First Nation artist Tony Albert has been appointed artistic director of the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial, After The Rain, to open at the National Gallery of Australia in December 2025.

Albert is well known through Australia for his satirical works using “Aboriginalia” to make comment on the cultural misrepresentation of First Nations people, in Sydney Yininmadyemi – Thou didst let fall, a public work in Hyde Park and to Canberrans through his light show, I Am Visible,  on the NGA walls for  Enlighten in  2019 and for Duty of Care, the result of a residency at Canberra Glassworks in 2020.

His work has been exhibited in two previous triennials at the National Gallery, unDisclosed in 2012 and Defying Empire in 2021.

Albert is the first practising artist (as opposed to curator) to lead the triennial, and says he hopes to celebrate intergenerational legacies by working closely with First Nations artists to present new immersive projects that resonate with the idea of rebirth and cycles of cleansing.

The Triennial was established in 2007 as an contemporary art event seen to date by more than 450,000 visitors in 11 locations across the country.