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Hot Tropics brings together works by First Nations artists who live in, or are connected to, the tropic and subtropical zones of Australia—an area encompassing Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, inclusive of Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait Islands.

Drawn from the national collection, these works tender a tropical imaginary where water is a connective element that gives and sustains life. In works whose perspectives are filtered through water’s many aqueous lenses, artists explore their ecological, cultural and spiritual connections to place, climate and each other, to speak of water’s sacred and secular importance.

At once wet and hot, idyllic and formidable, the tropics as imagined in Hot Tropics are a place of equal beauty and threat. In these regions of freshwater and saltwater people and predators coexist, rain both relieves drought and induces flooding, and heat and humidity can be pleasant or overpowering. Realised across contemporary and traditional forms spanning painting, printmaking, sculpture, textiles and jewellery, works on display also speak to the duality of seasons, cycles and atmospherics.

Against the ever-present threat of climate change, which is overwhelmingly felt by island and coastal Communities, these artists reaffirm their unceded sovereignty and attest to their survival. Hot Tropics explores Ancestral sites, birthing grounds and marine resource estates, with myriad totemic, ceremonial and social features—and argues for the importance of maintaining Country, Community, and culture.