The National Art School (NAS) has announced a major new exhibition, SEARCHERS: Graffiti and Contemporary Art, presented as part of Sydney Festival, running from 17 January 2026 – 11 April 2026.
Marking the 20th anniversary of NAS Gallery, the exhibition brings together more than 35 artists spanning four decades to explore the intersection of contemporary art and graffiti culture, and the enduring impact of spray paint on both.
Curated by Australian artist and NAS lecturer Fiona Lowry, alongside NAS Senior Curator Katrina Cashman, SEARCHERS traces the evolution of spray paint and its movement between subcultures and the fine art world.
Introduced as a commercial product in the mid-twentieth century, spray paint rapidly became the defining tool of late-20th-century graffiti, a global art movement born from marginalised communities.
SEARCHERS highlights how spray paint has fuelled acts of visibility and creative resistance, amplifying voices outside institutional frameworks while simultaneously reshaping visual languages within contemporary art.
“The concept for SEARCHERS began at home, watching my son fall into the disciplined, almost monastic world of graffiti. What seemed like a teenage obsession quickly revealed itself as a demanding aesthetic education – a community built on mentorship, repetition and the relentless refining of form,” said Curator, artist and National Art School lecturer, Fiona Lowry.
“As I learned more, I recognised the shared intensity between this underground world and the one I knew as an artist: the drive to make, to master and to be seen by one’s peers. This grew into a curatorial investigation into how graffiti and contemporary art are interconnected practices shaped by transmission, influence and an urgent need to create. SEARCHERS follows spray’s movement between the street and the gallery, showing how its politics and poetics continue to inform contemporary art today,” said Lowry.
“The National Art School is excited to present SEARCHERS as part of Sydney Festival 2025,” said National Art School Senior Curator and Gallery Manager, Katrina Cashman. “The title of the exhibition comes from street slang and the idea that artists are in essence, searchers: claiming spaces that are not always open to them, searching for expression, borrowing and reinterpreting ideas that have been handed down, reshaped, and renewed over generations.
“The transmission of influence, from one writer to another, one artist to another, is an act of searching, not possession. We’re thrilled to bring these powerful artistic voices together at NAS – the perfect setting to explore this dynamic cultural lineage,” said Cashman.
Highlights from SEARCHERS: Graffiti and Contemporary Art include:
- Five leading graffiti writers, SPICE, MACH, BAGL, LAZY and BREAK will create large-scale, ephemeral spray-painted works directly on the walls in the gallery space, echoing the realities of graffiti practices.
- Renowned Lebanese Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi, who will represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale, presents foundational early works which connect to his early years as a hip hop artist and the importance of music to street culture.
- Renowned Australian artist Callum Morton showcases his 2002 Motormouth installation: a monumental, intricately detailed freeway that demonstrates how spray operates in public art and architectural contexts.
- Kamilaroi and Gamilaraay artist Reko Rennie exhibits works that employ spray as a decolonial language. His beginnings as a graffiti writer continue to inform his work, with aerosol remaining central to his practice.
- Leading Australian contemporary artist Mikala Dwyer’s 2022 sculptural work, A Forest, demonstrates how
spray can function sculpturally and architecturally, contributing to the show’s broader concept that spray is a medium with dynamic applications across form and space. - Australian filmmaker Eddie Martin’s influential documentary Jisoe is widely regarded within graffiti culture for its honesty and unfiltered depiction of a Melbourne graffiti writer and the scene.
- Tongan-Australian performance artist Latai Taumoepeau presents photographs from her Dark Continent series, documenting her 2015 durational performance. Over 48 hours, she used her body to probe Australian national identity as an artificial spray tan was repeatedly applied.
- Shaun Gladwell will present two video works, Tangara (2003) and Planet and stars sequence: Barrier Highway (2009). Tangara reflects a key theme of the exhibition: the symbolism of trains in graffiti culture, representing movement, visibility, and the claiming of public space.
- Representing a younger generation engaging with spray through pop culture aesthetics, Tresor Murace, a Master of Fine Arts student at the National Art School, exhibits contemporary portraits that use the
airbrush as central tools. - Joan Ross uses both physical and digital spray to disrupt and rewrite colonial imagery, treating aerosol as a tool of correction, defacement and protest. Her video work, The claiming of things, demonstrates how spray paint can operate politically, challenging power and reframing narratives.
SEARCHERS: Graffiti and Contemporary Art
National Art School Gallery, 156 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst (Sydney)
Exhibition: 17 January – 11 April 2026
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.nas.edu.au for details.
Images: Joan Ross, The naming of things, 2012, single-channel digital video animation, colour, sound. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by the artist, 2015 | Howard Arkley, Triple fronted, 1987, synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Mollie and Jim Gowing Bequest Fund 2014 © The Estate of Howard Arkley, Courtesy Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art. Image © Art Gallery of New South Wales | Callum Morton, Motormouth, 2002, polystyrene, wood, synthetic polymer paint, impact resistant polyurethane, acrylic, sound dimensions variable according to wall size. Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection Benefactors’ 2002 © Callum Morton, courtesy RoslynOxley9 Gallery Photo: AGNSW