A Legacy 60 Years Strong…
"The South East Art Society has a significant history of supporting and exhibiting local artists across the Limestone Coast for over 60 years. This year The Riddoch is delighted to host the annual Open Art Awards and recognise the prize’s previous entrants and winners with an accompanying exhibition." — Ashleigh Whatling Director Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre and Cultural Development
SEAS Open Art Awards Exhibition
9 May - 8 June 2026
OPEN DAILY | FREE ENTRY
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The South East Art Society proudly supports and promotes visual arts across the Limestone Coast and surrounding regions.
Image: Cathleen Edkins, Old Mount Gambier Hospital, oil on canvas, 1984. Collection of South East Art Society Inc.
This month marks the fourth instalment of the Art meets Film series, featuring the compelling documentary Emily: I Am Kam, which explores the life and practice of acclaimed artist Emily Kam Kngwarray.
Widely regarded as one of Australia’s most significant First Nation’s contemporary artists, Emily Kam Kngwarray rose to international prominence for her bold, expressive works that draw deeply from her cultural knowledge and connection to Country.
The Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre is proud to hold works by Emily Kam Kngwarray within its permanent collection and this unique connection makes the upcoming screening particularly meaningful. A special opportunity to view selected works by Emily Kam Kngwarreye exclusively on display prior to the screening, accompanied by a brief introduction by Assistant Curator Saskia Scott.
Art Meets Film — Emily: I Am Kam
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM Thursday 14 May 2026,
The Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre
Doors open at 5:30pm. Film starts at 5:45pm.
Bar and complimentary snacks available.
BOOK ONLINE - link in Bio
Emerge 26
17 April - 3 May 2026
OPEN DAILY | FREE ENTRY
“It was fantastic to visit the four high schools and see the emerging talent in our region. The exhibition reflects the diversity of mediums and themes that the students have chosen to explore as part of their studies in SACE Stage I & II. There are exciting and innovative works in video and animation, photography, sculpture, drawing and painting.
This year’s EMERGE exhibition has some particularly strong examples of portraiture, highlighting the artists’ family, friends and heroes.”— Saskia Scott Assistant Curator Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre
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Image: Molly Skenfield Tenison Woods College Stage I Creative Arts, Nightmares 2025 digital projection made in Photoshop.
Bold. Young. Local. 'Emerge 26' is a survey of outstanding works by Stage I and Stage II visual art students in Mount Gambier. The exhibition brings students from across Mount Gambier to showcase their works together in one space, producing an important snapshot of the artistic scope and vision embodied in the next wave of our community’s young people.
Selected from their SACE 2025 exhibition, Emerge 26 features works by graduates from Mount Gambier High School, Grant High School, Tenison Woods College and St Martins Lutheran College.
Emerge 26
17 April - 3 May 2026
OPEN DAILY FREE ENTRY
Please join us for a celebration of the Emerge 26 exhibition
With remarks by Assistant Curator Saskia Scott 5:00pm Thursday 30 April 2026
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Image: Hellena Muzaliwa, Generations, 2025, acrylic on canvas. Stage 2 Creative Arts, St Martins Lutheran College
CLOSING SOON — Two must see exhibitions
Between Waves and the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025
on view @theriddoch until Sunday 26 April 2026
Between Waves, featuring ten ambitious commissions from First Nations artists whose works traverse internal and external worlds, embracing the sensory and cyclical rhythms of light and sound, thinking and feeling, listening and seeing, interwoven with ideas of material memory.
The National Photographic Portrait Prize, supporting and celebrating photographic portraiture in Australia. Each year the prize attracts thousands of entrants from emerging and established artistic talent across the country. Featuring famous faces and everyday Australians, the prize celebrates the vitality and diversity of photographic portraiture in Australia.
OPEN DAILY | FREE ENTRY
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Between Waves is an exhibition developed by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) touring nationally with NETS Victoria and curated by Dr Jessica Clark.
This project has been supported by Creative Victoria through the Yalingwa Visual Arts Initiative and the NETS Victoria’s Exhibition Development Fund; and the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.
A National Portrait Gallery exhibition. This exhibition is supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
A rare moment, almost gone. See 'Thelma', the People’s Choice winner of the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 on view at The Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre until Sunday 26 April 2026.
“We spent three days on Wilyakali and Barkindji Country making these images in the outback, and this one was made at sunset on the first day of the shoot. It’s rare for me to kind of have a sixth sense about a photo, but I distinctly remember when I made this photo on my old Rolleicord, having a feeling about it, and even saying aloud ‘I think that’s the shot, I think this is the album cover.’ I obviously couldn’t see the photo because it was shot on film but on pressing the shutter I just knew. —
Em Jensen (@emjensencreative ) on her work with Gamilaraay musician @thelmaplum
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A National Portrait Gallery exhibition. This exhibition is supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
Em Jensen - 'Thelma Plum' 2024 by Em Jensen - National Photographic Portrait Prize Finalist 2025. Audio recording by Em Jensen. Video created and supplied by the National Portrait Gallery @portraitau
One person picks up a rock with the help of another and places it down in a circular formation, a cool sensation up to the knee, waiting for the tide...
