ROWENA HANNAN

SPACE 1

Exhibition dates : 28 July - 9 Aug 2026
Opening reception : Wed 29 July 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

The haunting sound of gumtrees knocking lazily against each other as the unseen move through the forest. Their presence is felt like water particles floating in the air creating a whispering echo on the foliage. From the beginning of time, these mythical creatures stand in defiance as protectors of the natural world. Hidden from the human eye, Dryads keep watch and lay waiting as old growth forest disappears. They are both warriors and nurturers moving across the forest floor giving breath to the lungs of a troubled earth. Dryads bring life to what seems lost while providing havens for creatures that have lost their habitat due to the fallibility of humanity.

Rowena Hannan has been working as a practicing ceramic artist and teacher for over thirty years. Focusing largely on figurative sculpture, she has exhibited in both solo and group shows throughout this period along with the completion of some large public sculptures which have allowed her to explore a range of other materials beyond clay, such as concrete, bronze and steel. Throughout her years of artistic practice, she is constantly drawn to the narrative in her concepts, and these encompass her love of personal history and storytelling. Rowena taught Visual arts at Firbank Grammar from 1997- 2019 and was Head of Art for 8 years. She was also Head of Visual Arts Korowa Anglican Girls’ School from 2020- 2023. She is now working full time on her art practice. Rowena has been a VCE reviewer of folios around the state of Victoria and has delivered art education papers internationally. In 2019, she was an artist in residence in Vallauris, in the South of France and in Barcelona in 2025. Rowena is a co-author of an award winning VCE textbook for Studio Arts, ‘Artisan’ published by Cambridge Press.

CATALOGUE

LIMINAL THREADS

SPACE 1 - Side

Exhibition dates : 28 July - 9 Aug 2026
Opening reception : Wed 29 July 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Liminal Threads explores thread as a material, creative method and metaphor; a scaffold and connective force linking place with embodied memory. United through a cartography of pattern, Lucy Buxton and Kylie Walsh present traces of their encounters with Ireland’s landscapes and waterscapes, during their residency at Watershed Studios in Galway in 2025. The two artists are bound by a series of synchronicities - ancestral lines and recalibration after significant shifts - all of which led them to meeting in a fishing shed-converted studio in rural Ireland. Through shared conversations unfolding alongside daily studio rituals and material experimentation, they began to map their creative paths alongside the lively currents of the Abhainn na Gaillimhe (River Corrib). The works presented in Liminal Threads emerged across international waters, life transitions, rupture and renewal, made in the liminal space between who they once were and who they are becoming.

LUCY BUXTON

Lucy Buxton is a Naarm-based artist and curator. Working across expanded printmaking, her work explores rivers and creeks as living entities, repositories of memory and regenerative sites. Lucy's work engages with more-than-human knowledges, fostering intimate and embodied encounters with the environmental, social and political nature of water. 

Lucy spent one month at Watershed Studios as part of the first year of her practice-based PhD, where she is researching relationships between play and the ways in which people relate to and care for waterways in urban environments.Through walking, drawing and slow-stitching water patterns into agar agar and gelatine-based bioplastics, she built a living archive of her encounters with the River Corrib. The outcome is a series of relationalities between more-than-human knowledges and the embellishment of human imagination.

KYLIE WALSH

Kylie Walsh is a Sydney-born (Garigal country) Canberra-based (Ngunnawal and Ngambri)fibre artist whose practice explores patterns, connections and colour through a hybrid weaving technique. Her work takes the form of geometric fibre 'paintings' that exist between textile and graphic art.

Kylie's residency at Watershed Studios became far more than an artistic endeavour. It provided space to reset, slow down, and reflect on identity, belonging, and ancestral connections, leaving a lasting impact in the months that followed. The work she presents in Liminal Threads traces this journey—from ideas first germinated in the studio overlooking the River Corrib in Galway (Gaillimh), to the refinement of designs during a transformative period spent by the River Derwent in Hobart (nipaluna), and finally to her new home studio in Canberra (Ngunnawal), where both artistic and personal growth coalesced, unifying the work across time and place.

PAUL TURNER AND ROBERT BARTOLO  

SPACE 2

Exhibition dates : 28 July - 9 August 2026
Opening reception : Wed 29 July 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

People and Places - Dug out of a rabbit hole.

