Atong Atem Visits Nowra

Published on 16 July 2026

Atong Atem visited the Shoalhaven over July 14-15 to run a school holiday photographic workshop at Wreck Bay, as part of a partnership between Shoalhaven Regional Gallery and Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council, and give an artist talk at the Gallery. These public programs coincided with the exhibition Portraits at Shoalhaven Regional Gallery.

The workshop at Wreck Bay was an intensive two-day experience. A group of teenagers worked with Atong to develop costume ideas and were supported by staff from the Gallery in sourcing props, materials and outfits. Themes discussed included aliens, science fiction, surfing, popular culture and gender fluid fashion, among others.  Participants made masks, developed outfits and worked with Atong to create poses and backdrops. The final photos will be edited by Atong and shared with the kids and on social media - make sure you follow the Gallery's account to see all of them.

Atong Atem is a South Sudanese-Australian artist living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. She studied painting at Sydney University's College of the Arts before continuing her undergraduate studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Her work explores the history of photography, Blackness, rituals and mythology of the Dinka People of South Sudan. Her work is primarily an examination of familial archives, colonial documentation, and portraiture as world building. Atong's work exists in response to the politics of displacement, science fiction as prophecy and, as an acknowledgment of the legacy of studio photography as cultural practice.

The conversation between Atong and Gallery Director Zanny Begg booked out with over 50 people gathering at the Gallery for a fascinating conversation that covered themes such as the African traditions of portraiture, the power of the gaze, Afro-futurism, Blackness and decolonisation. Atong's visit was supported by Create NSW two-year multi-year funding and coincided with the last week of Atong's exhibition Portraits at the Gallery. Portraits will remain open until 18 July in North Gallery.

Image: Collaborative photograph developed Warrina and Atong Atem, 2026.