'There's a nostalgia about it': MAMA unveils new summer exhibition

"As a child, we spent a lot of time at Nan and Pop's house, and there was a lot of storytelling about life growing up on the river," she said.

"We learnt about the superpowers of animals through wild and lyrical stories.

"And as kids, we would gather and hear these stories and draw them onto pop's back, actually, with cheap textas."

Thornber draws inspiration from those memories for her latest mural, It's flamin hot darl, the centrepiece of Murray Art Museum Albury's (MAMA) new summer exhibition.

"This work is about summer heat and those intense summer days that we all experience," she said.

"And there's a nostalgia about it.

"We all have memories of super hot days spent near the river, and I just want people to recall their expressions of summertime here, and the life-giving source of the river and how it provides a reprieve from the intense weather we experience."

MAMA's new exhibition opened on Friday, December 15.

Besides Thornber's work, the show features a series of hand-picked works from the National Gallery of Australia (NGA).

Through sculpture, photography, collage, video and drawings, giyawarra-nanha gulbalanha (Disturbing The Peace) forms a "collective dialogue that rejects the act of silencing and seeks to disrupt the colonial narrative".

Annie Falcke, acting director of MAMA, said the opportunity to hand-pick works from the NGA and bring them together in one room would never reappear.

"I imagine people will feel moved and maybe challenged by some of the work," she said.

"But hopefully also connected to each of the artists in a new way that's meaningful, personal and moving."

Ms Falcke said MAMA would have children's activities running all summer relating to the exhibition.

"Families can come in and get a special kids trail activity book that they can do with their family to find ways to engage with these works in fun and child-appropriate ways," she said.

"And, of course, the art camps will be going all summer, and we'll be interacting with these works and finding a beautiful, cool way to spend the summer holidays."