Recovering Art
Main Gallery
15 May - 18 December 2026
15 May - 18 December 2026
John YOUNG ZERUNGE, Time's Slow Passing #6 from the series Time's Slow Passing, 2023, etching and lithography on rag paper, 44 x 38 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.
The Cunningham Dax Collection holds one of the world's most significant collections of art made in the context of mental illness and psychological trauma, with its earliest works created within the nascent art programs in psychiatric institutions.
Recovering Art takes the earliest moments of the collection's formation as its starting point and looks at the different ways we have understood the relationship between art and mental health, from the era of institutionalisation to now.
The exhibition brings together over 40 works including early archival material and collection works from the Cunningham Dax Collection, set beside new and recent works by leading contemporary artists from Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand to consider the myriad of ways art can play a role in one's life as we navigate the reality of mental illness and disability.
Guest curated by Andy Butler.
Artists: Abdul Abdullah, Ruth Buchanan, Graeme Doyle, Carla Krijt, Jenna Lee, NEG, Renee Sutton, Luke Willis Thompson, John Young Zerunge
Image: Joshua SEARLE, Tasting the Divine VI 2026, synthetic polymer paint, pencil and oil stick on canvas, 154.5 x 96.5 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney.
Tasting the Divine
Joshua Searle
Studio Dax Gallery
30 September - 18 December 2026
Tasting the Divine presents a series of works by Australian-Colombian artist, Joshua Searle, of toucans eating ripe papaya. Rendered in lush, saturated colour, these foreground the restorative and contemplative dimension of Searle’s practice.
The series emerged from Searle’s 2024 Mason Family Trust Fellowship in Colombia, where he retraced his maternal lineage for the first time and undertook a trek to the Lost City in Santa Marta. Within the dense landscape of the Sierra Nevada, the artist encountered a profound sense of reconnection — to land, ancestry and self. In these paintings, the toucan becomes a bearer of abundance. Its curved beak meets the open fruit in a gesture of sustenance rather than conquest.
Through repetition and intimacy of focus, Tasting the Divine invites viewers to slow down and consider the sacred in everyday gestures. The works suggest that belonging is not found through possession, but through relationship — with culture, with community, and with oneself. In this space, divinity is not distant or abstract; it is embedded in colour, in memory, and in the simple act of being sustained.
Official opening event: Thursday 22 October 6-8pm
The Dax Centre is assisted by the Australia Government through Creative Australia, its principal investment and advisory body.