ZAHALKAWORLD: An Artist's Archive - A Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh) touring exhibition
Closes: 24 January 2027
For more than four decades, Anne Zahalka has been one of Australia’s most celebrated photo media artists, exhibiting widely across Australia and internationally. Known for reimagining familiar scenes and stories, Zahalka’s work invites audiences to look again, challenging cultural and gender stereotypes while creating space for more diverse perspectives and experiences.
Curated and toured by MAPh, ZAHALKAWORLD: an artist’s archive is a major survey exhibition centred on Zahalka’s personal archive. Bringing together significant bodies of work from across her career alongside treasured objects, photographs and ephemera from her archive, the exhibition offers a rich insight into the ideas, memories and influences that have shaped her practice.
This special iteration of ZAHALKAWORLD at the Jewish Museum of Australia foregrounds works connected to family history, memory and migration. As the child of a Holocaust survivor, Zahalka reflects on experiences of loss, displacement and belonging with sensitivity and humanity.
The exhibition also includes works from Zahalka’s celebrated series Bondi: Playground of the Pacific, which captures the vibrancy and multiculturalism of Australian life. Presented in the wake of the December 2026 terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, these works take on renewed resonance, offering a powerful reflection on community, resilience and belonging.
ZAHALKAWORLD: an artist’s archive invites visitors into the world of one of Australia’s most important contemporary artists and offers an opportunity to reflect on identity, memory and the stories we tell about ourselves and each other.
