Groves’ sustained observation of both macro and micro climactic phenomena, illustrating the impact of changing global weather patterns on the health and viability of coral populations.
Erub Arts Centre on Darnley Island in the Torres Strait Islands has become known for its collaborative, sculptural installations, made from ghost nets, fishing line and other plastic pollution rescued from the sea to protect marine species from strangulation, ingestion and death.
For Coral Futures, Erub artists Jimmy John Thaiday, Florence Gutchen, Nancy Naawi, Lavinia Ketchell have created a new ghost net work, highlighting the importance of the Great Barrier Reef to their culture and survival.
Despite a number of contemporary artists using coral as a material or subject in their work over the past decade, Coral Futures represents the first thematic exhibition focused on the marine animal in Australia. Rather than being exhaustive, it brings together a range of perspectives by artists who have been actively considering coral’s significance over a sustained period of research and making.
Coral Futures is presented in partnership with the University of Sunshine Coast Art Gallery – where it will be shown: 1 August – 17 October 2026.
Coral Futures
Linden New Art, 26 Acland Street St Kilda
Exhibition continues to 1 February 2026
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.lindenarts.org for details.
Images: Helga Groves, Sea Surface Temperatures (Anomalies Series 2008-25), 2025. Oil paint, pigment and medium on linen – courtesy of the artist; Sutton Gallery, Melbourne; and Milani Gallery, Brisbane | Nicholas Mangan, Core–Coralations (Bronchial Diversion), 2024. Coral, aragonite, mineral powder, acrylic resin, plastic nurdles, fiberglass, reinforced plastic grating, mild steel, enamel paint – courtesy of the artist; Sutton Gallery, Melbourne; and LABOR, Mexico City | Marian Tubbs, and then plants are confused with stones. rocks look like brains, stalactites like breasts, veins of iron like tapestries adorned with figures, 2025. Lenticular photographs, 3 parts, 62 x 82 cm each (framed) – courtesy of the artist and STATION, Melbourne + Sydney.