SPACE 1: CONMAN

Exhibition Dates : 18 November - 30 November 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 19 November 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Instant Distant

Nostalgia is an emotionally driven memory which never arrives whole. A scent, a song, a face blurred in motion. Like headlights on a highway at night, these memories appear suddenly in the distance, flare brightly, then fade to streaks of colour while slipping away. Each recollection feels vivid, yet always drifts further from the reality it once held.

Instant Distant is Conman’s new body of work, exploring nostalgia as both fleeting and consuming. Here, memory is staged, fragmented, and reassembled - an image that changes every time it is recalled. Within these works, abstraction and collage function like memory itself: capturing simultaneous happenings within a moment.

Drawing from film stills, advertisements, and remnants of cultural ephemera, Conman presents imagery that feels strangely familiar, yet never fully ours. This process explores the idea of memory being constructed, shaped by images that circulate and exist beyond an individual’s experience.

Instant Distant is a fleeting window where the past brushes against the present, before vanishing once again into the distance.

Catalogue:

SPACE 2: JAMES BOURBON

Exhibition Dates : 18 November - 30 November 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 19 November 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Memory, Myth & Magic

James Bourbon's new collage-based paintings excavate the forgotten debris of twentieth-century mass culture. Working in stark black and white, he reconstructs fragments from old advertisements, propaganda leaflets, and discarded print material. His traditional painting techniques mirror xerox reproduction, transmuting perceived trash into new mythologies.

These works interrogate how memory functions when truth becomes malleable. What images endure while others vanish? How do personal recollections merge with collective folklore? Bourbon's reconstruction process becomes archaeological recovery, pulling meaning from materials that once passed through our hands without consideration.

In our current landscape of manufactured nostalgia and weaponised misinformation, these paintings reveal memory as distorted and unreliable. The artist doesn't simply collage fragments but rebuilds them through paint, creating new mythologies from the wreckage of old ones. What emerges is darker than nostalgia: a forensic examination of how popular culture and media programs our collective unconscious, one image at a time.

Catalogue:

通路 Tsūro

'Long before I visited Japan, I had already been there, through imagination, cinema, music and the small adventures of my youth: I had dreams of this distant world. When I finally arrived at age forty, it felt both familiar and new: a meeting of memory, mystery and the people who completed the story. This series traces that voyage, where the imagined and the real meet, and where past, present and future converge. In many ways, my influences had already made the trip; I was simply catching up' - Jean-Luc Syndikas.

Jean-Luc Syndikas is an Australian-born artist working across drawing, photography, and film. His work has been exhibited internationally, including group shows in Melbourne, New York, and Pingyao, China. In 2024, he presented his debut solo exhibition 'Drrty Grlz + Prrty Boyz' at SOL Gallery, which attracted a wide and enthusiastic audience. Beyond his art, Jean-Luc curates and leads innovative life drawing experiences such as Top Secret Life Drawing, a cinematic, body-positive exploration of movement, identity, and form. Influenced by Surrealist art and film, his recent work investigates the theme of ‘journeys,’ crafting evocative visual narratives that invite viewers into dreamlike, introspective worlds.

CATALOGUE

SPACE 1: LUKE RION

Exhibition Dates : 18 November - 30 November 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 19 November 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Luke Rion is a New Zealand born artist, who is currently based out of Melbourne, Australia. For the last decade his practice has explored figurative and still life subjects, with a particular focus on our nostalgic relationship with objects and the negative space which they inhabit. Rion’s work explores the ephemeral rituals society has with technology and how something so vivid and so relevant in youth fades and eventually becomes discarded and lost.

Wave Cave drifts through the fragile terrain of memory, where once-bright moments dim and dissolve like echoes in a deepening cave. At the threshold, waves crash with relentless force, marking the passage of time. Each painting moves further inward, seeking refuge in shadow, where memories loop in soft, serene light. Childhood relics and fading symbols—an abandoned game, a crab clutching fragments of identity cling to the shifting landscape. As memory unfolds, the cave transforms into a lush forest, tangled and layered. Scale begins to slip, edges blur, and reality gives way to reverie.