These works bring together a series of figurative, architectural, and semi-abstract works that explore the relationship between identity, memory, and the environments we inhabit. Moving between portraiture, landscape, and constructed space, the exhibition examines how people navigate the psychological terrain of contemporary life. Faces emerge fragmented and searching, while suburban scenes, imagined cityscapes, interiors, corridors, and thresholds become emotional spaces suspended between familiarity and uncertainty.

Through expressive colour, layered mark-making, and shifting perspectives, the works blur the boundaries between observation and memory, reality and imagination. Landscapes and interiors function as psychological environments where personal experience intersects with broader social constructs and urban psychology. Together, these paintings and drawings reflect the subtle tensions between comfort and dislocation, vulnerability and resilience, inviting viewers to consider the unseen emotional architectures that shape everyday life.

Robert Bartolo

Robert Bartolo creates abstract paintings that explore colour, texture, and the energy of the painting process. Working intuitively, he layers paint, gestures, and marks to build compositions that evolve naturally over time. Rather than representing a specific subject, his work focuses on balance, movement, and emotion, allowing each painting to develop through experimentation and instinct. Rich surfaces and expressive brushwork encourage viewers to look closely and discover new details with every viewing. Bartolo's practice celebrates the freedom of abstraction, inviting personal interpretation and creating a space where colour, form, and feeling come together.

Paul Turner

Paul Turner creates expressive paintings that explore the connection between people, places, and memory. Inspired by the Australian landscape and everyday surroundings, his work combines bold colour, rich textures, and intuitive brushwork to capture the atmosphere and emotion of a scene rather than its exact appearance. Working primarily in acrylic, Turner builds layered surfaces that reveal new details on closer viewing. His paintings encourage viewers to reflect on their own experiences and relationships with place, celebrating the beauty, character, and stories found in both familiar landscapes and imagined spaces.

LINDA WEIL

PROJECT ROOM

Exhibition dates : 28 July - 9 August 2026
Opening reception : Wed 29 July 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Our supermarket shelves may sparkle, but behind the shine lurk factory farms, overfished oceans, and plasticwrapped everything. These cheeky, thoughtful drawings are here to gently poke you in the ribs — a reminder that every item you toss into your trolley is a choice that shapes the world. A little food for thought.

With over 40 years as a professional artist, the practice explores a wide range of drawing mediums, with graphite pencil remaining a preferred tool. Works focus on wildlife, nature studies and found objects, combining precision with a deep appreciation for detail.

Recent works return to the imaginative and fantastical, blending natural history with mechanical influences. Biomechanical visions, animal textures, reimagined folk tales and the hidden stories within everyday objects become recurring themes.

Primarily working in graphite, the artist incorporates subtle touches of coloured pencil, watercolour washes and organic stains. The work explores the space where realism and imagination meet, inviting viewers to discover new stories within every line and shadow.

CATALOGUE

MAIKO SENTINA

WINDOW ROOM

Exhibition dates : 28 July - 9 August 2026
Opening reception : Wed 29 July 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Part 1 - In the Wards was created during a prolonged hospital admission while undergoing diagnosis and treatment for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis meningitis. Painted from my hospital bed, in waiting rooms and between scans, these watercolours document the uncertainty, isolation and quiet moments that define serious illness.

Each work corresponds to a day of admission. What began as a way to cope, became a daily act of creative resistance - a way to quiet my mind when I had little control over my body. Through this process, art became more than recovery; it became a way to move beyond my diagnosis and begin healing. A creative residency in illness. Installed within Sol Gallery’s enclosed Window Room, the works invite viewers into a lived experience that’s rarely seen. They are both a record of survival and an act of advocacy, encouraging greater compassion for people living with invisible illness.

Maiko is a self-taught, Kaurna-based emerging multidisciplinary artist using watercolours, acrylics, mixed media and music. Her practice explores themes of illness, care, culture, place-making and language, shaped deeply by her lived experience with chronic and neurological illnesses and by her perspective as a first-generation immigrant.

Through colour, pattern, mark-making and portraiture, Maiko transforms personal and medical experiences into visual works that invite empathy, connection and healing. Alongside her artistic practice, she works as an intellectual property lawyer in the tech industry, grounding her creative work in a unique intersection of art, culture and advocacy.