How did we get here? Rewind to the beginning.
Munaintyarlu – curl up that sea, on the crest of a wave. Creation is in the now.
— Artist Statement, Brad Darkson.
'waiting for kakirra' 2023 is an animated multi-projection installation that acknowledges and reconnects with sophisticated traditional First Nations aquaculture technologies.
By recreating a three-dimensional model of a Kaurna fish trap using photogrammetry software and interactive animation, Darkson foregrounds the work that continues within Community to rehabilitate these important cultural sites.
Darkson’s intention is to highlight the significance, complexity and legacy of First Nations aquaculture infrastructure and methods, and to dispel the ongoing hunter-gatherer myth in regard to First Nations cultural practice. 'waiting for kakirra' activates and begins building the fish trap only when people are present in the gallery space.
Now on view at The Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre until 26 April 2026 as part of the ‘Between Waves’ exhibition.
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Between Waves is an exhibition developed by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) touring nationally with NETS Victoria, curated by Dr Jessica Clark.
This project has been supported by Creative Victoria through the Yalingwa Visual Arts Initiative and the NETS Victoria’s Exhibition Development Fund; and the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.
Images: Brad Darkson, 'waiting for kakirra', 2023, (detail), motion activated animation and HD video with sound dimensions and duration variable. Created on Kaurna yarta. Installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2023. Commissioned by ACCA. Courtesy the artist. Photograph by Andrew Curti
@netsvictoria@acca_melbourne
'Sheer Joy' — The Washington Post
ART MEETS FILM — Faces Places
NEW date Thursday 23 April 2026 at The Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre
Drawn together by their shared love of images and the stories they hold, Varda and JR set off across rural France in JR’s travelling photo booth. Along the way, they meet locals from all walks of life, listen to their stories, and transform their portraits into monumental artworks displayed on barns, houses, storefronts and even trains. These striking installations reveal the beauty and humanity of everyday people while also illuminating the artists behind the camera.
Join us for the next Art Meets Film screening — Faces Places this Thursday 23 April 2026. Art Meets Film is a series of films inspired by and responding to our current exhibitions.
Faces Places captures these moving encounters with warmth and curiosity, charting not only the creation of extraordinary public art but also the tender, unexpected friendship that grows between two kindred creative spirits.
Doors open at 5:30pm. Film starts at 5:45pm.
Bar and complimentary snacks available.
BOOK ONLINE -link in Bio @theriddoch #whatsoninmountgambier #TheRiddoch #regionalartgallery #MountGambier #theriddoch #theriddochartgallery #movies #movieclips #moviebuff
Final days to view 'Between Waves' at The Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre. The exhibition navigates the intersections and collisions between art, culture, materiality and technologies.
Between Waves on view until 26 April 2026
Featuring commission work by Dean Cross ‘On who goes to The Gallows’ 1997-2023.
Dean Cross was born and raised on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country and a Worimi man through his paternal bloodline. He is a paratactical artist interested in collisions of materials, ideas and histories. Cross is motivated by the understanding that his practice sits within a continuum of the oldest living culture on Earth – and enacts First Nations sovereignty through expanded contemporary art methodologies. His cross-disciplinary practice spans photography, video, installation, sculpture, painting, contemporary dance and choreography, and often confronts the legacies of modernism, rebalancing dominant cultural and social histories.
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Between Waves is an exhibition developed by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) touring nationally with NETS Victoria, curated by Dr Jessica Clark.
This project has been supported by Creative Victoria through the Yalingwa Visual Arts Initiative and the NETS Victoria’s Exhibition Development Fund; and the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.
Images: Dean Cross, ‘On who goes to The Gallows’ 1997-2023, Between Waves, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2023. Courtesy the artist and STATION, Melbourne. Photograph by Andrew Curtis.
Between Waves, Installation View, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2023. Photograph, Andrew Curtis.
Step inside The Riddoch to see Australia’s most arresting portraits.
‘Mary at Momob’ 2024 by @renaesaxby is just one of the standout finalist works in the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025: A National Portrait Gallery Exhibition.
On view The Riddoch Arts & Cultural Centre until 26 April 2026
‘Kodjdjan, Mary Kolkkiwara Nadjamerrek, aged 93, of the Wakmarranj clan, is one of the last surviving speakers of the critically endangered Dalabon language. Mary holds a Waddan (frill neck lizard) that her grandchildren caught while camping on her father’s Country, Momob, in Central Arnhem Land.’
Renae Saxby is a documentary photographer based on Wonnarua Country/Maitland, New South Wales. Her work is an exploration of the human experience, from intimate portraiture to remote landscapes with a focus on cultural and environmental preservation.
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A National Portrait Gallery exhibition. This exhibition is supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australians.
Renae Saxby, 'Mary at Momob', 2024, National Photographic Portrait Prize Finalist 2025. Audio recording by Renae Saxby. Video created and supplied by the National Portrait Gallery @portraitau
