Between Waves is an Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) exhibition touring nationally with NETS Victoria, curated by Dr Jessica Clark. The National Photographic Portrait Prize supports and celebrates photographic portraiture in Australia and alongside these nationally significant exhibitions we will also open Bound in Light, a photographic portraiture exhibition by Mount Gambier photographer Maurizio Cigognetti.
Entry is free. Doors open at 5:30pm for a 6:00pm start. Register here.
Between Waves
Between Waves is an exhibition developed by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) touring nationally with NETS Victoria, curated by Dr Jessica Clark. Between Waves amplifies concepts related to light, time and vision – and the idea of shining a light on our times – as expressed by the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung word ‘Yalingwa’. The exhibition explores the visible and invisible energy fields set in motion by these ideas, to illuminate interconnected shapeshifting ecologies within, beyond and between what can be seen.
Ten ambitious new commissions from First Nations artists 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. Artists include Maree Clarke, Dean Cross, Brad Darkson, Matthew Harris, James Howard, Hayley Millar Baker, Jazz Money, Mandy Quadrio, Cassie Sullivan and this mob.
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.
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025
The National Photographic Portrait Prize supports and celebrates 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.
In 2025 finalists were selected by the panel of judges – writer and broadcaster Benjamin Law, Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, Serena Bentley and Leigh Robb, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Following its exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 will be hosted at the Riddoch Art Gallery February through April 2026.
This exhibition is supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to National collections for all Australians.
Image: Em Jensen, Thelma Plum, 2024, National Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 finalist
Bound in Light
Maurizio Cigognetti
Bound in Light is a portrait exploration by Italian born photographer Maurizio Cigognetti. With decades of experience as both a commercial and artistic photographer working between Europe and Australia, Cigognetti has maintained an ongoing project photographing friends, family and strangers to bring brilliant and sharp character examinations to life.
Bound in Light emerged from a series of in-studio photoshoots, where select local subjects in and around Mount Gambier sat for their portrait. For Cigognetti portraiture is about ‘getting to know’ the people we live around, while also providing another lens through which to see our similarities and differences.