Part 1- In the Wards

Watercolour on Arches cotton paper (300 gsm)

Not For Sale

JC HARRIS

SPACE 2

Exhibition dates : 11 - 23 August 2026
Opening reception : Wed 12 August 2026, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Third Space

The work in Third Space is a manifestation of the cultural void I feel I exist within. As a Filipino-Australian, I often feel a level of disconnection from my heritage and culture. I don’t feel Asian and I don’t feel Australian; I feel like something alien or 'other'. There are parts of me that I feel are missing, incompatible or incomplete, which lead me to feel 'less than' and never quite enough.

The bodies and figures I’ve painted are self-portraits, but they are not meant to be a representation of my physical likeness. They are my spiritual, emotional and mental bodies. They are my way of processing, building and defining my cultural identity.

APRILL ENRIGHT

WINDOW ROOM

Exhibition dates : 11 - 23 August 2026
Opening reception : Wed 12 August 2026, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

We speak to ourselves in passing—often harshly and carelessly. Notes to Self is an invitation to reconsider the inner monologue.

This work began as a personal exercise in reframing: rewriting the quiet, corrosive thoughts I had been cycling around on. The Post-it Notes were a tool to reshape my beliefs. This artwork gave me a chance to ask, "What would it mean to make those reframes permanent? What if they weren’t temporary affirmations but permanent truths?"

Each ceramic sticky note in this work carries a reworded belief. They are sculpted by hand, then adhered to a mirror where the viewer’s own reflection becomes part of the piece. Could this be your voice too?

Notes to Self, Ceramic on found mirror,

75cm x 65cm 

$1980.

VIVIENNE MAHER

PROJECT ROOM

Exhibition dates : 11 - 23 August 2026
Opening reception : Wed 12 August 2026, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

V.

Intimate, polarising and powerful.

YOU'RE ALLOWED TO BE BOTH SOFT AND SHARP. BOTH ARE WORTHY OF BEING SEEN.

An exploration of identity, vulnerability, strength, restraint, and the tension that exists between them.

Vivienne Maher is a Melbourne-based artist, photographer, and creative director whose work explores emotion, connection, identity, and the relationship between people and their inner world. Working across photography and mixed media, her practice is driven by a fascination with what lies beneath the surface; those inner moments, expressions, and energies that often go unseen. Drawing on a background in portraiture, commercial photography, and fine art, she creates work that sits between observation and intuition, balancing documentary elements with emotional and conceptual exploration. Alongside her artistic practice, Vivienne exhibits, collaborates with other creatives, and continues to develop bodies of work that examine beauty, humanity, and the invisible threads that connect us.

CATALOGUE

MARTIN BREEZE

SPACE 1

Exhibition dates : 11 - 23 August 2026
Opening reception : Wed 12 August 2026, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

SLENDER HANDS HOLD BROKEN FLOWERS

Slender Hands Hold Broken Flowers brings together a new body of large-scale abstract paintings that explore fragility, containment and the tension between structure and collapse.

Emerging from instinct rather than a fixed outcome, the paintings evolve through revision, interruption and the willingness to leave parts unresolved. Vessel-like forms, architectural fragments and traces of domestic memory appear throughout, but never settle into fixed meanings.

Rather than offering answers, these works invite curiosity. They exist in the space where certainty ends, allowing each viewer to bring their own experience to what unfolds on the canvas.

The exhibition comprises recent large-scale acrylic paintings on canvas from the ongoing series Slender Hands Hold Broken Flowers.

CATALOGUE

SCOTT MCLATCHIE

SPACE 1 - Side

Exhibition dates : 11 - 23 AUG 2026
Opening reception : Wed 12 Aug 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Scott Mclatchie's work is a cracked, ripped and dismantled trawling to source the vibrant colours that lie within the pages of Medieval manuscripts and their documentation in history books, creating a ruleset in the creation of their work. However, despite their imagery of god fearing subjects and the desire to find colours of the "divine" Scott's work is examining their own history with the distortion and breaking of these objects and imagery that in turn would label them a "blasphemer" or a "heretic" in the eyes of the almighty. 

Scott Mclatchie is both a practicing artist and musician operating on Wurundjeri land having recently completed a Masters of Curatorship through the University of Melbourne in late 2024. Scott's practice involves a heavy use of concept and remixing using conceptual means as well as physical means of collaging, VHS video manipulation/experimental film, but Scott's recent practice has focused largely on painting with shows within their respective scenes where their music practice collides within Punk, Emo and Black Metal and experimental music for the last decade. As well as exploring these concepts within more academic focuses; Their minor thesis looked at "Remix Culture" in niche experimental online film and music scenes and their role within institutions and the museums. Scott Mclatchie continues to develop their work into constantly reshaping and "remixing" themselves and their work within their environment.

