The  Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions  is a national, biennial mentorship and exhibition program that supports emerging Australian First Nations artists and designers. This initiative brings together eight emerging creatives with leading industry mentors, fostering a unique opportunity for both artistic and professional growth. Through this collaboration, mentors offer guidance, encouragement and expertise, supporting the artists to realise their most ambitious work to date.

In 2026, FUTURE COUNTRY – the second iteration of the  Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions  – invites artists to look to the future while simultaneously acknowledging the past. Working across diverse mediums and innovative practices, the selected artists respond to the exhibition’s key themes of ancestral memory, truth-telling, restorying, and future-making.

The resulting commissions explore and reflect non-linear notions of time, honour intergenerational knowledges, and an embodied and relational understanding of place. Collectively, the works artists’ new commissions featured in  FUTURE COUNTRY convey the strength and breadth of contemporary Australian First Nations art and design practice across the country.

FUTURE COUNTRY  honours and celebrates land, legacy, community, and cultural continuity by facilitating mentorships and providing a national platform. Presented by the National Gallery of Victoria and supported by Country Road Brands, the exhibition offers audiences a powerful opportunity to engage with First Nations knowledges, perspectives and futurities.

Image: Doreen Jinggarrabarra and Stephanie Ali in Maningrida, NT for the Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions: FUTURE COUNTRY. Photo: Alana Holmberg