KATHY FAHEY & ROMA MCLAUGHLIN

SPACE 2

Exhibition dates : 17 - 29 November 2026
Opening reception : Wed 18 November 2026, 6:00 - 8:30pm

Beneath and Beyond

Elements of the Australian Landscape

This exhibition features the work of Kathy Fahey and Roma McLaughlin two artists who despite using very different media and approaches in their art practice, share and explore a common theme - the Australian landscape and its unique flora and fauna.

Roma is a papercut artist. Her latest work reflects the interconnected patterns of flora within Australia’s natural ecosystems. She cuts away negative shapes with a scalpelto reveal intricate, organic forms and compositions within a single sheet of paper. Relying entirely on shape and silhouette rather than colour, her white, lace-like papercuts balance delicate botanical detail with a net-like strength. Her papercut images invite the viewer to look beneath and into the Australian landscape through individual flower studies and broader companion-plant compositions of Australian flora.

The major theme of Kathy’s art practice is the natural world.  Through the use of colour, mark making, movement and surface her collages and paintings depict many of the quintessential elements of the Australian landscape, golden beaches, sepia waterways, straggly eucalyptus trees, deep shadows and big skies.   Kathy’s lino prints whilst depicting the Australian landscape also portray the flora and fauna within the landscape, flowers, foliage and birds, as integral to the health of the natural environment as the sea, landforms and sky.  Her paintings and collages inform her lino prints, the colour and texture of the former a  contrast and to the black and white of the latter. Kathy’s work celebrates the beauty and diversity of Australian landscapes, a precarious beauty under constant threat from climate change, agriculture and urbanisation.