Linden New Art will present Coral Futures from November 15, 2025 – February 1, 2026. This group exhibition brings together new and recent projects by First Nations and other contemporary Australian artists, considering coral’s importance to the survival of vital marine ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef, as well as its implications for broader cultural, economic, and environmental systems.
“Coral Futures is the culmination of my time living in far north Queensland, and my research into how artists are responding to the climate crisis, and in particular, its impact on coral and reef ecosystems, in poetic, speculative and thoughtful ways. As several artists who have worked with coral as both a material and subject matter are Melbourne-based, I’m thrilled that we can present the exhibition at Linden New Art,” says Curator Hamish Sawyer.
The starting point for Coral Futures was Budjalung/Lismore-based artist Marian Tubbs’ 2019 video essay Nervous Systems, which uses ripped online images, footage and sound to illustrate the life cycle of coral and its intersections with human activity. For this exhibition, Tubbs presents the video alongside a new series of Lenticular photographs, a recent development in the artist’s assemblage-focused practice. In these works, thoughtful juxtapositions of incongruous imagery, including brutalist ruins inhabited by vertically climbing coral, propose alternative fertilities in an unprecedented era of mass bleaching and rising sea temperatures.
Rachel O’Reilly’s feature-length experimental documentary NORTHERN WATERS 2025 brings together various settler artists, citizen activists and Traditional Owners who have led ongoing campaigns against extractive industries and the multinational companies seeking to exploit the reef for profit. The film presents contemporary interviews with First Nations artists, activists, and scientists, as well as archival footage of past environmental campaigns.
Naarm/Melbourne-based Nicholas Mangan continues his decade-long examination of resource extraction in Core–Coralations (Bronchial Diversion) (2024) (below), a major floor-based sculpture fabricated in coral composite material. The work, cast from lung-like plastic PVC piping and appearing to have coral growing out of the structure, premiered as part of Mangan’s 2024 survey exhibition A World Undone at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and is being shown in Melbourne for the first time in Coral Futures.
Laresa Kosloff’s short film made from stock footage, The Bleaching (2024), imagines a world where saving the Great Barrier Reef is outsourced to artificial intelligence. Narrated by the satirical comedian Andrew Hansen and First Nations actress and director Rachael Maza, the film exposes the power structures underlying ecological crisis, including white supremacy, the military-industrial complex and the billionaire class.
Working across a range of media, Helga Groves rigorously investigates the physical properties of ancient matter and fleeting environmental episodes. A newly completed painting, a woven fishing line textile, both reference the causal connection between sea surface temperatures and coral bleaching, using data from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Shown alongside Deep Ocean Currents 2004, these works reflect Groves’ sustained observation of both macro and micro climactic phenomena, illustrating the impact of changing global weather patterns on the health and viability of coral populations.
Erub Arts Centre on Darnley Island in the Torres Strait Islands has become known for its collaborative, sculptural installations, made from ghost nets, fishing line and other plastic pollution rescued from the sea to protect marine species from strangulation, ingestion and death. For Coral Futures Erub artists Jimmy John Thaiday, Florence Gutchen, Nancy Naawi, Lavinia Ketchell have created a new ghost net work, highlighting the importance of the Great Barrier Reef to their culture and survival.
Despite a number of contemporary artists using coral as a material or subject in their work over the past decade, Coral Futures represents the first thematic exhibition focused on the marine animal in Australia. Rather than being exhaustive, it brings together a range of perspectives by artists who have been actively considering coral’s significance over a sustained period of research and making.
Linden New Art
Linden New Art supports brave new art by mid-career artists and engages visitors through inspiring, thought-provoking exhibitions of new work. Linden New Art supports the creation and exhibition of courageous new art by mid-career artists; it exhibits new works that inspire, provoke and contribute to conversations and debate; it advances artists’ careers through mentoring, connections and exposure; it offers a welcoming space where artists, enthusiasts and the community come together in a stunning site of historical and cultural significance; it celebrates First Nations culture and heritage; and it builds upon proud heritage of enriching the cultural fabric of St Kilda, Melbourne and Victoria.
Coral Futures
November 15, 2025 – February 1, 2026
www.lindenarts.org
Linden New Art
Bunurong Boon Wurrung Country
26 Acland Street St Kilda VIC 3182
Images available here.
This exhibition is presented in partnership with the University of Sunshine Coast Art Gallery, Queensland, where it will be shown 1 August – 17 October 2026.
Image credits:
Marian Tubbs
The lotus eaters (wellness) 2025
Lenticular photograph
82 x 62 cm (framed)
Courtesy of the artist and STATION, Melbourne Sydney
Nicholas Mangan
Core–Coralations (Bronchial Diversion), 2024
Coral, aragonite, mineral powder, acrylic resin, plastic nurdles, fiberglass, reinforced plastic grating, mild steel, enamel paint
240 x 300 x 60cm. Installation view, A World Undone, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney 2024
Courtesy of the artist, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, and LABOR, Mexico City.
