National Works on Paper 2024

I’m super pleased to have my recent rust and ink work ‘Wana Karnu’ selected as one of seventy finalists from over 1000 entries for the National Works on Paper 2024 (NWOP) at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. The exhibition is on display from 31 August – 24 November.

Finalists: 
Bori BENKO, Emma BINGHAM, Tom BLAKE, Yvonne BOAG, Anthea BOESENBERG, Solomon BOOTH, Ashleigh BRIGGS, Harriette BRYANT, Roland BURRUNALI, Jane BURTON, Jacky CHENG, Olga CIRONIS, Matthew CLARKE, Maree CLARKE, Carolyn CRAIG, Zoë CROGGON, Nici CUMPSTON, Mel DEERSON and Briony GALLIGAN, Stanley EBATARINJA, Matthew FEDER, Emily FERRETTI, Robert FIELDING, David FRAZER, Kirsten GARNER LYTTLE, Deanne GILSON, Julia GORMAN, Edwina GREEN, Blake GRIFFITHS, Amala GROOM, Mandy GUNN, Joe GUYMALA, Gracia HABY and Louise JENNISON, D HARDING, Gail HASTINGS, Siri HAYES, HIRATANAO, Naomi HOBSON, Eleesa HOWARD, Alana HUNT, Locust JONES, Kieren KARRITPUL, Martin KING, Barbie KJAR, Jenna LEE, Niloufar LOVEGROVE, Kyra MANCKTELOW, MATTI, Dan McCABE, Jennifer MILLS, Betty MUFFLER, Balwaldja Wanapa MUNUŊGURR, Dorota MYTYCH, Gavin NAMARNYILK, Lorraine NAMARNYILK, Glen NAMUNDJA, Joey NGANJMIRRA, Cameron ROBBINS, Annika ROMEYN, Joshua SEARLE, Darrell SIBOSADO, Cyrus TANG, Augusta VINALL RICHARDSON, Gidja WALKER, Tricky WALSH, Rosie WEISS, Cyril WHYOULTER, Laura WILLS, Joel WOLTER, Dhopiya YUNUPIŊU, Djakaŋu YUNUPIŊU.

Judges:
Lisa Waup, Artist, 2022 NWOP Finalist
Erica Green, Director, Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia
Trent Walter, Director, Negative Press
Dunja Rmandić, Curator—Exhibitions, MPRG

'In Return' upcoming solo exhibition


14th May 2024 - 1st June 2024

Flinders Lane Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne

Please join me for the opening on Saturday 18 May from 1 - 3pm RSVP

Centred on the experience of entering Old Mutawintji Gorge, this exhibition encapsulates my response to camping in Mutawintji National Park on Barkindji and Malyangapa Country, as part of the 2022 Broken Hill City Art Gallery’s Open Cut Commission. Further works, completed after returning to the same sites in 2023, seek to deepen and extend my ongoing engagement with place.

In Return (Old Mutawintji Gorge), 2023, pencil and watercolour monotype on paper, 168cm x 228cm

Big Book of Little Art Essays

The Big Book of Little Art Essays is a wonderful new publication from Flinders Lane Gallery, which features 3 of my previous solo exhibitions alongside essays by Gina Mobayed, Tess Horwitz and Elli Walsh. The 536 page collection of 110 commissioned essays and images spanning 10 years of exhibitions and 36 artists is quite a tome! It’s available to purchase online or at Flinders Lane Gallery, however I also have a few copies available for sale, so if you’re near Canberra and would like to have a look please feel free to get in touch.

'Inwards' at Broken Hill City Art Gallery

My solo exhibition Inwards is on display at Broken Hill City Art Gallery until 29 October 2023.

404 - 408 Argent Street
Broken Hill NSW 2880
Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 4pm

Centred on the experience of entering Old Mutawintji Gorge, this exhibition is my initial response to two weeks camping in Mutawintji National Park on Barkindji and Malyangapa Country, as part of the 2022 Broken Hill City Art Gallery’s Open Cut Commission. As a first-time visitor I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to walk with and learn from Wiimpatja, Traditional Owners and Custodians, whose deep knowledge and connection to Country enriched my appreciation for the significance and power of this place.    

I hope that my multi-panel watercolour monotype prints and carbon pencil drawings convey something of the physical and psychological experience of walking into the Gorge. Passing between weathered walls of rock rising up beside the dry creek-bed, I saw sky and earth converge and reflect in vital pools of water. As I moved inwards, towards a larger waterhole, I also approached an internal space and state of stillness, reflection and contemplation.  

Beside the campfire I read James Fox’s The World According to Colour, which influenced my thinking in its consideration of red through themes including blood, life, humanity and its use in rock art across the world. Later, from the distance of my Canberra studio on Ngunnawal Country, I leant into the intuitive, emotive and symbolic dimensions of colour. A memory of dusty pink creek sand became a diluted wash across the sky, while the same pigments in higher concentration produced primal reddish browns that reminded me of the interaction of iron and oxygen both in the earth and in our bodies.