MY BODY, NOT MY RULES centres on creating a series of paintings that investigate themes of sexual violence and ‘The Gaze’ while seeking agency as well as explore the female body and reclaiming authority. My eagerness to confront women’s issues
Recipient of the ACAE Gallery Award. _________________________________ PAINTING AS AN ACT OF TRANSLATION Through painting, I aim to echo musical forms into the visual. The resultant body of work explores the kinetic symbology of music, linguistics, hybridity, and inner worlds.
Loss of my assumptive world refers to a significant part of my grieving process, the expectation for a person to continue to be in your life and needing to adjust this assumption after their passing. I explore the changes that
Working across drawing, painting and sculpture, I investigate spatial, material and hierarchical approaches to making and reconfiguring things to become artworks. An investigation of conditions ensues; conditions of the gallery, materials, sculpture, painting… And what happens when we fall between these
Of Figure, Feather, and the Pursuit of a Fable | Encapsulating the Invisible Illness Experience through the Intersection of Painting and Allegory My area of artistic inquiry explores how material, the natural world, and figurative manipulation can intersect to
My work is a wide-ranging entanglement of found imagery and intersecting concepts that manifest in chaotic and often psycho-surreal narratives. Ultimately, I see my practice as a form of sensation seeking and psychoanalytical tool that speaks of the human condition
WEATHER PAINTINGS These works are about the sensibilities of past upper classes, and the cyclical growth of vegetation. I am a painter and draughtsman based in Melbourne and was born on a farm in New Zealand. In my work, through
MAKING SPACE FOR DETAIL Reflecting the adolescent urge to document everything, my work is an act of noticing, collecting, and giving attention to the minute minutiae, the detritus of our culture and the beauty of the mundane, transforming each detail
FOUND MOVEMENT IN FOUND SPACE Dance as art and choreology are the foundation of my current practice, looking at the relationship between personal movement style and visual aesthetic as the remnants of an artist left in their work. Starting with
Winner: The Fullstop Framing Company Award. https://www.fullstopframing.com/ Highly Commended: ACAE Gallery. https://acaearts.com.au/ My work emerges from a process that is both instinctual and uncertain, unfolding without a clear destination. I often don’t recognise what I’ve made until the end.
THE DIVINE EQUINE. Amy Gagnon (b.2000) is an artist residing and practising on Wurundjeri Land in Naarm (Melbourne). She is currently in her final year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) at RMIT University. Recent exhibitions include the group
WUNDERKAMMER. Dissection of the mind and matters. Eclectic. Found objects. Curiosities. Undiscovered. Line. Boundary. Trashy. Tacky. Campy. Lace. Tulips. Bugs. Moon. Sun. Bears. Fish. Hearts. Stickers. Gems. Dolls. Teeth. Contemplation. Pearls. Apologies. Locket. Keys. Ribbon. Sequins. Ornate frames. Grudge. Pink.
Chapman & Bailey Award. A WALK AMONGST NATURE. My practice relates to New Materialism, a philosophy that allows me to open up to an intimate, reciprocal engagement with my materials and immediate surroundings. My current work sits between painting and
OF AIR , LIGHT AND WATER Shifting colours move through bands of blues and violets with a shimmer of red. The atmosphere becomes dusky as the large fabric installation lights up: iridescent silky silver-blue flows from above, mingling with
CIGARETTES, SLUGS, SHAREHOUSES, PREACH INCLUSION, STAY SKINNY, SEEM POOR, HAVE THINGS. Maybe your t-shirt wants to be a part of a flag. Would the bricks in your house rather be a painting? I think that slug might like to nap
Reds, Greens, and White. They remind me of Christmas, an American one. A clown mask. The colours on a Liverpool Football Club scarf, a big bushel of Red poppies or a traffic light if White replaced the orange light. Red,
CHERCHEZ LA FEMME! My work is concerned with how women are viewed both in an art world setting and in other narrative forms. We see images of women covering the walls of galleries, so we assume they are present. We
UN-PACK EXPRESSION THROUGH MATERIALITY. My practice consists of expressing emotions through imagery and materiality, pent-up feelings using symbolism as such dog figures which have often seen as faithful, loyal animals. Use of facial imagery and materiality to convey depth within
MIND, BODY AND VEHICLE My research engages with ideas relating to internet culture and all of the strange dark absurdities of being online. I am fascinated by the stark polarities and extremes of the online experience, the way in which
