Passage: A Journey of Life

The upcoming Group Exhibition will showcase a diverse array of works from both emerging and mid-career artists who are based in the vibrant Melbourne/Naarm arts community. This carefully curated collection is designed to highlight their unique perspectives and creative expressions.

Artists

Amy Cooper , Ciara Turnbull , Diego Salas , Morgandy Walker, Santiago Mals , Vanessa Chen , Yoony Yoony

Curated by Orbit Art Space

Amy Cooper

Amy Cooper aims to express the inexpressible through tracing journeys at the intersection of internal and external processes of thought, sense perception and lived experience. After becoming visually impaired and undergoing major surgery on both eyes, Cooper has adapted her practice to prioritise art making as a tool of discovery, play and self-regulation through transitional life periods. Each layer is a fractured part of a potential whole, sitting in a mutable space of metamorphic discovery.

Cooper received the dean's award upon graduating Bachelor of Fine Art (2020) and graduated first class in Fine Art Honours (2021) at RMIT. She is currently completing her final year of a Master's in Art Therapy at La Trobe University.

Catalogue

Ciara Turnbull

This collection explores the pain and confusion felt in moments of uncertainty and decision making. We are always contemplating, deciding, and making choices which have the potential to change us the second we make them. These nebulous moments between choosing door A or door B, or no door at all, bring feelings of doubt, dread, excitement, possibility, disappointment and so on which clash cacophonously with our ideas of “self”. It is with these moments that the only constant we can be sure of is the inevitable passage of time. The concept of “identity” is always in flux and at any particular moment we are only one of many versions of ourselves. It is this identity that informs all decisions. One might feel compelled to choose something another wouldn’t. But how are we supposed to know which is the right decision for us, in this particular moment of time? For some of us, having a complicated sense of identity makes decision making impossible. The metaphorical fork in the road can be enough to make us freeze in terror, unsure of how to move forward. How does one choose between door A or B? How does one know which is best? It seems, as some say, that only time will tell.

Catalogue

Diego Salas

This body of work explores the transformative journey of migration and the emotional landscapes navigated by those who live, work, and create far from their homelands. Within the framework of Passage, these paintings reflect on transitions—not only as physical displacements, but as spiritual awakenings, cultural negotiations, and moments of profound inner change. Each composition blends overlapping images of human and natural forms, merging bodies with leaves, wings, and flowing landscapes. This visual layering becomes a metaphor for transformation, how the self is shaped and reshaped through experience, adaptation, and belonging. The paintings weave together symbols drawn from memory, belief, and nature. Birds take flight across borders as emblems of freedom and change. Flowers bloom as guardians of ancestral wisdom, carrying the resilience of tradition and care. Wild, untamed elements mirror the inner wilderness of identity and growth. At the heart of this visual narrative are powerful feminine figures, keepers of culture, emotion, and healing. The work becomes a meditation on coexistence, where diverse beliefs, stories, and life paths overlap and evolve, seeking harmony, meaning, and expression.

Catalogue / Update soon

Morgandy Walker

My practice is an investigation of the archive and how it relates to the notion of the memorial. Delving into the importance of storytelling and connection in our lives, I had come to examine the rituals of memorials and have since determined that they are impossible tasks. We are all subject to a ‘second-death’ of archive anonymity. Using printmaking, film, and sculpture, I recast these archives and traces into new forms of remembrance. Exploring the burial archives of eastern Bunurong country, I revisit the roles of the living from a bodily perspective. I propose an alternative memorial through recording physical ephemera, highlighting spoken and performing language as intimately recognisable personhood. The video interviews, conversation frottages, and plaster hands within my practice are portraits of both the physical experience, and its transience as memory. I reform the bodily experience of remembrance as a eulogy. An embodied eulogy that is made to be felt, rather than catalogued and researched as the archive provides.

Catalogue

Vanessa Chen

In this collection, I explore the complexities of identity through a blend of abstract forms and subtle realism. Curving shapes and soft strokes reflect the fluid nature of memory and self, weaving a dreamlike narrative of transition and transformation. Rooted in my tri-cultural experience as a Chinese migrant to New Zealand now living in Melbourne, each layer symbolizes shifting cultural influences and an evolving sense of self. Winding Whispers speaks to the beauty and uncertainty of change, inviting viewers to see themselves as vessels of fragmented memories, cultures, and emotions—mirroring not only my journey, but their own.

Catalogue

Santiago Mals

In this series, Santiago explores the complexities of the inner journey he has experienced as a result of the transformations that came with living as a foreigner. The series is presented as a sequence of archetypal situations where Santiago portrays an internal, identity-based, and spiritual journey of self-discovery. These works aim to explore the fluid nature of our identity, presenting it as a constant and internal flow where everything changes in unexpected ways.

Catalogue

Yoony Yoony:

Yoony Yoony is a Melbourne-based artist who works with traditional Korean art materials such as Soonji paper, Peyonchae(watercolour), watercolour, and Meok (Korean black ink). She creates works that speak of hope for the socially disadvantaged, based on the difficult like of her late grandmother.

