Hobart Current
Hobart Current is an innovative long-term partnership between the City of Hobart and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), nurturing and showcasing contemporary artists working across performance, music, film, design, visual art and literature.
We have completed our third exhibition program Hobart Current: HERE which featured ten Tasmanian artists and curated by Co‑Directors Travis Tiddy and Denise Robinson, the exhibition drew 99 231 visitors through TMAG's doors, around 609 people per day, along with thousands more who encountered the three public artworks across Franklin Square, Mawson Place, Salamanca Lawns, the TMAG entranceway and a 1970's Bedford bus.
The artworks spanned an extraordinary range of mediums: performative body casts, deconstructed colonial flags, puppetry, dioramas, kinetic sound sculptures, charcoal and pastel works sealed in rusted steel boxes, suspended forms, oil paintings, video games, suburban songlines, vinyl sails, and interactive public signage. A powerful and diverse response to the theme of HERE.
The public Undercurrent programs added further depth, including the Wish You Were Here! postcard exhibition featuring 250 postcards from five schools, Jodi Haines' mixed‑media visual storytelling project on the Soapbox Billboards and a highly successful summer school for Tasmanian art students aged 16 to 18 years.
The impact and legacy of Hobart Current: Here extended far beyond the numbers, it strengthened creative pathways, celebrated Tasmanian voices, and left an enduring mark on our cultural landscape in Nipaluna (Hobart).
Hobart Current website
This major biennial program showcases contemporary artists working across different media, which may include music, performance, film, design, visual art and literature.
A Creative Director is appointed for a two-year cycle. They set the theme and select ten artists to participate, each of whom will be commissioned to create a new work for the exhibition. At least six of the ten chosen will be artists who identify as Tasmanian.
Hobart Current: Here
A time and place of convergence
When: 14 November 2025 to 26 April 2026
Creative Directors Denise Robinson and Travis Tiddy welcomed a diverse range of artists who are based in Lutruwita/Tasmania to take centre stage.
The artists included Andy Hutson, Dylan Sheridan, Jade Irvine, Jenni Large, Jodi Haines, Jonny Scholes, Marion Abraham, Mary Scott, Peter Waller and Sara Morawetz.
Each work was grounded in and from place yet branches outward, as a reflection on how we live, exchange and imagine in an era of fragmentation.
Hobart Current: Here
Hobart Current: Epoch
Explore life as we step into a new era
When: 17 November 2023 - 12 February 2024
Creative Director Chris Twite selected ten artists, including six Tasmanian artists, with the remainder selected from national and international applications.
The selected artists were Arushi Jain (US), Florence Shaw (UK), Georgia Morgan (Tasmania), Isabella Maria Foster (Tasmania), Lou Conboy (Tasmania), Nathan Maynard (Tasmania), Rochelle Haley (NSW),Tricky Walsh (Tasmania), Wona Bae and Charlie Lawler (Tasmania).
Hobart Current: Epoch
Hobart Current: Liberty
Who chooses freedom for whom, in what space and during what time?
When: 12 March - 9 May 2021
Rosie Dennis, Creative Director of Hobart Current, selected ten contemporary artists to help find the answer.
Tasmanian artists Sinsa Mansell, Brigita Ozolins, James Newitt, Jacob Leary, Dexter Rosengrave and Nadege Philippe-Janon featured in this collection. It also spanned interstate and international talent including Uncle Wes Marne, Suryo Herlambang, Jagath Dheerasekara and Sarah Jane Pell. They created new works in the mediums of film, installation, performance and visual art.
The works commissioned for Liberty offered personal and vulnerable perspectives on the theme, challenging notions of agency and representation, surveillance and exile.
Hobart Current: Liberty