Primavera 2025: Rising Artists Redefine ‘Making’ In A Digital Era

What does it mean to create in a world dominated by screens and algorithms? Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists tackles that question head-on, assembling five rising artists who are reimagining creativity in a post-industrial era.

Now in its 34th year, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s annual showcase for artists 35 and under remains a launchpad for some of the country’s most dynamic talents.

Primavera 2025 curator Tim Riley Walsh on ‘the future of making’

Curator Tim Riley Walsh has gathered a group whose diverse practices push back on automation, reminding audiences that making—and feeling—still matters.

“The Primavera 2025 artists reflect the future of making in this country,” Walsh says. “They’re the voices of a new generation, responding to a rapidly changing technological landscape with powerful innovations in sculpture and installation.”

Inside the bold work five rising Australian artists

This year’s line-up of artists—Francis Carmody, Alexandra Peters, Augusta Vinall Richardson, Keemon Williams, and Emmaline Zanelli—offers a distinct rebellion against the digital drift.

Their works span salt crystals, sheet metal, and video installation, all grounded in a shared urgency to reconnect with the tangible world.

Francis Carmody spins speculative stories from the edges of science and myth. His twin sculptures, Canine Trap I and II, fuse 3D modelling with experimental materials, turning the mechanics of the trap into a metaphor for capitalism’s endless predatory cycles.

Elsewhere, Alexandra Peters blurs painting, printmaking and installation in The Infinite Image, transforming the gallery itself into what she calls a “staging”—where corporate polish meets artistic subversion.

With enamel-coated windows and sliced-open walls, Peters folds the museum’s architecture into the artwork.

Augusta Vinall Richardson adds industrial edge with her largest work yet, Arrangement of forms (apparition) I and II. Forged from bronze and corten steel, her handmade prisms balance texture and imperfection, challenging the pristine permanence of minimalism with a celebration of imperfection and persistence.

Reconnecting with making: material, concept, and surreal wit

Taking a conceptual turn, Brisbane-based Keemon Williams skewers the art world itself with wry precision.

Of Koa, Kuku Yalanji, Meriam Mir and South Sea Islander heritage, Williams outsources the manufacture of 999 aluminium boomerangs. It’s an absurd yet incisive reflection on the industry’s contradictions around authenticity and pressure to produce art.

Meanwhile, Emmaline Zanelli injects surreal humour and grassroots spirit into the exhibition.

Her video ‘I take care of what’s mine’ and installation Magic Cave turns a South Australian mining town into a fantastical realm, blending community collaboration with absurdist flair.

Together, these artists remind viewers that even in an automated world, art is rooted in human touch, curiosity and care.

Founded in 1992 in memory of jeweller Belinda Jackson, Primavera has spotlighted more than 250 artists and 30 curators, including Shaun Gladwell, Danie Mellor and Agatha Gothe-Snape.

Supported by the Lee Ming Tee Foundation and MCA Next, Primavera 2025 extends that legacy, one welded, painted and pixelated piece at a time.

Primavera 2025: Young Australian Artists runs until 8 March, 2026 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. For more information, visit MCA.com.