Opening: nginha – here and now
Join us to celebrate the opening of nginha: here and now, presenting newly commissioned works by Ruth Davys, Jazz Money, Noriko Nakamura, Kirtika Kain and Teelah George.
On the evening, the exhibiting artists will present a series of spotlight talks throughout the Museum, offering insights into their new works, materials and ideas. These talks will be followed by the official opening of the exhibition, with remarks from special guest Maud Page, Director, Art Gallery of NSW.
This culminating season of MAMA’s museum-wide nginha program brings together moving image, large-scale installation, sculpture and material experimentation. These works address timely concerns including First Nations Language re-vitalisation, the ongoing impacts of colonial actions as well as relationships to Country in the present day and invite us all to reflect on what it means to be here, now.
Free entry, please RSVP.
Bar will be open throughout the event, cash + eftpos available.
Event details:
Friday 21 February 2026
3.30pm Spotlight talks with Ruth Davys, Noriko Nakamura, Kirtika Kain, Teelah George and Jazz Money
4.30pm Welcome to Country followed by official opening with Maud Page
6.00pm MAMA Art Foundation dinner (bookings essential)
About the artists
Ruth Davys
Ruth Davys is a Wiradjuri woman who was raised in Uranquinty and is a senior member of the Albury Wiradjuri community. Davys is an educator, a storyteller, a connector in communities, and an artist.
Jazz Money
Jazz Money is a multi-award winning Wiradjuri poet and artist whose practice is centred within poetics to produce works across a variety of mediums. Their writing and art has been presented, performed and published nationally and internationally, and performed on stages around the world.
Teelah George
Teelah George’s practice harnesses archives and collections as a conceptual departure that unpacks historical understandings of material relationships and the stories that they tell. George is interested in collections as ever evolving harbingers of time and storytelling, responsive and constantly changing both conceptually and by the physical volatility of the materials with which they are made.
Noriko Nakamura
Noriko Nakamura uses stone carving to make installations. Drawing on ideas of Japanese Shinto animism and ritualistic practices, she investigates what arises from generating forms with natural materials. Her recent work explores the complexity of female embodied experiences and reimagines the narratives of feminine subjectivity for empowerment.
Kirtika Kain
Combining elements of sculpture, experimental printmaking and painting, Kirtika Kain’s practice draws from her Dalit lineage and investigates material histories, ancestral memory and the complexities of caste in the diaspora. Kain’s labour-intensive studio practice engages ancient materials of ritual and labour — pigments, waxes, cotton, grains, gold, copper, tar and hessian— reclaiming their traditional religiosity and challenging notions of purity, sanctity and stigma.