CATALOGUE

RUANG EKSPLORASI   

SPACE 1

Exhibition dates : 25 August- 6 September 2026
Opening reception : Thursday 27 August 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Being in a new place often draws attention to things that might otherwise go unnoticed. In unfamiliar surroundings, we encounter not only a different environment, but also new ways of observing, comparing, and understanding our relationship to the world around us. From these encounters, what emerges is not always something entirely new, but often a renewed perspective on what has been there all along.

This exhibition brings together eight artists whose practices have developed through diverse backgrounds, experiences, and contexts. Shaped by different environments and personal journeys, each artist approaches the act of observing, responding to, and making sense of the world in their own way. These varying perspectives form the foundation of the exhibition, creating a space where distinct artistic voices can come into

dialogue with one another. The works presented in Ruang Eksplorasi are part of ongoing artistic practices that have evolved over time. Carrying with them ideas, concerns, and visual languages developed through each artist’s journey, these works arrive with their own histories before entering a new context through this exhibition. As they are brought together in a different environment, they enter a new context that opens up different ways of seeing and understanding them. Within this exhibition, exploration is understood not simply as the pursuit of discovery, but also as a process of exchange: between artists, between places, and between the perspectives that emerge as works move beyond their original contexts. Through these encounters, meaning remains open, continuously shifting and expanding in response to the environments in which it is experienced.

Ruang Eksplorasi, which can be translated as “Room for Exploration,” becomes a space where these intersections can take place. It is a gathering of diverse artistic practices brought together through movement, dialogue, and curiosity. At the same time, it offers an opportunity to reflect on how artworks, much like people, continue to evolve through the places they pass through and the connections they form along the way.

Agugn

Agugn Prabowo a.k.a Agugn (Bandung 1985) graduted from Graphic Art Major at the Faculty of Art and Design ITB. Been exploring various printmaking techniques, mostly linocuts and has comprised to push the boundaries of printmaking, incorporating the analog and digital process. Fear, nature, and ancient Indonesian arts has been his drive for making art by criticising anthromorphic perspectives.

Aharimu
Aharimu is a Bali and Jakarta based artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, film, and tattoo-based performance. Her work often draws from overlooked objects and the quiet rituals of daily life, reimagining them through bold colours, dense textures, and forms that blur the line between figure and abstraction.

Most of her inspiration comes from observing the unnoticed in her surroundings and translating the banality of daily life into a playful and imaginative universe. Currently, she is working on her series, Twisted Bodies, where she breaks down the realistic and logical technique to portray human bodies and their inner world. She instead paints them in a way that is twisted, creaturelike, and almost grotesque, but at the same time radiates a sweet, delicate, and feminine feeling.

Denny Novikar Nasution

Denny Novikar Nasution is a photographer & visual artist from Medan, North Sumatra with a penchant for people, places, parties, pleasures, music and all kinds of human passion. Currently living his best life in Bali, with pleasure.

Glen Fox

Glen Fox was born in Jersey in 1992. He is both an artist and a professional skateboarder. In 2011, while studying Art and Design at Highlands College, he started gaining attention for his skateboarding. His art reflects his skateboarding background—loose, free, and full of movement.

Jacquie Meng

Jacquie Meng (b.1998, Hangzhou) works with painting, sound, and installation. Her work redefines diasporic cultural identity beyond national and geographical specificities, rather seeing it as unfixed. Through consideration of posthumanism, performativity, and the migration of objects and imagery between cultures, Meng explores the ways that identity can be reflected beyond the body: it can be revealed through objects, patterns, chance encounters, idiosyncrasies, as well as through embedded cultural and social practices. She makes paintings of her surroundings through a speculative lens, collapsing time and space, changing the experience of observation into one of invention, referencing mythologies and personal truths and fictions. Through this, She highlights the uncannyness of the everyday and reflects on the strangeness of identity politics.

Rai Julian

Rai Julian is a contemporary artist based in Canggu, Indonesia, known for his uplifting narratives and profound visual poetry. Inspiration from a diverse range of artists. Through his art, Rai shares not only his personal experiences but also those of the people around him, making every piece truly special and reflective of his community. Rai’s art could be described as a medley of uplifting narratives and profound visual poetry; often emulating the joy of everyday things.

