ADELAIDE.- Tarnanthi, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, will mark its tenth anniversary in 2025 with the major exhibition Too Deadly: Ten Years of Tarnanthi, alongside a state-wide festival of exhibitions and events across twenty-five partner venues, and an in-person Tarnanthi Art Fair in a new CBD location.
The word tarnanthi (pronounced TAR-nan-dee) comes from the language of the Kaurna people, the traditional owners of the Adelaide Plains. It means to spring forth or appear – like the sun and the first emergence of light. Since it began in 2015, Tarnanthi has established itself as Australia’s leading First Nations arts festival, with more than 2.2 million people visiting Tarnanthi exhibitions and events that have showcased the radical ingenuity and expansive practice of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and creatives. Over the last ten years, Tarnanthi has provided a platform for more than 9,000 First Nations artists to present their works of art, building understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture for audiences in Australia and around the world.
Opening on 17 October 2025 at AGSA, Too Deadly assembles more than 200 landmark works of art that have been acquired into AGSA’s collection over the last ten years of Tarnanthi. Curated by Artistic Director Nici Cumpston OAM, Too Deadly not only reflects on Tarnanthi’s first decade but also recontextualises and re-energises important works, allowing new dialogues to emerge between works of art, showcasing the artistic excellence of First Nations artists from across the country.
Too Deadly features major installations and works of art by over 200 artists including Tony Albert, Betty Campbell, Nyaparu (William) Gardiner, Angelina Karadada Boona, Iluwanti Ken, Vincent Namatjira, Judith Pungarta Inkamala, Motorbike Paddy Ngal, Thea Anamara Perkins, Ryan Presley, Reko Rennie, Darrell Sibosado, John Prince Siddon, Kaylene Whiskey, Garawan Waṉambi, Bugai Whyoulter and many others. In addition, AGSA’s free activity space The Studio will feature Banjiyma artist Layne Dhu-Dickie, whose hand-drawn comic book Captain Hedland versus The Fisherman will inspire visitors to create their own unique character for a collaborative comic book wall. Dhu-Dickie was the youngest artist to ever participate in Tarnanthi in 2019 at the age of 15. Six years later, this presentation of The Studio demonstrates Tarnanthi’s commitment to supporting emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.
Highlights of Too Deadly: Ten Years of Tarnanthi include:
Kuḻaṯa Tjuṯa (Many Spears)
Premiering at Tarnanthi in 2017, Kuḻaṯa Tjuṯa (Many Spears) brought together 59 male Aṉangu artists to create a monumental installation made up of 551 kuḻaṯa (spears) suspended in an explosive formation that hovers above a circular installation of hand-carved piti (wooden bowls) made by Aṉangu women. Contained within a darkened room with one central light source, shadows of the kuḻaṯa bounce on to the surrounding walls, drawing an analogy to the cumulative and mushrooming effect of the atomic bomb testing on Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Country between 1953 and 1963. This groundbreaking work of art was the result of an ongoing cultural maintenance practice of carving spears and intergenerational sharing of knowledge that continues to take place across communities in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands today. Made specifically for the 2017 Tarnanthi Festival, this installation of Kuḻaṯa Tjuṯa (Many Spears) has since toured extensively across the USA and will be a highlight of Too Deadly, offering visitors to AGSA the opportunity to see this work for the first time since 2017. An accompanying six-channel moving image work intersperses immersive footage of Aṉangu lands alongside deeply personal interviews with community members who were impacted by nuclear testing in the region.
Kungka Kunpu
As part of Too Deadly, selected works from the Tarnanthi touring exhibition Kungka Kuṉpu (Strong Women) will be presented at AGSA for the first time following its national tour from 2022-2024. Drawn from AGSA’s collection, Kungka Kuṉpu showcases major contemporary works by celebrated women artists from the APY Lands, cultural custodians of an oral tradition that epitomises the art of storytelling. The exhibition includes works ranging from Tjanpi Desert Weavers’ large-scale sculptural installations made from tjanpi (grasses) and found objects through to major new superlative paintings by emerging and established artists.
The Blak Laundry
Over the opening weekend of Tarnanthi in the AGSA Courtyard, Ngugi Quandamooka artist Libby Harward and Gamilaroi artist Dominique Chen will present The Blak Laundry, part-sculptural installation, part-functional laundromat, and part-site for community gathering. The Blak Laundry operates as both a literal and conceptual space for washing dirty laundry, transforming public and institutional spaces into working laundromats where conversations around sovereignty, cultural labour, capitalism, and everyday Blak life unfold. Audiences will be invited to interact by observing, washing, folding, listening, yarning, or joining scheduled ‘agitations’—interactive performances, meditations, games and storytelling sessions.
Tarnanthi Art Fair
From 17-18 October, the Tarnanthi Art Fair returns as an in-person event, presented at a new venue, Union House at Adelaide University. The Tarnanthi Art Fair offers a unique opportunity to buy works of art directly from First Nations artists and art centres from across the country that have been made and sold ethically. Every dollar from every purchase goes directly to the artists and their community-run art centres, delivering vital economic benefits to communities where art production is an important source of income.
This year’s Tarnanthi Festival additionally includes exhibitions of new works from more than 100 artists across twenty-five partner venues, making contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art more available to audiences in metropolitan and regional South Australia. These partner projects, spanning painting, prints, photography, ceramics, glass, weaving, jewellery, textiles, handcrafted furniture, sculpture, digital media, film and dance, will be announced over the coming months.
Regional Tarnanthi – Woven within Stars
Woven within Stars is the second exhibition outcome from Tarnanthi’s award-winning Regional Tarnanthi program, presented in partnership with Country Arts SA. Curated by Tarnanthi Regional Curator Marika Davies, the exhibition includes new and existing works by nine First Nations artists from regional South Australia. Featuring the work of Regina McKenzie, Donny McKenzie, Jenna Richards, Vera Richards, Lavinia Richards, Patricia Fatt, Regg Dodd, Jonas Dare and Roy Coulthard, Woven within Stars reflects stories that connect Country and culture. Opening at Yarta Purtli Art Gallery, Port Augusta on 20 September, this exhibition will then travel to Fabrik in Lobethal from 28 November.
Tarnanthi Artistic Director, Barkandji curator, Nici Cumpston OAM says, ‘Over the last decade, Tarnanthi has fostered opportunities for more than 9,000 First Nations artists at all stages of their careers, opening new pathways for creative talents. Tarnanthi has provided a platform for conversations, for deep listening and for important cultural sharing. Today, ten years on, Tarnanthi has its own ecology—ambitious, intergenerational, and embracing of both emerging and established artists working in any medium. It has been a privilege to champion artists’ voices through Tarnanthi and to bring world-class experiences with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art to Australian audiences.’
Jason Smith, Director, AGSA, says, ‘Since beginning as a one-off event in 2015, Tarnanthi has evolved from delivering acclaimed exhibitions in South Australia to reaching national and international audiences. Expertly and sensitively led by Artistic Director Nici Cumpston OAM over the past decade, Tarnanthi has set a benchmark in best practice with its commitment to working with First Nations artists and communities and it's an honour that AGSA is the vehicle for these important conversations.’
