Image: Terry —, Long Bay Hilton Foyer, 2001, acrylic on canvas, 160 x 120 cm. Collection CSNSW. Photograph by Angus McKee.
12 September to 15 November 2026
Curated by Claire Taylor and Elizabeth Day, Dreams Nursed in Darkness brings together art by people who know incarceration firsthand, alongside artworks that respond to Australia's prison and detention systems, past and present.
The exhibition explores life within the criminal justice, mental health and immigration detention systems. It also looks at inequalities that put people at risk of entering these systems, or cause them to return. The curatorial approach draws on the philosopher Michel Foucault’s idea of a ‘carceral continuum.’ Some artworks look at how the systems of surveillance and control used in formal institutions stretch out to shape wider society, affecting people in their everyday lives through practices like personal debt or policing. The exhibition brings these experiences clearly into view.
The exhibition's title comes from The Miracle of the Rose by Jean Genet. The author wrote his early books in prison on paper meant for making bags for a prison labour program. Writing helped him survive the isolation and harshness of imprisonment. For many of the artists in this exhibition, making art serves a similar purpose: it is a way to survive. The phrase 'Dreams Nursed in Darkness' reflects the exhibition's aim to showcase creative acts of resistance. Whether created within prison walls or in the wider community, these artworks collectively affirm the humanity of incarcerated people—a core dignity that institutional systems so often strip away.
Dreams Nursed in Darkness takes a close look at Australia's relationship with prisons from the inside out. It uses art as a powerful form of truth-telling to face violence that began in the past and still affects us today. The exhibition shows how modern prisons and immigration detention directly continue colonial practices used to control, displace and contain First Nations people. This ongoing history helps explain why First Nations people are over-represented in Australian prisons and face a much higher risk of harm. The exhibition also includes artworks that look at the use of isolation and borders in immigration detention to hide violence, keep people out of sight, and strip them of their rights.
The works in this exhibition challenge us to think about the failures of our prison systems and unfairness built into our laws, rules, organisations and social systems. They also ask us to consider our own role in long-standing issues. Together, the artworks explore a topic that remains deeply debated—one where many important social questions still don't have clear answers.
Artists
Vernon Ah Kee
Zanny Begg
Behrouz Boochani and Arash Kamali Sarvestani
Carla Cescon
Megan Cope
Elizabeth Day
Destiny Deacon
Karla Dickens
Anne Ferran
Trevor Fry
Sarah Goffman
Anne Graham
Alana Hunt
Karrabing Film Collective
Warwick Keen
Rosemary Laing
Ricky Maynard
Ian Milliss
Anna Mould
David Nolan
Sue Paull
Sha Sarwari
Cassie Sullivan
Abdullah M I Syed
Leanne Tobin
Warlukurlangu Artists
Plus works from the NSW Department of Corrective Services art collection and the Boom Gate Gallery
What's on
Authors Andrew Brooks and Astrid Lorange discuss contemporary art and policing in Australia, followed by a screening of Karrabing Film Collective’s Day in the Life.
A poetry workshop with Gamilaroi poet Luke Patterson, inspired by the Dreaming Inside anthologies featured in Dreams Nursed in Darkness.
Join Amy Wright, hard-of-hearing artist and Auslan signer, for an Auslan tour of Dreams Nursed in Darkness.
Drop-in to write a postcard to a person in prison, offering a moment of joy, hope, comfort or solidarity.
This exhibition is drawn from Dreams Nursed in Darkness commissioned by Wollongong Art Gallery for their 2024 program. The project was assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW. The exhibition would not be possible without the assistance of the Boom Gate Gallery at Long Bay Correctional Complex.