Some beginnings are not chosen but given — and once given, we begin to see, and begin to choose. My practice centres on the notion of Place — a geography that also carries memory, emotion, and identity. It holds the
The Wayne Conduit Memorial Prize. My main area of interest is in contemporary still life painting. My works are observational, using traditional painting methods and working from life. The works often begin by moving, organising and arranging objects before building
THE FEMININE ART OF SHOOTING: the collision between fine art and firearms My shooting is still. Not violence, not fervour. My shooting is controlled breath as I kneel in the grass, surrounded by trees. Millimetric adjustments of my cheek and
The Grand Tour, A Contemporary Take. Solo travelling and backpacking has been a transformative experience for me. Following the isolation we all felt during the Covid years, I went backpacking through Europe during the winter break 2024. I only took
Dean’s Award for Excellence Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art). YELLOW CORRIDOR ‘Look into yellow, feel immersed in colour, anchored when close. The plane of the wall intersecting through my bodily matter to secure, tether me to site.’ My practice involves
Recipient of the Chapman & Bailey Award for Excellence in Contemporary Painting. _________________________________ LANDSCAPE / ESCAPE ‘As an artist I’m trying to reflect something back to myself. A feeling, understanding, sense of the world…’ —Kiki Smith Exploring the silent language
THE GOTHIC NURSERY An exploration of childhood spaces through immersive art. From one world you will stepinto another yet unmetShadows rising in the corners,are you one of the mourners?The child no longer seeninto a world in betweenEverything left to
Undoing the Self: Memory, Temporality, and the Transformative Act of Painting My work unfolds within the fluid terrain of memory, identity, and the human condition. Rooted in autobiography yet reaching toward shared experience, my practice explores memory’s capacity to distort,
DIGITAL SKIN (she/they)Charlie is a Naarm-based artist working on the land of the Wurundjeri people. Starting their practice as a fine art painter, Charlie now explores new media with a focus on hybrid retro-future technologies, creating installations that consider feelings
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nations on whose unceded lands we live, work and learn. I would also like to
THE DELICACY OF LIFE Chelsea Parkinson’s practice investigates interconnection between species, exploring how the structures and gestures of the natural world can mirror human emotion, behaviour, and vulnerability. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, and textile-based installation, her work often draws
As an artist who loves nature and walking, nature is often the subject of my work. I am accustomed to observing the details of things and depicting them in my works, which is reflected in the sculptural paintings of various
Winner: Tolarno Hotel Award. UNIFORM: Autobiographical reflections on the interplay between conformity, gender and neurodiverse thinking. Uniform explores the intricate dynamics of identity, conformity, and neurodiverse thinking within the rigid structures of the schooling experience. The work examines the complexities
claire.mcvea[at]gmail.cominstagram: @clerliv
The theme of my project is an imaginative exploration of unreal dragons: Dragon is Everywhere. The entire project reflects my ongoing exploration of materials and concepts. I focus on dragons, drawing inspiration from Chinese philosophy and the Five Elements (Wu
CHAOS AFTER SORROWS Dan Su’s intuitive abstract painting explores the tensions that stir as we enter and pass through heightened emotions and states. Beginning with a linen or canvas substrate, and employing the visual language of abstraction, Su uses broad
FRAGMENTS AND THREADS. My art journey started in earnest five years ago. My daughter had just commenced her first year at RMIT studying a Bachelor of Art (Fine Art). Seeing how much she was learning and developing her skills in
Garland Award for Innovative Storied Object. Highly commended: Chapman and Bailey. Searching for Light, The One Tree, and the Universe in a Piece of Quartz. Debra Higgins is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives, works, and studies in Naarm/Melbourne. Her recent
Winner: ACAE Gallery Award. In my practice, I weave together cultural influences, memories, emotions, and the subtleties of everyday existence. Observation is an inherent and fundamental way I interact with and perceive the world, exploring the hidden beauty of my surroundings.