Catalogue

SPACE 1 : VESSELS AND VIABILITY

Exhibition Dates : 4 - 16 November 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 5 November 2025, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Amanda Lugg

The word “vessels” is broad reaching. Conceptually it reaches from water going craft, to table ware. My own interpretation has taken me down the domestic route, so I have contemplated glasses and vases. They are practical objects, and generally have some longevity as well as recyclability.

In association with viability I have been encouraged to look into my rubbish bin. The materials I found there I have used to help create the papier mache vases with their wire and paper flowers.

There is something to be said for all art being recyclable in some form or other!

Catalogue:

Fay Abromwich

In this body of work, I explore the concept of the ‘vessel’ and the myriad ways this object can be interpreted. Handmade vessels have been formed and reproduced by every culture throughout the history of life on Earth. I feel the subject matter has the ability to become a focus for meditation and deeper enquiry.

Earlier works include woven baskets made from plant material found in my garden. For me, the ‘vessel’ is able to change shape and adapt to many forms, to be empty or to be filled.

Catalogue:

Lucienne Noontil

I wonder about the impact that I have on nature with how I live my life. The waste we create affects the health of the earth. Plastic, for example is created, dispersed and found everywhere. I question the collective progress of the human race. Why do we clear land and reduce critical habitat for so many birds and animals? Are mono-cultures the answer to starving nations? Too often nowadays, flora and fauna become vulnerable, threatened, endangered, critically endangered and then extinct.

In this exhibition I explore the relationships of man, wildlife and the environment and create pieces which show a connection between natural and unnatural, harmony and disharmony. I wonder about viability.

Catalogue:

PROJECT ROOM : SHIN KOYAMA

Exhibition Dates : 4 - 16 November 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 5 November 2025, 6:00 - 8:30pm

My practice brings together contemporary arrangements of traditional Japanese motifs and personal memories, often expressed through drawing, painting, printmaking, and ceramics. 

This exhibition holds a deeply personal meaning: an offering to Cory and to our family. Nine years have passed since the death of my wife, the writer Cory Taylor. As her final book, Dying: A Memoir, now takes shape on stage in Melbourne—a city I cherish—I wish to share my own work in parallel, as a gesture of remembrance and gratitude. 

I imagine Cory living just beyond a mountain, in a nearby village. That image sustains me, as does the memory of our thirty-three years together. 

Through these works, I hope to honour her presence, to let Cory, and all who visit this exhibition, see what I continue to create. This is a tribute of love and thanks for the life we shared.

CATALOGUE

SPACE 2 : SOBRANE

Exhibition Dates: 4 - 16 November 2025
Opening Reception: Wed 5 November 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Social Distortion – The Angels and the Crows!

‘Meek has never been my narration. Quiet has never been my fortitude’.

In this showcase Sobrane artestrates her experiential life experiences within today's political climatic scope. Its moving fast, sometimes appearing almost furious and the expressions of this can be scene in the energetic lines and content of her works. The exhibition began in Venice over a two week arts residency and has climaxed in a little house sit in a town called Shark Bay on the West Australian coast.

Political, evocative and spiritually aware. The chasm betwixt light and dark. The Angels and the Crows!

Utilising repurposed denim that has been stitched into every piece of artwork in this exhibition Sobrane is making a strong stand against its reproduction by AI. By using denim waste from the fast fashion industry, through her art she is preventing its reproduction. It still remains a Sobrane piece, becoming more provocative, pro active and slightly edgy.

The art has been created to the tunes ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’

CATALOGUE

My practice forms around an ongoing curiosity about the self — uncertain, fragmented, and shaped by the quiet accumulations of the everyday. 

After more than twenty years in Australia, my return to Japan has deepened my reflections on home, family, and the shifting relationships between the individual and the group. 

