Acceleration

Michael Reid Sydney’s 2026 program is revving up to a dynamic finish with Acceleration – an expansive group show timed to coincide with the National Gallery of Australia’s major summer survey, Full Throttle. Placing our four-wheeled obsessions in the frame, Acceleration assembles six leading contemporary artists whose extraordinary bodies of work act as a vehicle for broader reflections on material culture, masculinity and our nostalgic attachments to the objects that move us.

“Few symbols define the modern era as powerfully – or persistently – as the automobile,” write the NGA curators. “Fuelled by the legacy of the film Mad Max, Full Throttle presents the car as a lens through which to examine contemporary life.”

Taking up this premise through a range of artistic approaches, Acceleration promises a thrilling joyride across paintings, sculptures and works etched on metal road signs by Gaypalani Waṉambi, Christian Bonett, Brenton Drechsler and Jo White. These four artists’ new series will circle landmark images by acclaimed photographers and frequent collaborators Narelle Autio and Trent Parke, whose indelible photographs of the Bathurst Races also form a centrepiece of the NGA’s Full Throttle. “I wanted to represent the transience of the street,” says Parke, “where you’re there for a split second and then you’re gone.”

For previews, please email saskiapugh@michaelreid.com.au.