Ancestors of the Future (Exhibition)

*OPENING RECEPTION 4PM ONWARDS, 7 AUG 2026*

A collection of works from Bornean artists reimagining the indigenous Bornean identity not as a relic of the past but as a living, evolving expression shaping our collective future.

Bornean Indigenous identities are often defined by the lives and traditions of our ancestors. They explored and created with the materials they had at hand from their natural environment, and later adapted them through migration, emerging trade, and agricultural practices. These skills, creations, and artistic expressions were then passed down through generations as “tradition.” Somewhere between time and space, we forgot that what we consider “old” or “traditional” was once new and contemporary.

Today we return to the path of their footsteps. Drawing from the materials of our current environment and the lived experiences of our generation, this exhibition brings together a collection of works from Bornean artists who explore contemporary expressions derived from ancestral knowledge as a mark of 21st-century Indigenous cultural identity, reframing the Indigenous Bornean identity not as a relic of the past but as a living and evolving expression that will shape the collective futures of generations to come.