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Firstdraft is where the future of contemporary art emerges, through a program that is critical, ambitious and experimental.

 

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Program
Ko e 'Otua mo Tonga ko hoku Tofi'a
May 23
Ko e 'Otua mo Tonga ko hoku Tofi'a

The series of prideful Tongan flags recontextualizes the Eurocentric standard to fit the Pasifika diaspora’s post-colonial framework. Continuing to unravel ancestral histories through a post-colonial lens as a forgotten Tongan excluded from the culture of the ancestors the work juxtaposes contemporary punk sub- cultural influences from the postmodernist period with ancient ancestral history.

What Falls Must Be Pushed
May 23
What Falls Must Be Pushed

This exhibition considers the function of art in articulating opposition, fostering solidarity and imagining alternative futures.

Intricate Rituals
May 23
Intricate Rituals

Intricate Rituals traces the uneasy space between boyhood and manhood—where affection becomes obscured by expectation, and kinaesthetic desire is tangled in myth. Through a darkened installation of four sculptural assemblages, the exhibition reframes domestic masculinity as a series of obscure and sacred rituals.

Shelter
May 23
Shelter

Naoise Halloran-Mackay explores ideas of shelter and the ways in which we may build, seek, or offer it.

news

Featured
Firstdraft is now seeking proposals for the 2026 - 27 program
Firstdraft is now seeking proposals for the 2026 - 27 program

Firstdraft is now seeking proposals from artists, curators and writers for consideration in our 2026–27 Program. We invite ideas that champion experimentation, risk and inclusion.

Firstdraft welcomes new Chair and Treasurer
Firstdraft welcomes new Chair and Treasurer

The team at Firstdraft are delighted to announce Firstdraft’s new Chair Augusta Supple and Treasurer Dominic Kavanagh.

2024 Annual Survey: The Firstdraft Census
2024 Annual Survey: The Firstdraft Census

The Firstdraft Census is Firstdraft’s annual stakeholder survey for 2024. Firstdraft is growing and we want to hear from you during this period of change.

Caity Reynolds appointed General Manager
Caity Reynolds appointed General Manager

We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Caity Reynolds as Firstdraft's new General Manager.

interviews

Featured
Bootlegging through the creative wilds with Visaya Hoffie
Bootlegging through the creative wilds with Visaya Hoffie

“These spaces of imaginative and creative wildness are rare in a world that wants to compartmentalise and control all forms of cultural production.”

The beginning and end of Sofiyah Ruqayah
The beginning and end of Sofiyah Ruqayah

“We all have our own experiences of moving toward or away from connection, and for me, part of navigating these experiences necessarily involves a questioning of where I begin and end, what or who I consist of, and how the impacts of mutuality and difference influence how I move through the world.”

Slow cinema in the work of Ryan Andrew Lee
Slow cinema in the work of Ryan Andrew Lee

“I’m working mostly within the scope of documentary and experimental eco-cinema practices, utilising the principles of slow cinema and cinéma vérité.”

The intersecting orbits curated by Tim Marvin
The intersecting orbits curated by Tim Marvin

“The sun's pervasive presence allows it to be the subject, whether direct or not, for a lot of artistic practices and creative investigations.”

donate now

Join our vision for the future of contemporary art by donating to Firstdraft today. A little support goes a long way – but a lot goes further. Donate now.