Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists
MCA Australia, Sydney
5 September 2025 - 8 March 2026
Magic Cave, 2024
6.5 x 4 x 2.4 m, bird, mouse, rat, cat, dog and
hermit crab cages, plastic tunnels, toys, LED lights
Installation view, Firstdraft, Sydney
© and courtesy of the artist
Primavera is the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia's annual exhibition of young Australian artists aged 35 and under. Now in its 34th year, Primavera continues to be a significant platform for early-career Australian artists and curators to present exciting new work. Since its inception, the exhibition series has presented the work of more than 250 artists and 30 curators and propelled the careers of many of Australia’s most significant artists. Primavera was initiated in 1992 by Dr Edward Jackson AM, Mrs Cynthia Jackson AM and their family in memory of their daughter and sister Belinda, a talented jeweller who died at the age of 29.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia) announces the five artists to exhibit in Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists, Francis Carmody (VIC/NSW), Alexandra Peters (VIC), Augusta Vinall Richardson (VIC), Keemon Williams (QLD) and Emmaline Zanelli (SA).
Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists is curated by MCA Australia Curator, Tim Riley Walsh. The artist selection is driven by the theme of society’s relationship to industry and the machine in the contemporary era. The work of the five artists address es technology and mechanical intertwinement in various ways.
About Primavera 2025, Riley Walsh said: 'The selected artists for Primavera 2025 reflect the innovation and sheer talent of the emerging contemporary Australian art world. Over the course of close to 50 studio visits I conducted across the country I saw intriguing shifts in how young practitioners are engaging with a rapidly changing sociopolitical and technological landscape. How this translates into creative practice is the focus of this presentation.''My ongoing interest as a curator is art’s power to make us look anew at subjects that typically evade representation or understanding. What is out of view or exceeds our senses. These five artists help broaden our world view and begin to unravel the complexity of the current era.'
Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists - About the artists
Photo: Tim Herbertson
Francis Carmody
Born 1998, Gadigal Country/Sydney. Lives and works Naarm/Melbourne
Francis Carmody thinks of his practice as a form of speculative storytelling. He considers the social structures that underpin our current reality to understand our past and to imagine possible futures. Carmody’s work spans mediums and engages collaborators with expertise across diverse disciplines to investigate historical and natural phenomena. Francis Carmody received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Between 2022–2024 he was a Gertrude Studio Artist at Gertrude Contemporary, Naarm/Melbourne. Recently he has exhibited work at Gertrude Glasshouse, Conners Conners, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and Mejia, all located in Naarm/Melbourne.
Black Swan Event: Incubating (detail), 2024
Plaster, horsehair, polymer paint, nylon,
60 x 60 x 30 cm
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Christian Capurro
A Relic Remains, 2023
Installation view, Gertrude Glasshouse, Collingwood
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Christian Capurro
Alexandra Peters
Born 1990, Warrnambool. Lives and works Naarm/Melbourne
Alexandra Peters is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. Her work spans painting, print, sculpture and assemblage, often taking the form of an installation. These arrangements explore the field of expanded painting through the interrogation of support structures and framing devices. Peters completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) at Monash University, Melbourne in 2022, where she was the recipient of the Monash University Museum of Art Award and the Megalo Print Award. Her works have been exhibited throughout Australia and internationally and include recent commissioned presentations at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne and Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne. She has also been featured in exhibitions by 1301SW, Melbourne; Asbestos, Melbourne; NAP Contemporary, Mildura; Perth Institute of Contemporary Art; and Propaganda Network, Tbilisi, Georgia. She is currently part of the studio program at Gertrude Contemporary.
Breakneck: Blowback (Source), 2024
Acrylic and water-based ink with screen-print
medium and paste on leatherette, 250 x 180 cm
(2-panels, each 250 x 90 cm)
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andrew Curtis
Installation view, Future Remains:
The 2024 Macfarlane Commissions,
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art,
Naarm/Melbourne, 2024
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andrew Curtis
Breakneck: Fenestration (Auto-Extrication), 2024
Acrylic and water-based ink with screen-print
medium and paste on leatherette,
250 x 480 cm (4-panels, each 250 x 120 cm)
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andrew Curtis
© the artist. Courtesy The Commercial, Sydney
Photo: Lucy Foster
Augusta Vinall Richardson
Born 1991, Naarm/Melbourne. Lives and works Naarm/Melbourne
Augusta Vinall Richardson makes abstract composite sculptures out of sheet and cast metals, employing industrial materials and processes in a practice underpinned by an ethics of responsibility for objects. Her works recall legacies of minimalism but celebrate irregularities and imperfections, investing especially in textural qualities. Her process begins with hand drawings or the building of cardboard and papier-mâché maquettes. In 2022 Vinall Richardson was awarded a Master of Fine Art by Monash University, Naarm/Melbourne. She has exhibited at La Trobe Art Institute, Djaara/Bendigo, and in the 2024 Melbourne Sculpture Biennial. In 2026, she will present a solo exhibition at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne. She is represented by The Commercial, Sydney.