In this work, I re-examine what it means to exist as an individual, and approach the self as a constellation of fragments that can come together, drift apart, and take on new forms. I explore how connection and separation shape presence as they unfold, and how belonging can be something fragile and continuously remade.

CATALOGUE

The Race - Human

Recently, having to frequent the CBD, I sensed a feeling of urgency and anxiety; everyone was in a hurry, to me it felt like there was a race, and the winners received the prize of a small reduction of anxiety. My series is highlighting the sense of urgency and the fact that we all now live without interacting with each other, yet there are more of us now than ever before, and we don’t feel safe using each other as support.

Daniel Butterworth is a professional artist who paints with emotion and meaning. His confident technique is seen through large brush strokes, resulting in a painterly appearance.

SPACE 1 : GROUP SHOW - StudioWorkings

Exhibition Dates : 21 October - 2 November 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 22 October 2025, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Artists :
Francesca McNamara, Kate McCracken-Bell, Linda Baker, Margaret Meadows, Marija Newbold, and Mercedes Wolfenden.

When six women meet…

What happens when six women artists are brought together by serendipity to meet weekly in a beautiful studio? Stories and laughter abound as they talk, think, dream about, and make art, while they encourage, inspire, and challenge each other. With printmaking as an initial common thread, each artist brings her own style and practice across a range of mediums including painting, mixed media, printmaking, collagraph, drawing, collage and ceramics. Whether from a representational or an abstract perspective, there is an enjoyment and exploration of colour, texture and pattern in the work.

In a short period of time, the six women have become an enthusiastic studio group who meet weekly to work on their own projects. The group environment serves to push each artist to stretch her practice and to grow in confidence and creativity. This is their first group exhibition together.

Francesca McNamara

A life-long interest in the inner world of the mind, soul and heart, and the influences of Buddhism, Jungian dreamwork and creative therapies has led to my artistic exploration of ambiguity, stillness, quiet, of both the fragility and the strength of human experience and relationships. I work intuitively, allowing material to emerge from the conscious and unconscious levels of psyche where past memories and present experiences meld to shape my work. I work mainly with semi-abstracted and expressive figuration and landscape using mixed media, paint, fabric and ink, collage and collagraph printing.

Kate McCracken-Bell

I remember the day clearly, in 2018, when I was introduced to printmaking. My creative world opened and my love affair began. I haven’t stopped carving lino and exploring other print techniques since then.  During COVID I embraced finding ways of printing without a large press - including a silver spoon and an old pasta machine.  It was my solace and my way of creating colourful  images of dreams beyond Lockdown.

My images draw inspiration from  the patterns and life in my world around me,  from the ships in our Port, to the beloved bush where I grew up and our explorations around Australia. Fauna, flora and man-made all have a place in my art.

Linda Baker

Linda is a Melbourne based printmaker. Driven by the process rather than the subject matter, she enjoys the many varied techniques that printmaking has to offer. Her work is the result of continual experimentation, combining different elements of printmaking and mixed media. Linda is inspired by the human form and nature. She is a member of Fire Station Print Studio in Armadale and exhibits regularly in their group shows.

Margaret Meadows

Margaret Meadows’ creative practice spans various paper-based art forms, including printmaking, painting, and drawing. 

Across these mediums Margaret’s work reflects her love of the natural world, and endeavours to detail its forms and textures. Her lino prints (often hand-coloured with pencil and watercolour) examine the shapes and textures of landscapes, while her drawings in pen and ink focus on details of found objects such as bird nests, bones, insects, and sea creatures – often assembled into striking still life compositions. 

Margaret studied printmaking and drawing at Victoria University and works from her home studio. 

Marija Newbold

Marija Newbold lives and plays in Melbourne. Marija is a versatile artist and ceramicist whose work spans multiple mediums. Her creative process draws deeply from her experiences exploring new places,  the natural world, and discovering inspiration in surprising and unconventional sources.

Mercedes Wolfenden

My philosophy in creativity is that ‘play’, then refinement is the vehicle through which I discover what lies within. The mystery of finding myself in art. 