XUF

Iman XUF or XUF is a Bali-based visual artist working primarily with stencil and street art. Originally active in the music scene under the name Electrofux, he later shifted into visual practice, developing a distinctive layered stencil style across murals, canvas, and urban surfaces. His work is part of Bali’s contemporary street art movement and has been widely present in public space

VALENTINA PALONEN

WINDOW ROOM

Exhibition dates. 25 August - 6 September 2026
Opening Reception : Thursday 27 August 2026, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

A reverie in earth and stone, In search of the white narwhal, brings together afecund wunderkammer of recent ceramic work by Australian-Finnish artistValentina Palonen. Featuring an assortment of fantastical, semi-botanical, semi-marine ceramic sculptures and vases inspired by an opulentcornucopian table setting - along with flowers, shells, and candles and othernatural found objects - these work lean into a contemporary Rococo aesthetic.

Valentina Palonen is an experienced artist and ceramicist with over 20 years experience in the field. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in a variety of gallery spaces, has been shortlisted for national prizes, and won her residencies both locally and abroad, including at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris (2012 and 2015). She has completed a Master of Fine Arts (Research) at the VCA, The University of Melbourne (2012), and a Doctor Of Philosophy (Art) at RMIT University (2021). She is currently a tutor at Northcote Pottery Supplies.

PRUDENCE MAK  

SPACE 2-PROJECT ROOM

Exhibition dates : 25 August- 6 September 2026
Opening reception : Thursday 27 August 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

WAVE OF LIFE

WAVE OF LIFE draws inspiration from the ever changing rhythm of the ocean, symbolising the continuous ebb and flow of existence. Each artwork becomes a fragment of the artist’s personal and creative journey, a monumental 2.5-metre-high, 3-metre-wide installation immerses audiences in a poetic landscape of childhood dreams and wave —a profound meditation on growth, transformation and the enduring ties that connect people, cultures and time.

"Like the sea, life is in constant motion. Through ink, I document each wave of learning, memory and discovery, connecting Eastern philosophy with the world." — Prudence Mak

Mak studied under the renowned Hong Kong ink master Leung, whose guidance laid a solid foundation for her deep understanding of traditional Chinese ink aesthetics. Building on this classical training, she has continuously embraced Western artistic concepts and contemporary visual languages, gradually forging a distinctive practice that bridges tradition and innovation.

WAVE OF LIFE embodies Mak’s philosophy of “learning from the East and sharing with the world.” Through layered ink washes, expressive brushwork and poetic compositions, the exhibition creates a vibrant dialogue between Eastern and Western cultures, demonstrating the boundless possibilities of Chinese ink art on today’s international contemporary stage.

Prudence Mak is a Hong Kong artist whose practice spans over two decades, distinguished by her exploration of ink painting, fine art installations, and cross disciplinary storytelling. Founder of Chocolate Rain (est. 2001), she has developed a unique visual language that blends whimsical narrative with cultural heritage, positioning her as a leading voice in Hong Kong.

Her ink works reinterpret traditional aesthetics through playful yet contemplative forms, often merging ink brushwork with modern iconography. This approach bridges East and West, inviting audiences to reflect on identity, memory, and imagination.

Prudence has exhibited internationally — from solo art exhibition in London, Sydney, Singapore and U.S to major art fairs such as Art Central and The Other Art Fair by Saatchi Art — bringing Hong Kong’s fine art and IP culture to global audiences. Her collaborations with institutions and brands, including The British Museum and Stella McCartney CARE, highlight her ability to extend ink art into new cultural and commercial contexts.

Beyond her studio practice, Prudence serves as Senior Advisor at the Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC), mentoring emerging artists in art licensing, IP, and sustainable creative entrepreneurship. Recognized with the full scholarship of MA study at Central St. Martins London University, Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award (2012) and the APEC Young Women Innovator Award (2013), she continues to champion ink art as both a fine art discipline and a medium of cultural exchange.

Her passion lies in empowering artists to dream boldly, while her own ink works embody a dialogue between tradition and innovation — making them compelling for galleries seeking to showcase contemporary Asian voices in fine art.

ANNIE HSIAO-WEN WANG  

PROJECT ROOM

Exhibition dates : 8 - 20 Sep 2026
Opening reception : Wed 9 Sep 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Annie Hsiao-Wen Wang’s work is inspired by the mysterious world of bioluminescent sea creatures and the largely unexplored depths of the ocean. More than 80% of the ocean remains unmapped and unseen, yet these hidden environments are filled with strange, delicate, and luminous forms of life.