Recipient of the Wayne Conduit Memorial Award. _________________________________ When people ask, I say I paint pictures of vases. These paintings have been drawn from particularly endearing eBay listings of ‘fat lava’ pottery. Digital images have become so ubiquitous that we
‘SOMETIMES ITS DIFFICULT EVEN FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I’VE BECOME. AND HARDER STILL TO REMEMBER WHAT I ONCE WAS.’ Painting to me exists not just as a language of self-expression but also as a means of self-understanding. Personal experience
Fragmented Identities as Hybridity. Searching for belonging in a cultural “third space”. Eliza Byrne’s practice examines the cultural “third space,” where identity is shaped not within a single culture but through the interplay of multiple cultural worldviews. This space emerges
Winner: Chapman and Bailey Award. In this series of paintings, I am thematically concerned with creating intriguing geometric compositions of figures and urban landscapes. I seek to cause the viewer’s gaze to travel across a pictorial plane, not rest in
RABBIT OUT OF A HAT: AN AMALGAMATION OF THE FEMININE UNCONSCIOUS. My unconscious. Canvas & paper & oil paint & ink. Archives. Feminist theory. Religious imagery. Obliteration. Bodies. Heart patterned underwear. Balancing Elephant. Targets and foxes and performers. instagram.com/ellasimpsonartist
Elle Goudis is a female artist who is based in Melbourne/Naarm. She is currently studying in her final year (2023) of a Bachelor of Fine Art at RMIT University with a specialisation in Painting. She explores the concept of portraiture
Nothing happens in a vacuum. “I believe that neurobiology can contribute to an understanding of aesthetics, but it cannot do so in a vacuum.” This quote from Siri Hustvedt’s Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women encapsulates the essence of
EMOTIONAL! is a children’s picture storybook that explores emotions as they are experienced in all of their new, strange intensity by children and aims to assist them in understanding these feelings. It follows the journey of a young, horned girl
AND SHE WAS LYING IN THE GRASS When sharing experiences with others, it’s easy to assume that people feel or think the same way as we do. However, by simply being alive our perspective will never be the
Masking tape, paper, and other bits and pieces: material exploration and jumping between tasks. Over the last year, my practice has focused on investigating and recontextualising a variety of materials – paper, masking tape, nails, canvas off-cuts, found lolly wrappers,
I LOOK AT YOU, AND YOU LOOK AT ME: RECOGNISING THE SELF IN THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. My work explores the inherent power of the natural environment and its ability to be used as a mirror with which to explore the
The focus of this project continues themes I am continually drawn back to in my practice. Broadly, my practice comes from a curiosity for the human experience, and our attempts to explain it. My focus on the body as a
1994, YEAR OF THE MUTT Evelyn Challinor (b.1994) is a mixed-race Chinese-Australian artist, originally from Gadigal and Yuin Land. She currently resides in Naarm, practising between the fields of fine art and horticulture. Through the process of thinking-through-making, my practice
A REBIRTH. My paintings move between abstraction and figuration, drawing imaginative succour from peasantry and European brides. My work explores the power of melancholia, weaving themes of longing and passing time through transparent colour fields and abstract compositions. I contrast
TRANQUILO (A VISUAL ODE TO SERENITY) Since the beginning of 2023, my artistic journey has shifted its focus. I originally explored how external influences, such as The Seven Deadly Sins, shape our beliefs and behaviour. This exploration deepened my understanding
AFTER HOME. Through exploring connections to home, familiarity and nostalgia in conjunction with the ideas of the afterlife, the uncanny and the unsettling, this project merges the two to create a series that not only includes objects from home set
![Digital work depicting stylised birds spane from bottom to top of the image on the left half. the figure is enshrouded by a black gradient and is outlined with white ]. the figure is sitting on a motorbike and holding a helmet.](https://sites.rmit.edu.au/artschoolgraduates/files/2024/10/grad-profile-710x300.png "Gabrielle Turco")
My practice is greatly impacted by my experiences with undiagnosed neurodivergence, growing up queer, and grappling with mental illness. While these features of my life inflict themselves upon my work, I find myself experiencing the most joy when I focus
NO THROUGH ROAD: THE DEAD ENDS OF MEMORY LANE explores themes of memory, place, and the complex evolving relationship between physical environments and emotional attachment. Using cropped imagery of Australian scenes, specifically from Adelaide and Melbourne neighbourhoods, the miniature landscapes
STEALING FOG is an exploration of concealment. I work in an expanded painting practice, with most of my works being concerned with the space between intelligibility and unintelligibility, working with themes of subtraction and obscurity. I often find myself following
This project translates the narrative of a person’s intimate life, the moments they find precious by translating casual collections of ephemera and sentimental pictures into permanent formal paintings. Inspired by the seemingly universal way people present their individual collections like
0 to ∞ ‘My painting is not limited at all. I have many possibilities, in terms of approach. And the reason I have that is because I’m not limited by a certain narrative that I want to get across.