It’s for the individual to explore, see and feel the colour, the mark of my hand, the flow of shapes, the light and the dark, the presence. To make of my art their own interpretation from their rich, inner, personal narrative, formed by their own lived experience. Hopefully your unique understanding creates meaning for you in relating to the work. 

Fiona Barbetti. 'Loves the Sun', earthenware clay and acrylic on paper.

In winter, I follow the sun through my living room as I read, build Lego, and draw comics with my son. Like a houseplant, I rely on the winter sunlight to feel inspired and motivated. Female artists have long depicted domestic life, I find myself similarly bound, my child less eager for adventures or convinced to do the things I want. This installation gathers the visuals I lived with during winter: houseplants, sunlight and shadows changing, and fond memories of sunny Bendigo winters with my Nana’s gingham.

A continuation of her multidisciplinary practice, the work combines painting, sculpture, and shadow play—elements rooted in her early art school days—alongside a contemporary practice of text art. These layered pieces reflect the intersection of memory, motherhood and sunshine, within a domestic space.

Loves the Sun, earthenware clay and acrylic, 105x 300cm 

NFS

SPACE 2: THE JOURNEY WE TAKE TOGETHER

Exhibition Dates : 7 - 19 October 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 8 October 2025, 6:00 - 8:30pm

THE JOURNEY WE TAKE TOGETHER

by Annette Chang and Pimpisa Tinpalit

This exhibition seeks to illuminate the multifaceted journey of breast cancer through powerful large-scale installations and sculptures. It offers a unique space where patients, their families, friends, and medical teams can express their thoughts, share their struggles, and send messages of hope.

The fight against breast cancer is never a solitary one—it is woven with the love and unwavering support of those around the patient, whose strength fuels the journey. The expertise and compassion of the medical team form the foundation of both the patient’s physical and mental resilience. The impact of this battle stretches far beyond the patient, touching everyone in their circle.

Through this exhibition, we create a vessel of communication—one filled with love, care, and understanding—that embraces the fight. Together, we walk through the darkest moments, emerging into the light of healing, unity, and shared courage.

This is a celebration of strength, not only of the individual but of the collective spirit.

Annette Chang

Annette Chang is a Taiwanese-Australian artist who has lived, studied, and worked in Melbourne since 1991. Born in Taipei in 1955, she creates multidisciplinary works across painting, collage, installation, and sculpture. Using recycled materials and everyday objects, her practice offers a satirical and critical view of consumerism and modern life. Influenced by her Asian heritage and Western experience, Chang explores cultural hybridity and reflects on contemporary social and cultural complexities.

www.annettechangartist.com

Pimpisa Tinpalit

Pimpisa Tinpalit is a Thai-born Australian artist whose work explores themes of death, transformation, and the tension between free will and determinism. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, she transforms everyday materials into powerful, meditative forms. With over 20 years of international exhibiting experience, her practice reflects a deep philosophical engagement with impermanence. Since arriving in Melbourne in 2009, she has become an active and respected voice in the Australian art scene.

www.pimpisatinpalit.com

SPACE 1 : LINDA OY HO

Exhibition Dates : 7 - 19 October 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 8 October 2025, 6:00 - 8:30pm

EVERGREEN EMPRESS: THE DIVINE FEMININE

Remember. Reclaim. Rise.

Evergreen Empress: The Divine Feminine is an art exhibition and portal to remember, reclaim and rise by connecting to your soul essence, Source and the Universe.

Inspired by the Major Arcana of the Tarot, Linda Oy Ho reimagines archetypes through a contemporary lens.
Ho explores the divine feminine by listening to one’s inner wisdom, releasing self limiting beliefs, moving forward in trust and embodying truth. Her digital photo montage paintings invite a return to inner self-worth, intuition, courage and freedom through stillness, slowness and surrender.