Through light, movement and organic structures, Wang’s installation works draw attention to the wonder and fragility of this unknown world. They invite viewers to consider how little we know about the oceans, despite their vital role in sustaining life on Earth.

This exhibition is an expression of awe, and an invitation to look more closely at the fragile marine systems that remain hidden, threatened, and still barely understood.

Annie Hsiao-Wen Wang is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores consciousness, impermanence, and humanity’s place within the vastness of the universe. Trained first in physics and mechanical engineering, she later turned to contemporary art, bringing scientific inquiry and material experimentation together with poetic imagination. Her practice often uses light, movement, and organic forms to evoke living systems, cosmic structures, and states of being. Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Wang draws on her cross-cultural heritage and dual grounding in science and art to create immersive works that invite viewers to contemplate fragility, wonder and interconnected life.

CHRISTOPHER JENNINGS 

SPACE 2

Exhibition dates : 8 - 20 September 2026
Opening reception : Wed 9 Sep 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Closer Still.

Chris is a self-taught artist who has been drawing and painting since he can remember. His paintings are included in a number of private collections in Australia and Europe.

In this latest series of paintings he has forsaken the traditional middle- or long-distance view of the Australian landscape and taken a closer look.

He has captured the bush in all of its intricate, ramshackle, chaotic beauty.

These works aren’t botanical nor are they merely decorative but paintings created to excite the eye and inspire you to look afresh at the Australian bush.

CATALOGUE

NADINE HOBSON

SAPCE 1

Exhibition dates : 8 - 20 Sep 2026
Opening reception : Wed 9 Sep 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Nadine Hobson is a Melbourne based artist, a lifelong creative and self confessed perpetual daydreamer. Drawing inspiration from the beautiful, diverse beauty of the Australian landscape, including the Dandenong Ranges where she grew up, Nadine creates textured abstracts that reflect nature’s colour palettes, while also reflecting an otherworldly, dreamlike quality; and as such, fondly refers to her paintings as ‘dreamscapes’. Works are created from a deeply emotional connection to country and place, conveying mood, emotion and a tangible representation of an experience in nature.

Further layered into each piece is musical inspiration derived from music. Every artwork is named for a particularly meaningful song or lyric that wends its way through the creative process, and ultimately coincides with the overall mood of the finished work. For Nadine, art is intrinsically linked to a love of music and this adds an additional dimension to her practice and completed works.

PETER GILES

PROJECT ROOM

Exhibition dates : 22 September - 4 October 2026
Opening reception : Wed 23 September 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

The Life of Still Life

Still life has long been regarded as a study of ordinary objects. For me, it is a way of exploring memory, light, history and the quiet stories carried by the things we choose to keep. Each painting begins with observation but develops into something beyond description. A piece of embroidered linen, a weathered skull, a loaf of bread or a simple vase becomes a vehicle for ideas about heritage, mortality, family, craftsmanship and the enduring value of art.

Technical exploration is equally important. I am fascinated by the behaviour of paint itself—its ability to describe light, texture and atmosphere while remaining a physical material in its own right. Whether working in realism or allowing abstraction to emerge beneath the surface, I seek paintings that reward prolonged looking. These works trace a journey of curiosity, where everyday objects become lasting reflections on the human experience.
  "My hope is that these paintings encourage viewers to pause long enough to discover that the ordinary is rarely ordinary."  

Peter Giles is a Melbourne-based Australian artist whose practice focuses on traditional still-life painting. His work explores memory, history and the quiet stories held within everyday objects. Through careful observation, rich colour and attention to light, texture and detail, Giles transforms familiar subjects into thoughtful and atmospheric compositions. His paintings celebrate the beauty of the ordinary while reflecting on the stories and experiences objects can carry.

KEN WENTWORTH

SPACE 1

Exhibition dates : 22 September - 4 October 2026
Opening reception : Wed 23 September 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Upcoming: Image + Text [Relics Revisited]

Continuing with the theme of my previous exhibition at Sol Gallery in 2024, Relics for future generations, that incorporated paintings of figure groupings, text, and installation elements, to create "absurd icons of the modern world".

This new body of work utilises figurative artworks from past projects for further examination and investigation, adding text to communicate complex notions through simple statements. On one level alchemising the past, and on another creating multidimensional messages that resonate with others individually, and speak to the many collective issues of the moment, inviting curiosity to incorporate and interpret multilayered understandings, of our present and future.

