Ballina’s Northern Rivers Community Gallery welcomes 2026 with four exceptional exhibitions by local and interstate artists, offering rich explorations of interior and exterior landscapes, magic and ritual, and our relationship with the world around us.
Opening Thursday 8 January, the new exhibitions feature painting, photography and digital animation.
Gallery Coordinator Imbi Davidson said, ‘NRCG is excited to launch its 2026 exhibition program which will showcase leading Australian artists alongside emerging talent from across the region.
‘Our first series of exhibitions presents a great opportunity to engage with artworks that explore the realms of nature, magic, landscape and beyond.’
January shows
Into the Forest: Karyn Fendley’s art practice is grounded in a deep and enduring respect for nature. Her body of work over the last two decades reflects a long-standing exploration of the natural world, and her most recent series of landscape paintings turns its focus specifically toward forests.
These paintings are drawn from the lakes, estuaries, and forests that grow in the coastal national parks of northern New South Wales.
Temporal collapse: Linsey Gosper’s work explores the intersection of art and magic through analogue photography and dark-room processes. Central to this exhibition is the altar – an assemblage of symbolic objects, serving as a timeless site of ritual, devotion, and offering.
Through imagery of personal magical practice, altar objects, and the mythic, the work reveals the visual language of inner experience and esoteric tradition.
A Light Hold: presented by multidisciplinary artist Eliza Adam, this show responds directly to her surroundings and explores recent and distant histories of place. Drawn from quiet observations of the natural landscape, these works are a meditation on the substance and the essential material nature of our world and our relationship within it.
Boundary Rider: Jacqueline & Dane Scotcher believe that connecting with the natural environment’s rhythms is at the threshold of deeper inner knowing. Through a ‘slow’ approach to digital animation and abstract painting, the duo attempt to give credence to these often intangible and quiet internal terrains, which are essential in navigating an increasingly noisy external world.
These exhibitions open Thursday 8 January and continue until Sunday 1 March. The official exhibition launch will be held 5.30–7.30pm, Thursday 8 January.
The Northern Rivers Community Gallery is located at 44 Cherry Street Ballina and is open Wednesday to Friday from 9am until 3pm and weekends from 9.30am until 1.00pm.
For further information contact the gallery on 02 6681 0530 or visit the website www.nrcgballina.com.au.
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