QUIET OBJECTS My Practice is a continuous cycle of making and material exploration, approaching each new work with curiosity and play. This body of work consists of various painting-and-textile wall works that sit alongside small-scale ceramic sculptures. Through the juxtaposition
DECONSTRUCTION TODAY: OF COURSE I EAT THE APPLE AFTERWARDS – Hartley’s paintings explore multi-layered compositions and the study of form through traditional oil painting on canvas. His practice involves a process of visual experimentation grounded in painterly technique, resulting in
I want to express a highly free modern aesthetic work beyond the pictorial framework of orthodox painting. The project explores the formal and conceptual aesthetics of Minhwa paintings in a nuanced way through material explorations. For me, these paintings
THE PLACES WE CANNOT RETURN TO Paintings of Memories Reignited, Exploring the Absence of Him. This project explores the relationship between memory, emotion, and personal loss. Anchored in my own lived experience, it reflects on the fragmented nature of memories
EUDAEMONIA: A rebellious approach to expanded painting Osborne-Snell’s practice encompasses functional art displayed on the body as well as textile wall pieces. His emphasis on unconventional, wearable art creates multidisciplinary parallels between art, fashion and design. Snell works with a
Garland Membership Award. UNSETTLED LIVING. My grandparents said to never buy a house near a willow tree. They said its roots weep as the branches do. Tendrils seek the pipes, entangle themselves in the foundations. Fighting blindly for life,
Traversing Girly ✩ Through the act of painting, I traverse the thematics of ‘girly’, a murky term unto itself, and cultivate a dream-like world that subtly reclaims and elevates traditionally trivialised, overtly feminine symbols. My practice is a playful
Huihua Gu (b.2003) is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist who focuses on painting and sculpturing. He also explores tremendous areas and ideas, always maintains curiosity, and contemplates with everything and processes. Fascinated by history and events, he shares and discusses them
CONTENT NOTE: reference to gender-based violence. This work was created on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. I’m not the first, nor am I the last. In my lineage— I’m
LANDSCAPES AND TREPIDATION. Utilising a combination of oil paint on wood and paper, my works explore the complexities of human fear through a feminist lens. My practice, through alternative mediums and eerie subject matter, explores the anxieties associated with fear
I AM, I WAS. I was, I am is a textual and painterly exploration of neurodivergence and queerness. The ideas of facets of one’s being are always present, inseparable from childhood to adulthood. I was, I am utilises striking text,
IN MY IMAGE In My Image explores painting as a space where memory stirs rather than settles; where the past flickers in fragments, half-remembered and half-imagined. Working with found and family photographs, I use paint to blur the edges between
SEX ME UP Ivry Elisabeth is currently creating paintings and tufted tapestry works that explore gender—particularly limiting perceptions of the female identity. Within these works, she has a tendency towards the incorporation of figurative or symbolic elements and kitsch aesthetics
A ROOM OF HER OWN presents a collection of oil paintings that investigate themes of femininity, identity, and self-presentation within contemporary youth culture and queer spaces. Drawing from her own staged photographic imagery, Ivy depicts intimate scenes such as portraits,
WHAT’S THEIR STORY? The whole thing started with a dusty dilapidated cardboard box at the back of the cupboard under the stairs. It almost went straight into the skip, but B had had dementia and we’d already found a roll
GO WITH THE FLOW MAN is an oil and acrylic painting on canvas that explores the notion of the awareness of thought. The painting is about how our thoughts are similar to jellyfish in that they float about our head and
AN EXISTENTIAL ABSURDITY OF VASTNESS The city exists in an uncanny liminal state, where belonging feels impossible, pressed beneath national identity, political handovers and
OPEN EYES AND CLOSED DOORS explores the intimate connections between place, memory and acceptance. The diptych provides a glimpse into my internal and private experiences of chronic illness and trauma, through the most vulnerable physical spaces I occupy, and the
ACAE Gallery Emerging Artist Award. TOTAL RECALL: IN UNDERSTANDING THE SELF FROM ONEIRIC FRAGMENTS I used to have this recurring dream when I was younger. I would be lying on a conveyor belt in a warehouse by myself, in
YOUR BODY IS NOTHING is an exploration of the abject female body. It is a personal project that began as a way to process my own bodily trauma. I wanted my work to focus on the experience of living