Ho responds to the demands of capitalist and patriarchal society, exploring the collective “wounded masculine” of overwork, busyness and external validation which can suppress our multi-sensory awareness. “This exhibition is about coming home to ourselves — through self care, feeling, softening, spaciousness and simplicity — to access deeper love, peace, passion, abundance and higher purpose.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Linda Oy Ho’s art practice explores philosophy, spirituality and ecology. Her work creates a dialogue between ancestral memory, collective consciousness and present experience. Through digital artworks, painting, sculpture and digital media, she has combined materials such as metal, fibre, wood and textiles to form luminous works.

Since 2014, Ho has been selected as a finalist in eight art prizes including Yering Station Sculpture Awards for three consecutive years, Wyndham Art Prize, Brisbane Art Prize, among others.

SPACE 1 : JEN RODGER

Exhibition Dates : 7 - 19 October 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 8 October 2025, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Reclaiming the Wild

My art is an act of surrender, of loosening the need for control and trusting the creative process to unfold on its own terms. Reclaiming the Wild is both a personal and artistic turning point: a body of work created in the ongoing practice of letting go, especially of perfectionism, something I wrestle with daily.

Working in mixed media, I begin each piece intuitively, building up layers of colour, texture and mark-making without a fixed outcome in mind. These paintings are shaped by presence; by listening rather than directing. What emerges is a visual conversation with freedom, curiosity, and emotional truth.

This exhibition reflects my journey from overthinking to allowing, from striving to simply being. Each work invites you to pause, breathe, and reconnect with your own sense of wonder and wildness. It is my hope that in witnessing these pieces, you’ll feel not just the art, but the freedom behind it.

Chippy Thief captures a familiar and mischievous seaside moment — a life-sized seagull triumphantly clutching a stolen hot chip. Hand-carved from timber using traditional tools and techniques, the work invites an immediate smile, evoking humour, nostalgia, and memories of salty air and open skies.

While playful on first glance, Chippy Thief belongs to the Shoreline Guardians series, which reflects on the delicate balance between human life and the natural world. These sculptures preserve fleeting scenes from coastal life, celebrating their charm while also acknowledging the rising tides and human interventions reshaping our shores.

Through this piece, I hope to spark both recognition and reflection: a reminder of simple, joyful encounters with nature, and an invitation to consider the changing landscapes in which they occur. Like much of my work, it seeks to pause time for a moment — encouraging viewers to protect the environments that hold their treasured memories.

Olivia O’Connor is a sculptural artist based in the rolling hills of South Gippsland, Victoria. Through the traditional craft of woodcarving, Olivia reveals forms hidden within timber, using a meditative process guided by the material itself to make her contemporary sculptures. Inspired by the lush landscape and vibrant wildlife around her, her work explores themes of space and connection to a landscape to which she does not have a generational bond, reflecting her personal journey of understanding and belonging. Recently, Olivia has expanded her practice to include works on paper, experimenting with wood engraving, woodblock carving, and printing. This exploration allows her to translate her connection to nature and her artistic themes into a new medium, enriching her practice.

MARIAN QUIGLEY

Exhibition Dates : 23 September - 5 October 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 24 September 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

City and Country

During the last few years, my work has largely focused on Melbourne iconic buildings and structures. In this exhibition, however,  images are also drawn from Gippsland environments and are portrayed either separately or in juxtaposition with those of the city.  The paintings include both man-made and natural elements, sometimes in combinations which evoke the surreal.

Utilising acrylics, my style is characterised by a hard edge technique combined with elements of minimalist abstraction and strong colour/tonal contrasts.

CATALOGUE

BRICOLAGE

Bricolage describes the act of creating or using unconventional or found materials and objects. My found objects are used postal tubes, upon which I collage and embellish works previously printed, handmade, photographed and/or de-constructed. Bricolage Silos form the genesis of this exhibition and reflect my love of nature, reinterpreted and ‘imaginised’.

Artist Bio

With a mid-century childhood surrounded by my dad’s professional photography and my mother’s hand colouring of his prints, my work reflects a re-interpretation of their skills and my own penchant to be a ‘bricoleur’. An intuitive abstract artist, my visual language is organic and constantly evolving. Mark making is as vital as finding innovative ways to translate those marks into new forms of expression.