The Serenity series mainly depicts plants. Plants that grow from the earth are the most essential and fundamental elements for human life. They represent a warm hope like a mother’s embrace, and for some, they symbolise something that feels like a dream.

Through her work, Yoony Yoony hopes that many people in the blind spots of society can feel hope.

Catalogue

DEVOTION

This body of work, explores the relationship with the picturesque and the sublime through the lens of 19th and early to mid-twentieth Century Australian art. I am interested in the artist's reaction to what seemed unknowable in the natural world and the desire to relate to this landscape. From the perceived awe and sometimes terror of the Australian bush to the gentrification of this natural environment as a component of white settlement. Through the medium of ceramics, I have explored the natural and cultivated landscape within the different spaces of the gallery. I have looked at the artists’ response to the wilderness and how nature can be controlled and used as metaphor. When left undisturbed it evokes a sense of mysticism and autonomy. This is perhaps why it is unknowable?

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 and in 2019, was artist in residence in Vallauris, in the South of France. She is looking forward to her next residency at Taller Gingell in Barcelona in 2025. Rowena is a co-author of an award winning VCE textbook for Studio Arts, ‘Artisan’ published by Cambridge Press.

CATALOGUE

Finding moments of clarity, tranquillity or inspiration amidst disorder and turmoil. It speaks to the idea that even in chaotic situations, there can be unexpected moments of grace, creativity or joy that highlight the resilience of the human spirit. This phrase encourages us to embrace life’s unpredictability and see the potential for growth and beauty in the messiness of existence.

My inspiration stems from a deep fascination with human emotions, exploring themes of identity, vulnerability and connection. Reflecting both beauty and raw honesty to capture the complexity of the human experience.

CATALOGUE

Stampz, a stencil and street artist from Melbourne, explores themes of identity, resistance, and nostalgia. Showcasing both past and recent works, this exhibition highlights his evolving techniques, with new pieces incorporating found postage stamps—layering history and texture into his signature style.

Since embarking on his artistic journey at sixteen, Melbourne street artist Stampz has left his mark across the city's urban landscape. Hailing from Belgrave, he employs a range of mediums—including aerosol murals, paste-ups, and stencils—to convey his creative vision. Recently, Stampz has begun incorporating found postage stamps into his work, enriching his pieces with elements of history and texture.

CATALOGUE

Future Cultures is a multicultural platform co-founded by Colombian/German artist Katira and French/Australian artist Lucy Lucy. It fosters collaboration among diverse artists, uniting underrepresented voices to create impactful, inclusive multi-artform experiences.

Their artistic practices align through public art, cultural exchange, and large-scale projects with festivals and city councils worldwide. Influenced by Latin America, Europe, and Australia, their work blends heritage with contemporary aesthetics.

Future Cultures reclaim spaces for change, drawing from Katira’s Latin American iconography and Lucy’s fusion of French folklore and modern design. Through collaboration, they build bridges that inspire new philosophies, interweaving diverse perspectives to create meaningful, transformative art.

In its next iteration, Future Cultures will activate Sol Gallery with a group exhibition featuring five artists exploring cultural identity through their unique creative lens. We would love for you to be part of this journey.

ARTISTS

@lucylucyone /  ⁠@katira.art  / @justinemcallister  /  @anispintora / @vietmy. bui

CATALOGUE

As an artist specializing in large-scale, realistic public artworks, I’ve spent years transforming walls using vibrant murals. This exhibition marks a point in my creative journey, bringing the techniques and tools learned thus-far outdoors, into a gallery setting.

Every piece in this show is created entirely with spray cans, a medium I’ve utilized on many large-scale projects around the world. Spray paint allows me to merge precision with spontaneity, layering texture and detail using the chaotic nature of aerosol.

In this collection, I explore spaces without people, portraits without space around them and discarded objects painted gold. Although created without an expressed theme, I felt a unified aesthetic emerged of a decaying world, people hidden behind masks and a search for beauty in the discarded. All work was produced between March 2024 and April 2025

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CATALOGUE

PRE-ORDER

First Sign of Light： 兆し
Calligraphy exhibition by Hisako Tsuchiya

The artworks exhibited here were created by Hisako Tsuchiya over a period of more than 30 years. She began calligraphy when she was 50, like the Japanese proverb says, “What! you’re starting something new at 50” During this period she also spent sixteen years caring for her eldest son, who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and passed away in 2022.

Interwoven with joy and sorrow, these works trace her life. Using both traditional and contemporary calligraphy Hisako expresses her personal journey through creative resilience.

The exhibition includes a variety of works, ranging from classic scroll calligraphy styles dating back to the 8th century to modern interpretations, as well as expressive pieces inspired by her daily life and reflections on social phenomena.