My approach to being creative, particularly painting, has always been a self-soothing act. Without it I would simply be incomplete. Work in Progress is a reflection of the tumultuous relationship I have had with my mental health and internal dialogue
ENERGISING THE SPIRIT: MOMENTUM AND MINDFULNESS IN THE ART OF EXERCISE AND MOVEMENT EXPLORED THROUGH PAINTING Jocelyn is an emerging artist specialising in mixed media painting, focusing on themes of energy, movement, and emotional expression. With a solid background in
ACAE Gallery Emerging Artist Award. FLOATING I am obsessed with excavating my inner self. My art practice and my life experiences cannot be separated. I am experiencing the ongoing reposition of my cultural identity and collective unconsciousness between my home
Velling Award. My multidisciplinary practice deals with the surreality of the everyday and endeavours to celebrate the beauty of the mundane through my personal lens as a Hungarian-Australian artist living in Naarm/Melbourne. My paintings and objects eschew the making of
UNPLAYED MEMORIES focuses on empty playgrounds and tiled passageways in ordinary daylight. In these paintings, I use both vivid and pastel colours to shift familiar environments into something slightly dream-like. Slides and corridors appear paused in time, holding traces of
TRANSCENDING TRADITIONS is an exploration of personal identity, cultural heritage, and reconnections with the bygone. I am inspired by events that happened but were not documented, embarking on a journey through my untold family history. I uncovered many stories, beliefs,
Lost in Translation is an autoethnographic journey through the visual iconography of mid-century design and domestic space. Combining nostalgia with visual elements of uncanny disorientation, I aim to create images that appear decorative yet are charged with an underlying narrative
This series of works explores the intersection of intimate quotidian moments and unworldly places through the language of paint. Focusing on figuration, my work investigates how an imagined scene speaks to the human condition and evokes a sense of memory.
Winner: Wayne Conduit Award. When I watch a coming of age film, I feel seen. When I watch an action film, I feel like I can do anything. When I watch a tragedy, I feel the sadness lingering. Film
Through painting, I find it is extremely important to be drawn to the piece, as the maker, to learn something new and be a part of the work. Ethnicity is very personal and I’ve drawn aspects of my tradition in
‘This shelter is always open, this shelter is always ready to receive, this shelter offers you the most precious gift.’ Kepsibel’s creative practice is characterised by a repetitive and ritualistic engagement with the material world. Unbound by a commitment to
ACAE Gallery Emerging Artist Award. TO LOITERING TO ARRIVE explores the role of vitality in the realm of art and human life. I intend to use animal figures as vehicles, and incorporate my feelings and thoughts about vitality into them. By
This project begins with refusal and spite – the refusal to confess, to perform, to be legible. In Filipino Disneyland, a confessional booth becomes an inverted theatre of devotion. The viewer is drawn into dialogue with a digital presence, unsure
THE NATURAL PROGRESSION This is a body of work initiated with the intention of depicting the fish in the tanks at a Chinese Restaurant as a homage to my childhood memories of gazing up at the tanks filled with living
PRIVILEGE We are overwhelmed by endless streams of information, often forgetting to pause and reflect. Late-stage capitalism, nationalist ideologies and global conflicts place our anxieties above our gratitude. Amidst this chaos, we must remember to reconnect with the sublime. Looking
Leon Zhan is an artist currently working across painting and sculpture. Born in Melbourne to Chinese immigrant parents, Zhan’s highly finished pictorial practice is heavily influenced by his own diasporic experience. Negotiating the orient and the occident, his work articulates
So you know, I’m all yours… represents a devotion of love without shame, a dedication of my entire self to the interplay of queer love and sports. So you know, I’m all yours… is a love letter left unsent, a
Everything casts a shadow, but you can’t always see it. Maybe the shadow is what is left behind. Cat hair on a jumper, bike grease on your shins, food stuck in your teeth. Or maybe the shadow of an object
AWAKENINGS ON HIGHLANDS I was born in China and immigrated to New Zealand with my parents at the age of 14. I then spent my university years in Australia. The multiple locations confused the formation of my sense of personal
SELF PORTRAIT WITH OMA (‘Grandma’ in German) is based on an old photograph taken during a visit when I was a young child. For the occasion we got to visit a local waterhole that I would frequent as I got older.
