Dean Cross X Sidney Nolan: Two Heads brings new and recent works by Canberra-born artist Dean Cross into dialogue with Sidney Nolan’s paintings at Canberra Museum and Gallery.

Playing on the adage ‘two heads are better than one…’, the exhibition is a speculative collaboration shaped by Cross’ long-standing interest in Nolan and his connection to Country as a Worimi man. Working three generations apart, both artists revisit familiar Australian stories, exploring personal memory, identity and unresolved histories.

Visitors can discover connections through collage, spray paint, freewheeling lines and recurring shades of cadmium yellow. Three paintings from Nolan’s Untitled (Heads) series sit alongside Cross’ own portrait head, each drawing on memories that are captured, concealed or elusive.

Cross also reimagines Nolan’s 1940 rooftop mural at Heide through his installation The boy and the moon, developed from his studio on Walbunja Country, outside Braidwood.

Presented in the Nolan Gallery on Canberra’s Civic Square, Two Heads invites visitors to look closely at two distinct artistic practices and consider how the stories told through Australian art continue to change.