The gallery will also host the National Photographic Exhibition in August and September, with the $20,000 in prizes tipped to attract entries from across Australia.

French photographer Denis Darzacq, winner of the 2007 World Press Photo, is featured in a five-week exhibition opening on February 19 and entitled Hyper.

Cultural services group leader Jacqui Hemsley said yesterday that Darzacq explored how individuals fitted into an increasingly rampant consumer society.

“The photographs involve no digital manipulation, just close collaboration between young dancers and sportsmen as they jump for the camera to form unreal, exaggerated poses and body language,” she said.

Chinese artists living in Australia and China have contributed to a touring exhibition, Zhongjian: Midway, which will visit Albury from May 21 for two months.

Ms Hemsley said 14 contemporary artists have contributed paintings, sculptures, installations and video presentations for an exhibition curated by Wollongong Art Gallery.

Five are Chinese nationals living and working in China, four are Chinese-born artists living and working in Australia, and five identify themselves as Australian artists whose work has been closely informed by Chinese culture.

Together, these artists investigate notions of traditions, globalisation and identity in their work.

The major exhibition, the NSW Parliament Aboriginal Art Prize, closes on January 17, but plans for another indigenous exhibition are underway.

Artists from the Murray-Darling basin have contributed to Water In A Dry Land, which will also open on May 21

Other exhibitions in 2010 are ArtExpress (from March 12) featuring works by NSW teenagers, and Propa Ganda, a youth photography project sponsored by the Rotary Club of Albury North (from March 12).