Hisako’s calligraphy was previously exhibited in Kyoto and Tokyo between 1988 and 2023 as part of an annual group exhibition. During these years  Hisako studied exclusively under the groundbreaking calligraphy master Kyuko Ishikawa

Hisako Tsuchiya

Born in Gero, Gifu Prefecture, Hisako graduated from Waseda University with a degree in English literature. Now 87 years old, she resides in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture. While raising three children, she worked part-time as an English and Japanese teacher. In the 1960s, she became involved in the organic farming movement, advocating for fresh pesticide-free food.

She began practicing calligraphy when her youngest child started junior high school, studying under the pioneering master Kyuku. For over 30 years, she exhibited her works annually in group exhibitions held by his calligraphy juku-school, which she recently left.Sixteen of these years overlapped with the time she spent caring for her eldest son, who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage at 42. Her husband, a key source of support, passed away in 2020, followed by her son in 2022. Since then, she has held solo exhibitions in Takarazuka (2023), Kamiyama(Tokushima), and Tokyo (2024).

She is the mother of Melbourne-based dancer Yumi Umiumare and Tokyo-based sumi-e painter Shukou Tsuchiya.

AJITH PERERA
Ajith creates deeply personal drawings that serve as a profound medium for expressing his thoughts, feelings, and desires. Through his intricate and evocative artwork, he invites viewers to engage emotionally, encouraging them to reflect on their own inner world and the complexities of their personal experiences.

“And There Was Light” explores humanity’s desire to make meaning and find purpose in an irrational universe. With reference to traditional and religious stories, my series of video and stained glass works reflect the idea that our perception of reality is defined and limited by our human experience.

Through video I connect the creation stories that I grew up with — Abrahamic and Māori — to natural truths of birth and femininity. The stained glass works are inspired by Islamic design, an art style informed by sacred geometry and patterns that can be observed in nature.

Together, the video and the stained glass sculptures are a meditation on how our understanding of creation is bound to our knowledge and experience of birth and the natural growing world.

SKYSCAPES

Jon Hewitt, born in the UK is a painter living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. He has a BA(Hons) in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes, however only began painting in 2021 following a serious illness. Hewitt practices his art in “Crip-time”, as he lives with post-viral chronic fatigue. Crip-time is to experience a non-normative relationship to linear, chronological time, development, and progress. It means creating alternative ways of navigating an ableist world.

Hewitt’s paintings are a personal tribute to his local area - a celebration of moments spent in the mundane places he passes everyday. He honours these ordinary places by framing them as significant, unique and beautiful.

For Skyscapes, Hewitt has shifted the gaze of traditional post-settler Australian landscape painting, removing the land and forcing the viewpoint skyward. Skyscapes is a new Australian landscape, at once recognizable and reflective of Australia today, whilst simultaneously disorientating and alienating.

Weaving nostalgia and storytelling into my artworks, infusing them with vibrant colours I strive to transport the viewer into a realm of cherished memories and imaginative narratives. 

Charlie Nanos, based near the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, has successfully transitioned from a tradesman to a full-time original artist over the past few years. In 2021, he was diagnosed with a rare heart condition, necessitating his transition from trade work. Charlie now leverages his passion for art as a means of recovery, striving to bring more vibrancy to our world through original abstract, modern designs, and Australian landscapes in his distinctive simplistic style.

“Becoming”explores the profound beauty of transformation and rebirth after life.Through a monochromatic series, the series uses the symbolism of butterflies and mushrooms to represent the cycle of renewal, while portraits and hands convey the interconnectedness of human existence.This series offers a contemplative vision of life beyond the physical world, reminding viewers of the eternal beauty and unity that emerge from transformation. “Becoming” invites you to reflect on the journey of existence and find hope in the promise of a radiant afterlife.

KnellValdecañas is a Filipino visual artist whose work is deeply rooted in the exploration of emotion and self-expression. A quiet observer by nature, she often finds it difficult to articulate her inner world with words, so she translates her emotions through art. Working with charcoal, acrylic, and graphite, she creates pieces that blend realistic distortion with raw, instinctive strokes, each one a reflection of her inner life.

Valdecañas believes that art should not be confined to pre-existing frameworks. She rejects the notion of boundaries, choosing instead to embrace the freedom of creation without limits. For her, art is not only a form of expression but a means of communication, an opportunity to speak volumes without saying a word.With each brushstroke and pencil line, she invites the viewer into her world, offering a glimpse into her emotional landscape.

MORPHOLOGY

Morphology, is focused on the connection between the viewer and different Australian wildlife - looking for what brings us to care about different species of animals and the issues affecting them as a result of our actions.

Josh Dykgraaf is a photographic manipulation artist based in Melbourne, Australia. His work features manipulations of his own photography - each piece is composed of hundreds of photos using material Josh has shot, each requiring 30-80 hours to make, with the resulting images usually having thousands of layers. 

His work explores world building, sense of scale and wonder - deconstructing and reforming the world we live in. He is particularly focused on the impact that we as a species are having on the natural environment around us, exploring wildlife conservation and climate change.