When folding chairs In production, installation or storage, materials behave as provisional alignments with their given materiality. Instability becomes a generative force; a condition through which form emerges in negotiation rather than imposition. What if sculpture is not something made,
RECLAIMING INSECURITY Stemming from my own insecurities caused by unrealistic beauty standards present in modern media, these works directly challenge conventional beauty standards. Women’s bodies are scrutinised, our organs for eating food and birthing life are subject to beauty standards
TALE OF TIME: EXPLORING THE POETIC EROSION OF 35mm CINEMA FILMS My work explores the remnants of cinematic histories, while also considering its connection to today’s digital landscape. I seek to prompt reflection on the enduring significance of analog methods
PILLARS OF THE MIND explores how intuition and intentionality informs ones decision making throughout the painting process. My practice is inspired by my passion for experimentation, movement and curiosity of materiality and colour. My work is created through an instinctive
Everchanging and Ephemeral: Exploration of phenomenological experiences in nature. In my practice, I’m interested in the study of phenomenology. I’m especially drawn to expressing my experiences in natural environments. I grew up in a small town on the South Coast
GROWING UP This series shares my study journey as an international student in Australia and the first time that I was separated from my family and friends in Hong Kong. It documents my psychological status around expanding my comfort zone
STEEL KARKADE- Analysing the strength and brutality of diasporic Black women’s experiences through afrosurrealism The primary purpose of Steel Karkade is to showcase, through Afro-surrealism and the Black Horror genre, the multifaceted experiences of Black women in the diaspora,
ECHOES BETWEEN WORLDS: Reflections, Ephemerality, and the Presence of Kami Marina Yamazaki is an artist who lives, works, and studies in Naarm/Melbourne. She explores the connection between the spiritual and physical. She interacts with the world of kami and spirits
BUFFER: WRESTLING DIGITAL HYPERABUNDANCE AND THE PROJECTED CORPOREAL, OR: HELP!! THERE’S PLASTIC IN MY F*CKING BRAIN 😱😱😱 My entire living memory has been in the proximity of screens; conception beyond is unimaginable. Corporeality has been subsumed, rendered indivisible from the
IT NEVER RAINS ON GOOGLE MAPS is a project exploring the act of digitally “dropping a pin” on Google Maps. Google Maps being an application built for navigation that I repurpose as a tool for artistic exploration. Street View also
HAVEN Colour, pattern, aesthetics, and the home – my oil paintings on canvas capture interior narratives devoid of time but full of nostalgia. My pieces reflect on the human experience and highlight the trivial things in life that mostly go
Garland Membership Award. Fugitive memories: I’ve watched you my whole life, now I see you. ‘The fragments re-emphasise subjectivity, due to their apparent incompleteness. Fragmented, the self is able to appear and disappear. Fragmentation mirrors the way we experience the
I MADE IT COZY SO YOU’D FEEL THE TENSION This installation transforms a domestic scene into the site of protest and reclamation. Born from a conversation in the first year of my degree that exhibited patriarchal bias, the installation asks
GIVING AND RECEIVING AND GIVING AND RECEIVING is a visual exploration of the relationships between people and their societal, interpersonal and internal environments, asking the questions: What do we give to society and what do we receive from it? Can we
COMEDIC MELANCHOLY (Urban Metamorphosis of the Animal Body and Landscape) The artworks I create consider the relationship between animals and humans, within the Anthropocene. Emphasis is placed on understanding the animal experience. My work further considers themes of urbanisation, symbiosis,
The Un-gendered Object: An exploration of abjection and identity through art practice. “Human perception of the body is so acute and knowledgeable that the smallest hint of a body can trigger recognition.” —Jenny Saville (Gagosian, n.d.). Molly Baker (b.2001) is
Highly commended – Wayne Conduit Prize. NOCTURNAL FLUX – A DIARY OF THE NIGHT My work explores the vitality of the space of night through the influence its atmosphere has upon perception. The work is a dive into the complexity
Highly commended for Chapman & Bailey Award. Through painting I aim to capture the essence of consciousness by exploring the delicate balance between mind, body, thoughts and feelings. By utilising the juxtaposition of haptic and meticulous paint and drawing techniques,