I love to experiment, make things up and take creative risks whilst my knowledge of the elements of art and design is always there in the sub-conscious supporting my desire to make art that is personally satisfying.

GROUP SHOW: GLASS COLLAB 5

Exhibition Dates : 23 September - 5 October 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 24 September 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Glass Collab 5 comprises a group of Melbourne based glass makers primarily working sculpturally. Pushing glass-making techniques into a contemporary practice as emerging artists, each has adopted an individual and idiosyncratic approach working glass to express their observations, thoughts and responses to what they see and experience around them.

Andrew Pauley

Andrew Scott Pauley is a glass artist with kiln forming being his preferred process. He has completed several glass courses in the last six years exploring different techniques.

Andrew began his journey under the tutelage of Brenda Page from Blue Dog Glass.

Andrew is inherently curious and has a passion for nature and the relationship between all living things within our biosphere.

Exploring mixed media Andrew likes to use sculpting to mimic the natural world and replicate, primarily in glass. He also has an interest in combining the formation of geology using texture to create functional & ornamental glass works.

Colleen O’Loghlen

Colleen O’Loghlen works in kiln formed glass and as a silversmith working mostly with recycled silver, where possible and copper. Currently she is aspiring to combine these two mediums to create dynamic and unique jewellery.

After completing an Associate Diploma of Architectural Drafting and some subjects from the Diploma of Interior Design which was her introduction to glass and its early beginnings.

In 2010 she entered the Blue Dog Glass studio where her fascination with glass was fuelled.

Inquisitiveness has led Colleen to master classes at the Blue Dog Glass studio and overseas glass studios to broaden her knowledge of specific glass techniques. She continues to extend and refine her knowledge in the diversity of fused glass techniques

Colleen has exhibited her glass and silver jewellery in studio exhibitions, artist trails,  galleries, and retail outlets. Also working in the arts sector in a local gallery as a gallery retail shop coordinator, highlights some understanding in the workings of a gallery, with artists and spaces.

Elizabeth Cleland

Elizabeth has explored many aspects of kiln formed glass for over 20 years more recently focusing on kiln casting, and mark making through engraving and line.

By casting thick, sculptural pieces, Elizabeth leverages the clarity, colours, imperfections, distortions, and weight of glass to express ideas, emotions, and concepts. The abstract nature of her work leaves the glass to speak for itself - showing off in its own right - whilst encouraging viewers to investigate their own responses to what they see.

Elizabeth developed her technical and artistic skills through workshops and masterclasses at Blue Dog Glass Artists’ Studio and Canberra Glassworks with local and international artists. She was accepted for a sponsored placement for the Conduit; Building Connections masterclass with Kirstie Rae and Dr Mel Douglas at the Canberra Glassworks in 2021.

Elizabeth has exhibited in group shows since 2008, including regular inclusion in the annual Merri-bek Summer Shows, held at the Counihan Gallery, Brunswick VIC.

Michelle Leeder

Michelle’s art is inspired by a childhood spent growing up in East Gippsland, admiring fabulous sunsets across the land and seascapes, as well as more recent years spent in the colourful Cool Country of Victoria’s Central Highlands, immersed in the wide array of colourful natural beauty.

Her formal education is in Engineering and Corporate Management. She worked and raised her family in Melbourne with her husband. She has always been actively involved in her community, volunteering for various community groups and projects, utilising her professional knowledge and skillset to assist with achievement of community goals.

Michelle is fascinated by the medium of glass. She finds joy in strong mid-century modern colours, as well as the effects of transparency with light traversing through glass, creating warm and energetic impressions. 

For over 20 years Michelle’s interest has been working with lead-lighting and warm glass. She now focuses her time as an emerging artist with the aim of create pieces that bring people a sense of joy and pleasure. 