Box Sculpture (side by side), 2025
Stainless steel, 150kg approx., 226 x 99 x 23 cm
© the artist. Courtesy The Commercial, Sydney.
Photo: Andrew Curtis
Day by day, 2025
Bronze, patina, 120kg approx., 93 x 215 x 18 cm
Private collection, Melbourne
© the artist. Courtesy The Commercial, Sydney
Photo: Andrew Curtis
Photo: Sam Harrison
Keemon Williams
Kuku Yalanji, Koa, Meriam, and South Sea Islander peoples. Born 1999, Gimuy/Cairns. Lives and works Magandjin/Brisbane
Keemon Williams is a Koa, Kuku Yalanji, Meriam Mir and South Sea Islander artist and curator based in Magandjin/Brisbane. His practice considers queer, Indigenous and Australian experiences as lived in the shadow of colonisation. His work often draws on the language of production, as well as memory and humour. Williams has presented solo exhibitions at Kuiper Projects, Brisbane, Milani Carpark Gallery, Brisbane and Northsite Contemporary Arts, Cairns. His work has been featured at the National Gallery of Victoria; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; UQ Art Museum, Brisbane; QUT Art Museum, Brisbane; Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane; and Museum of Brisbane. Williams is currently Assistant Curator, Indigenous Australian Art at QAGOMA, Brisbane. He was previously the Exhibitions Officer at Outer Space in Brisbane from 2022–2025. He graduated from Queensland University of Technology with a BFA (Visual Art) in 2019.
Installation view, Boomerangs, 2023
Wurrdha Marra, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, 2023
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Tom Ross
Business is Boomin’, 2021
Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, epoxy, 55 x 45 mm
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Kyle Weise
Business is Boomin’, 2021
Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, epoxy, 55 x 45 mm
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Kyle Weise
Photo: Thomas McCammon
Emmaline Zanelli
Born 1994, Tarndanya/Adelaide. Lives and works Tarndanya/Adelaide
Emmaline Zanelli’s work combines elements of video, photography, sculpture and performance. Influenced by absurdism and surrealism, she creates art that seeks humour and meaning in the everyday. Recently, her work has considered themes of labour and youth culture. Emmaline Zanelli completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Adelaide College of the Arts in Tarndanya/Adelaide in 2015, and a MA in Photography at the Photography Studies College in Naarm/Melbourne in 2021. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across Australia, including Stills Gallery, Sydney, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Naarm/Melbourne, and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Tarndanya/Adelaide. Her work has been published in the British Journal of Photography and Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, and screened at the Arles Photography Festival in France. In 2022 her video work Dynamic Drills (2019–2021) was selected as the winner of The Churchie Emerging Art Prize.
Magic Cave, 2024
6.5 x 4 x 3.8 m, bird, mouse, rat, cat, dog and
hermit crab cages, plastic tunnels, toys, LED lights
Installation view, Studios: 2024,
Adelaide Contemporary Experimental
© and courtesy of the artist
I take care of what’s mine (still), 2023–2024
Two channel video, sound, 25:47 minutes,
Commissioned by Adelaide Film Festival X UniSA
Samstag Museum of Art EXPAND Lab,
Supported by Creative Australia
© and courtesy of the artist
I take care of what’s mine (still), 2023–2024
Two channel video, sound, 25:47 minutes,
Commissioned by Adelaide Film Festival X UniSA
Samstag Museum of Art EXPAND Lab,
Supported by Creative Australia
© and courtesy of the artist
I take care of what’s mine (still), 2023–2024
Two channel video, sound, 25:47 minutes,
Commissioned by Adelaide Film Festival X UniSA
Samstag Museum of Art EXPAND Lab,
Supported by Creative Australia
© and courtesy of the artist
Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists - Curator Tim Riley Walsh
Photo: Hamish McIntosh
Primavera 2025 Curator, Tim Riley Walsh, is Assistant Curator at the MCA Australia. Previously, he was Curator in Residence, Gertrude, Naarm/Melbourne, and held roles at Camden Art Centre, London and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Magandjin/Brisbane. Riley Walsh’s MCA Australia curatorial projects include Data Dreams: Contemporary Art in the Age of AI (2025, co-curator), MCA Collection: Artists in Focus (2025, curatorium) and supporting the presentations of Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine (2024) and Tarek Atoui: Waters’ Witness (2023–24). Outside of the MCA, his recent external projects include Unbecoming, La Trobe Art Institute, Djaara/Bendigo (2025) and You Are Here Too, Institute of Modern Art, Magandjin/Brisbane (co-curator, 2025).
MCA AUSTRALIA
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Tallawoladah, Gadigal Country
140 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney NSW 2000