08/09/2026
Australian Gothic expresses the darker, more complex realities of living in Australia—stories shaped by landscape, memory, violence, myth, and lived experience.
Through this theme, Castle Art Collective shares honest, unconventional, and deeply personal narratives highlighting the grittier side of Newcastle—a city shaped by colonisation, industry; a city with an unsettling history that continues to echo through its architecture and coastline.
To visit the Lighthouse, one must travel with intent. The span of time it takes to get up the hill, be it on foot or by vehicle, gives a person the opportunity to leave the busyness, distractions and day-to-day mindset behind and enter a different space: one that is both domestic and strange. It is a perfect place to encounter something unexpected, unusual and thought provoking, something to dwell upon and turn over in one’s thoughts as one heads back down the hill.
The Australian Gothic theme has long explored environmental hostility, colonisation, alienation, and the familiar made strange.
Our exhibition continues this tradition through a contemporary, place-based lens, inviting audiences to look again at the local landscapes they think they know, and to sit with the uncanny, the unsettling, and the unresolved.
Saturday 12 September — Sunday 1 November 2026
Open on Saturdays and Sundays 10 am — 4 pm
Closed public holidays.
Free entry. Donations welcome.
Featured Artists: Cheap Coffins, Tallulah Cunningham, Lucy Egan, Lucy Gill, Jem Gillard, Jonathan Gilbert, Silas Ingles, Mya Irving, Carolyn Leishman, Estelle Leishman, Rosie ManuO'Uiha, Cairo Matheson, Joseph Matheson, Madeleine Prior, Rebecca Prior, Bianca Thomas, and Patrick Umadhay.