CAL

SPACE 2

Exhibition dates : 22 September - 4 October 2026
Opening reception : Wed 23 September 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Using architectural drafting techniques, aerosol paint and masking tape, CAL creates highly precise geometric works that explore the relationship between structure, space and perception. His compositions often depict abstracted architectural forms removed from their original context, creating unfamiliar spaces that feel both precise and dreamlike. Through clean lines, measured geometry and controlled colour, CAL aims to create a sense of calm and tranquillity, inviting viewers into a quiet, meditative visual experience.

CAL is a Melbourne-based self-taught artist whose practice explores geometric minimalism through two- and three-dimensional compositions. Working primarily with spray paint, masking tape and stretched canvas, he combines the precision of architectural drafting with contemporary painting techniques. His works transform architectural forms into abstract, atmospheric spaces that invite contemplation and a sense of stillness.

ART JAPAN 2026

SPACE 1

Exhibition dates : 6 - 18 October 2026
Opening reception : Wed 7 October 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

More than 80 art works will be exhibited include 3D artworks. Each showcases their materials and unique forms of expression. Ranging in genre from pop to modern and everything in between. (oil, watercolor, acrylic, lithograph, CG, ceramics and other) Approximately 42 artists participate. All artworks will come from Japan. Participating in the Melbourne Fringe Festival

Artists

Akane Asano • Akae Saito • Chie Oba • Cosmore • Coyonac • Eika Sugiura • Emi Kinran Kamataki • Erika Suzuki •Hayato Tominaga • Hiroki Maruyama • Hoshino Brothers • Hussey • Kei Matsumoto • Keiko Nogami • Kenny C.W.Y •Kou • Kumiko Misu • Kyo • Maiko Mitsuhashi • Mahari • Makoto Nakane • Mari Aoe • Mashiro Tanishi • Mia Tanabe •Miki Tomita • Mio Okubo • Misuzu • Miyuki Kizu • Natsue • Pu Kobayashi • Rieko Kameyama • Rune • Shibanao •Shigeru Eguchi • Shinon • Shuhei Tominaga • Sou • Takaaki Mano • Takashi Suzuki • Tetsuya Mizuma • Tomoya Onoue •Yodatomo

Credit image : Mashiro Tanishi

LESBIANS LEAP FROM THE ARCHIVES 1970-2000  

SPACE 2

Exhibition dates : 6 October - 1 November 2026
Opening reception : Thursday 8 October 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Lesbians Leap from the Archives 1970–2000 brings together photographs, publications, posters, ephemera and personal histories that celebrate three decades of lesbian life, activism and cultural expression. Spanning the years from 1970 to 2000, the exhibition traces the emergence of lesbian communities, political movements and creative networks that challenged social norms while building spaces of visibility, solidarity and belonging.

Drawn from archival collections, the exhibition reveals the everyday lives, relationships and voices that have too often been overlooked in mainstream histories. Through magazines, newsletters, artworks, protest material and personal archives, it highlights the importance of preserving collective memory and recognising the individuals whose courage shaped Australia's social and cultural history.

More than a historical survey, Lesbians Leap from the Archives 1970–2000 invites audiences to reflect on the role of archives as living repositories of identity, resistance and community. By reconnecting these stories with contemporary audiences, the exhibition honours the legacy of those who documented their lives so that future generations could continue to learn from their experiences and contributions.

FRUZSI KENEZ

WINDOW ROOM

Exhibition dates : 20 Oct - 1 Nov 2026
Opening reception : Wed 21 October 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Folklore Totem Pole

Fruzsi Kenez is a visual artist on unceded Kaurna country (Adelaide, South Australia) whose sustainability-focused practice encompasses ceramic sculptures, illustration and artist books.

Fruzsi's work explores belonging, folklore and storytelling and is pre-occupied with our relationship with and place within the natural world.

Photo: Tom McCammon
(Be)longing solo exhibition at Nexus Multicultural Art Gallery, Adelaide, 2021

JAY DEE

SPACE 1

Exhibition dates : 20 Oct - 1 Nov 2026
Opening reception : Wed 21 October 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Jay Dee is a Melbourne-based artist whose practice has developed over many years through a deeply personal connection to painting. His work explores ideas, emotions and experiences that emerge throughout his life, translating them intuitively onto canvas. For Jay Dee, art is both a means of communication and an essential part of his life, with each work reflecting the emotions, thoughts and creative journey behind its making.

CATALOGUE