By Mason in Culture — 26 Sep 2026

Full Throttle: the National Gallery's free summer show is all about cars

More than 200 works by over 60 artists, from a woven Toyota Hilux to Sarah Lucas's cigarette-covered Jaguar, fill the National Gallery of Australia from 5 December 2026. Entry is free.

Tjanpi Desert Weavers, 2026, in Full Throttle. Image: National Gallery of Australia

Canberra's summer blockbuster will not cost a cent to see. The National Gallery of Australia has revealed the artists for Full Throttle, a major exhibition about the car that runs from 5 December 2026 to 11 April 2027 with free entry. It brings together more than 200 works by more than 60 artists and collectives, spanning sculpture, painting, installation, textiles, video and works on paper.

Why cars?

The show treats the automobile as a lens on modern life, touching on gender, power, performance and national identity. "The Full Throttle exhibition examines the automobile as one of the defining symbols of the modern era," said National Gallery director Nick Mitzevich, who curated the exhibition with Beatrice Thompson, Associate Curator, Asian and Pacific Art.

"Full Throttle presents a diverse range of artistic responses to the automobile, revealing it as a connector and divider, a saviour and destroyer," Thompson said.

What to look for

A monumental woven Toyota Hilux by the Tjanpi Desert Weavers, commissioned for the exhibition
Sarah Lucas's Jaguar covered in cigarettes
Margaret Dodd's ceramic Holdens, from her 1970s series This woman is not a car
A recycled timber ute with ceramic figures, and a large beach car park tableau, by Dharug artist Billy Bain
A Mad Max montage by George Miller, and a painting by Kaylene Whiskey that layers in imagery from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Trent Parke's photographs of Bathurst
Judy Chicago's painted car hood

Other artists include Tracey Moffatt, Patricia Piccinini, Reko Rennie, Trevor Nickolls, Robert Fielding, Gaypalani Waṉambi, Gary Hillberg and Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, alongside international names such as Jordan Wolfson, Kimsooja, Catherine Opie, Erwin Wurm and Pipilotti Rist. Fashion also gets a look in, with Thierry Mugler and Jeremy Scott on the list. The National Indigenous Times reports that more than 15 First Nations artists are represented, with works including Trevor Nickolls' Family in Blue Holden (1998) and an untitled painted car door (1990) by Mavis Holmes Petyarre.