NAIDOC Week 2025 | The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy: Josh Muir, Damien Shen, Jenna Lee, Carly Tarkari Dodd, Peta Duncan and Dulcie Sharpe

MARS Gallery is honoured to unveil a group exhibition spotlighting five, young and talented Indigenous artists Josh Muir, Damien Shen, Jenna Lee, Carly Tarkari Dodd, Peta Duncan and Dulcie Sharpe. Running from 3 July to 2 August 2025, this powerful showcase coincides with NAIDOC Week and responds to its landmark theme for 2025, 'The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy', celebrating 50 years of recognising and amplifying Indigenous voices, culture, and resilience. 

This exhibition captures the bold spirit, creative force and enduring legacy of a new generation of artists reshaping the cultural landscape with vision and strength. Join us in honouring their stories and celebrating the future of Indigenous art. 

The NAIDOC Week show will include artworks from celebrated and renowned Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta and Barkindji artist Josh Muir (1991 – 2022), which he created in 2017 and for the first time will be digitally printed on satin in the space to commemorate the brilliance of Josh’s life, which was sadly cut too short. Josh’s artworks sales will support the Josh Muir Foundation, Josh's wife Shanaya Sheridan and his two children. 

Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta and Barkindji man Josh Muir was a contemporary artist born and raised in Ballarat in Wadawurrung Country, Victoria in 1991. At the time of his unexpected passing in 2022, Muir was only 30 years old. Vibrant and vivacious – Josh’s artworks exemplify his electric and youthful storytelling. Josh’s profound advocacy for mental health was drawn from his own experiences as he reflected deeply on the complexity and challenges of his cultural identity through the lens of post-colonialism. A major retrospective titled ‘JXSH MVIR X FOREVER I LIVE’ exhibited between 9 March – 14 July 2024 at the Koorie Heritage Trust (VIC) was Josh’s first posthumous exhibition, highlighting his artistic strength and ongoing legacy in the arts.

Damien Shen is a South Australian man of Ngarrindjeri and Chinese descent. As an artist he draws on both of these powerful cultural influences to create works of intense personal meaning. In using his artistic talent to share his story, he aims to open the eyes of viewers to new ways of seeing Australian identity and Aboriginal art. Damien's works are held in the public collection of the National Gallery of Australia (ACT).

Jenna Lee is a Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and KarraJarri Saltwater woman with mixed Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and Anglo-Australian ancestry. With a practice focused on materiality and ancestral material culture, Lee works with notions of the archive, histories of colonial collecting, and settler-colonial books and texts. Jenna’s works are held in the public collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. She will show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (NSW) for the exhibition ‘And I Still Rise’ in November 2025. 

Carly Tarkari Dodd is an artist and curator of Kaurna, Narungga, and Ngarrindjeri descent, known for creating contemporary woven jewellery and sculptures. Dodd’s work explores First Nations activism, cultural resilience, and highlights the contrast of Indigenous experiences with forms of colonial power. Carly’s work is held in both public and private collections across Australia, and she has exhibited at the Australian Design Centre (NSW), JamFactory (SA), The Mill (SA) and Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (SA).

Peta Duncan is an emerging, Torres Strait Islander lens-based artist whose work is both an exploration of her identity and a love letter to her culture and community. Through her work, Peta explores familial relationships, cultural practices and the juxtapositions of embedding cultural knowledge in different contemporary photographic mediums and approaches. Peta recently showcased at the Centre for Contemporary Photography in 2025 and at the Melbourne Town Hall as part of the Yirramboi Festival 2025. The NAIDOC Week show will mark Peta's debut exhibition in a commercial gallery.

Dulcie Sharpe was born at Hamilton Downs in 1957 and spent many years growing up there. Her mother was from Papunya and she is a Luritja speaker. Sharpe spends time out bush at Jay Creek with her sisters. She was enrolled in the Certificate II in Art and Craft with Batchelor College when Yarrenyty Arltere was a training program. Her inspiration for her art comes from animals and bush tucker. She enjoys teaching children about bush tucker and bush law. Sharpe went to school at Kwale Kwale and says her happiest memories are playing every day after school in the bush and swimming when there was water. She is a respected elder of the community, and a positive role model for other artists. 

MARS respectfully acknowledges we are on the Traditional Lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the East Kulin Nations, and we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.