Atong Atem survey opens at the NGV

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is hosting ‘Passage: The Art of Atong Atem’, the first major survey of the 35-year-old artist’s work. The exhibition features 65 photographs, including several previously unseen in Australia.

Atem’s multidisciplinary practice combines portraiture, painting, and textiles, drawing on influences ranging from her South Sudanese Dinka Bor heritage to science fiction and themes of colonization. Her work often utilizes her own body as a canvas to explore concepts of performance in both daily life and photography.

Atem immigrated to Australia from South Sudan via a refugee camp in Kenya. After settling in New South Wales in 1997 and later moving to Melbourne in 2014, she transitioned from studying architecture to working as a full-time artist for approximately 12 years.