Sitara Tanglaw — Marikit Santiago & L-FRESH The LION

Western Sydney Creative Artists Commission 2026
Margaret Whitlam Galleries, Western Sydney University, Parramatta
5 August – 12 November 2026

Who guides us through life? For many of us, our first guides are family members, elders, teachers and community leaders. As we grow, those guides often expand to include heroes found in music, sport, art, faith and public life — figures whose stories help us imagine who we might become. Yet guidance is rarely straightforward. It is shaped by migration, culture, memory, belief and the communities that surround us.

The light of the stars premieres the collaborative practice of Sitara Tanglaw, a new interdisciplinary collective bringing together acclaimed Filipino-Australian visual artist Marikit Santiago and ARIA-nominated hip hop artist, writer and community leader L-FRESH The LION. Grounded in the lived experiences of the Filipino and Punjabi diasporic communities, the exhibition moves through painting, sound, storytelling and installation to explore how cultural inheritance, faith and resilience are carried across generations and reimagined in contemporary Australia.

Both artists understand the power of representation. As visible creative figures within their communities, they occupy a space between the guides they once looked to and the guides they have become for others. Their work asks us to reflect on the people, stories and values that illuminate our pathways, while recognising the responsibility that comes with being seen as a source of inspiration.

Moving between the personal and the collective, the sacred and the everyday, the exhibition offers a space for reflection on identity, belonging and aspiration — celebrating the many lights that help shape our journeys, and reminding us that guidance can emerge from unexpected places.

Sitara Tanglaw are recipients of Western Sydney University's 2026 Western Sydney Creative Artists Commission, following a soft launch co-curating the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Archie Party earlier this year.