Emily Ferretti in the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2026

CHALK HORSE is thrilled to announce Emily Ferretti’s participation in the Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2026.

Drawing is an intimate art form. Nimble, economical, universal and immediate, drawing can lay bare the bones of how we look, think and feel. The Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2026 brings together 11 artists from across Australia who use a range of materials – pastel, pencil, watercolour, ceramic, light and thread – to channel drawing’s intimate potential.

For some artists, drawing encourages attention to the minutiae of the everyday, or close observation of the people and places that make up their worlds. Others draw to give shape to the elusive forms of their imaginations. For several artists in this exhibition, drawing is about the elaboration of a personal visual language – the putting down of lines and marks that are all their own. Looking beyond the medium’s physical attributes, this edition of the Biennial proposes that the closest thing to a definition of drawing is its capacity for intimate expression.

The exhibiting artists are Stephen Benwell (Vic), Tom Blake (WA), Andrew Browne (Vic), Emily Ferretti (Vic), Rosemary Lee (NSW), Mary MacDougall (Vic), Julian Martin (Vic), Jennifer Mills with Darcy Luker (Vic), Ryan Nazzari (WA), Louise Weaver (Vic), and Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu (NT).

The Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2026 runs from 12 September 2026 – March 2027 at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Naala Nura building, Lower level 2. Entry is free.

Text courtesy of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Image: Emily Ferretti, Keen to see, 2024 (detail). Courtesy the artist. Photography: Damian Dillon.