However, there are also exhibitions where a concept or an issue becomes the overriding motivation.

This is the case at Maitland Regional Art Gallery at the moment, where three of the new exhibitions have a burning concern for a subject beyond art or artmaking.

The most obvious example, Shadow Boxer, occupies all of the main spaces of the lower floor with multimedia works illuminating the boxing ring. This has an atavistic dimension but is a well-timed tribute to local hero Les Darcy (1895-1917) who became in a few short years the world middleweight champion and died, like Phar Lap, tragically young in America.

The Maitland gallery has long been amassing an impressive collection of memorabilia of its celebrated son, on view in the drawers of a specially-made cabinet.

Darcy's personal charm and fighting skills are also made evident in a particularly well-sited film and in a group of life-size homage paintings by Milsom. In his characteristic black and white chiaroscuro, the figures of the young hero and his sparring partner emerge from the dark of the past with dramatic energy, becoming the highlight of the exhibition.

Other works explore the role the boxing ring has played in Australia's social evolution. The touring tent shows of the past were important in creating careers and reputations for Indigenous sportsmen, providing a rare opportunity for young Aboriginal men to become celebrated Australians.

A more recent social issue features another virtually marginalised group with the increasing prominence of boxing for girls and women. Their serious challenge is poignantly depicted in the immersive photographs by Michael Willson.

The other major exhibition, Just Not Australian (No matter how hard I try, I can't escape my past) occupies the space on the gallery's upper level with a new look at the Lucky Country.

A touring exhibition, it brings together work by 20 artists of different generations and diverse ethnic origins, making ironic comment on contemporary Australia's cultural prejudices; sometimes savage, sometimes wry, sometimes comic.

Hoda Afshar, born in Iran, has a staged photograph revealing the dismay of the newly-arrived mail order bride at being offered toast with vegemite.

Archie Moore, a Kamilaroi man from Queensland, places a scrunched up ball of printed paper in a glass case. Its caption tells us that it is a page from Hansard documenting Pauline Hanson's notorious speech predicting Australia would be overrun by Asians.

First Nations' Tony Albert has spent years collecting from op-shops those cringe-making souvenirs featuring Aboriginal faces on beaten copper, boomerangs on ashtrays or drinks coasters and cute dusky kiddies. A wall-filling installation of these spells out the word 'OTHER' in giant accusatory letters.

More hopeful perhaps is the video of Cigdem Aydemir, born in Sydney of Turkish Muslim background.

Aydemir shows herself in black leathers and hijab offering a series of Aussie blokes a ride on her Harley Davidson.

As it gathers speed, her black veil blows out behind in a Priscilla moment of liberation. It's a lovely image of female freedom and ethnic pride. It is obvious that the action has been filmed in a studio, suggesting perhaps that it remains a happy dream.

The third large exhibition highlights another national issue. It is a focused protest, a fiercely documented project describing the sad state of the once mighty Darling River or Barka.

It powerfully shows dry sand and stagnant pools occupying the bed of much of this long watercourse which covers a great arc of inland Australia and has been a potent presence for Aboriginal people since time immemorial.

Justine Muller uses film to document this environmental tragedy while Badger Bates recalls its symbolic lifeblood for his people in a series of linocuts.

The touring exhibition states a strong case for the restoration of a water flow for the people of Wilcannia and beyond. It's good that there have been recent rains in Barkandji country.

And finally, in Wonnarua 2020, a video diptych by Ryan Andrew Lee, the plight of the Hunter landscape wrecked by mining is set in contrast to a pre-existing pristine paradise.

Maitland Regional Art Gallery: Shadow Boxer, until August 8; Just Not Australian, until August 8; Wonnarua 2020, Ryan Andrew Lee; Barka, The Forgotten River, a collaboration between Badger Bates, Justine Muller and the Wilcannia community, until September 5.

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