Neil Brenton

Neil Brenton is a glass artist, creating through slumping and kiln forming and has been exploring glass art under the tutelage of Brenda Page for over 10 years. He has also participated in a rolled glass masterclass in Canberra.

Neil is inspired by his travels of recent years, of sea, sky and how a human designed structure can blend into natural landscapes. He is currently working on pieces inspired by the ocean, from his journeys as a sea kayaker.

Neil continues to seek inspiration for his art, travelling through rural and coastal landscapes.

WINDOW ROOM: JEN SELMORE

Exhibition Dates : 23 September - 5 October 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 24 September 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Creating paper entomology and the idea of using something so small, beautiful and seemingly innocuous such as a hand drawn butterfly, to commentate on societal issues is a main focus for the artist. Hints to the key messaging are subtly shared in the artwork title, positioning or condition of the hand drawn insect/s.

Using vintage materials, often reminiscent of fabrics and colour palettes from her childhood- helps create a nostalgic longing- an escape to simpler times past while giving new life to reused materials making the pieces truly ethical and sustainable. These materials, not only help to give a home to the creations but also hopefully cloak their messages in the warmth of nostalgia.

‘Living on Mute’
Pencil on toned paper & wire with vintage frame 34cmw x 114cmh

Living.on.Mute explores the strength found in self-acceptance. Hundreds of hand-drawn butterflies, rendered in delicate pencil on toned paper, cascade downward—spilling beyond the frame and into the viewer’s space creating a flow and momentum.

Each butterfly represents a moment of transformation, a whisper of identity once suppressed, now released and joining force. The vintage frame evokes a sense of containment or expectation, while the paper butterflies break free from it, symbolising liberation and growth.

This piece invites reflection on the tension between silence and expression, and the beauty that emerges when we allow ourselves to be fully seen. It is a visual metaphor for reclaiming voice and space in a world that often asks us to shrink.

CATALOGUE

PROJECT ROOM: TASMINA K MAJLES

Exhibition Dates : 23 September - 5 October 2025
Opening Reception : Wed 24 September 2025, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Pichutaan (পিছুটান) in Bengali : The entanglement with past memories, emotions and experiences

Pichutaan delves into the profound theme of entanglement with past memories through the lens of Tasmina K Majles, artist living in diaspora. Tasmina is a Bangladeshi-born migrant living in Australia for over a decade now. The landscapes of her adopted country evoke both familiarity and strangeness, blurring the boundaries between the known and the unknown.The body of work is an exploration of the complex emotions arising from straddling two worlds—one of her birth and another of her chosen home. The work offers a deep and introspective exploration of the artist's personal journey, navigating the complex terrain of identity, longing, memories of her home country and a sense of disconnection in everyday life as a migrant. She uses metaphoric tropes such as birds, nests, and stones to depict her migration journey and to symbolize the weight of memories she carries within. The work serves as a conduit that intricately intertwines time, memories, and connection.

Tasmina K Majles is a Bangladeshi-Australian multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Her creative practice rigorously interrogates the multiplicity of human perspectives and the intricate interplay between nature, the subliminal, and the constructed realities we inhabit. Drawing from her lived experiences in diaspora, she engages with critical themes of transnational identity, assimilation, and self-realisation, particularly as they pertain to her identity as a first-generation female immigrant.

Vayupad Ruttanapet was born in Bangkok in the year 2000. His parents work for the Thai government's Office of the Traditional Arts. He spent his childhood sculpting and assisting in the creation of monuments and Thai sculptures under the care of experts in the field. Vayupad studied Khon, a traditional Thai performance, during middle school at The College of Dramatic Arts. He then studied fine arts at Saowabha Vocational College. In 2024, Vayupad received his Bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts from Silpakorn University, majoring in Sculpture. Currently, he is also a part-time lecturer at the same institution. Vayupad’s sculptures explore the balance between realism and idealism, drawing inspiration from classical Western and traditional Thai influences while embedding a distinctly personal sensibility. Each figure becomes a study in form, memory, and the human condition.

CATALOGUE