The powerful Sydney exhibition putting Karla Dickens centre stage

Karla Dickens' Embracing Shadows was not the kind of exhibition designed to sit quietly in the background.

The free exhibition at Campbelltown Arts Centre, presented in association with Sydney WorldPride, brought together work from the Lismore-based Wiradjuri artist in a major survey that explored identity, discrimination and the lived experience of being a First Nations woman in Australia.

Dickens is known for work that does not soften difficult subjects. Her practice moves across different materials and forms, often drawing together personal, political and cultural ideas in a way that feels direct and deeply human.

Embracing Shadows placed female identity and racial discrimination at the centre. It also arrived in a broader cultural moment for Sydney, as WorldPride brought conversations about identity, visibility and belonging into public spaces across the city.

For audiences, the exhibition offered more than a gallery visit. It asked people to sit with discomfort, memory and resilience. That is what strong public art can do — it can make a city look at itself differently.

Campbelltown Arts Centre has long played an important role in bringing major contemporary work to western Sydney, and this exhibition showed why that matters. Not every important cultural moment happens in the CBD or eastern suburbs.

For Sydney, Embracing Shadows was a reminder that lifestyle coverage should not only mean restaurants, fashion and weekend plans. Culture is part of how a city understands itself.