Hannah Yost (MOXIE) is based in Melbourne, Australia. She completed a diploma of visual arts (2022) Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT University in 2025, and has run multiple creative workshops, hosted creative art events and collaborated with local Melbourne
On a cold snowy night deep in the Canadian forest, a converted yellow school bus stood. Inside, a blow-up pool with my young New Zealander mother and Welsh father, as they watched me come into the world. This bus continued
TRAPPED is a series of three installation works that draw on my own recent and reoccurring situations that make me feel trapped, producing a body of work that emphasise things that I and others struggle with internally and silently, which are
THIS IS SO FUCKED UP My current work comes together through a combination of observing my everyday and my inner thoughts and then turning them into oil paintings. I do this by capturing my surroundings with photos taken on my
GENESIS An exploration of materiality and mythology through the use of organic mineral materials and Ukiyo-e presentations. Oliver’s work explores the relevance of traditional forms in Japanese Ukiyo-e and Asian mythology, by exploring traditional media such as gold leaf and
EYE DROPS: A collection of works taking reference and inspiration from personal photos of a moment of significance, using bold colour and abstraction to visually warp. The chosen images are distorted in a way to hide a clear visual representation
I make work that anthropomorphises animals—namely pigeons—to showcase common negative feelings of anxiety and mental health in general. Watching and being watched, we are all judging without knowing it all. I create works that pose questions and have multiple meanings
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I LOVE MY SISTER investigates the fragile boundaries between childhood memory, safety, imagination, and grief. Through a studio practice rooted in play and collection, deconstructed recollections are transformed into paintings that blur realism with dreamlike reconstruction. This project reinterprets a
“KINDS OF CONNECTIONS” I’m Poppy Clarke and I’m a multidisciplinary figurative painter. This project is an exhibition about kinds of connections. It is a series of portraits on panels and canvas to remind and inspire a renewed sense of excitement
Recipient of the Tolarno Hotel Award. _________________________________ VIOLENCE AND INNOCENCE My artistic practice is an exploration of my identity and place within my family’s history in post-WW2 Australia. It is a direct response to my relationship with my family’s photographic
WE PART FOREVER IN TOMORROW’S SUNSHINE（我们在阳光灿烂的明天永别）is a large-scale oil painting with gold leaf, focusing on water and reflections to explore themes of farewell and memory. The work was created as the artist prepared to leave Melbourne, reflecting on the emotions
THERE YOU ARE (2025) brings together individually titled works across various mediums, including an installation, a short documentary film and paintings. This research explores alternative ways of incorporating archival and found objects that once belonged to my late grandparents, while
A SIREN’S CALL Conceptually, I see my work as framed by current gender power imbalances that exist in our world. My personal experience with sexual assault acted as a catalyst for the themes I now explore. My incentive for selecting
WALLS I am an abstract oil painter that lives and works in Melbourne. My paintings focus on colour perfection and fun shapes. I graduated high school dux in studio art, and am about to graduate with my Bachelor of Fine
DRAINS, WALLS. I paint in a subtractive way and flood the gaps with whatever annoying thing persists in previous work that I’ve erased or destroyed. At the same time I was thinking of connections between Wittgenstein’s rejection of a fountain,
On losing oneself, or the breaking and healing of the soul. There is memory in every fragment. A fragment of paper, a fragment of history. Pieces of myself left behind, gifted to every place, every person. There is grounding
TRANSIENT STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS explores the socialisation of beauty ideals, particularly in the context of girlhood, and how those values affect one’s perception of oneself and the world around them. There is a stage where a girl comes to realise
BODIES TUMBLED INTO BODIES: Exploring multispecies entanglements Welcome to the rhizome, you can erase a line in the web but little spores still blow towards you in the wind. ‘Ecology’ is derived from the Greek word ‘oikos’, which is defined
BODIES HOLD This body of work explores ideas of containment and boundaries. I am interested in how painting acts as a kind of vessel to hold and carry my inner life. These mysteries that I carry within me, how open
Highly commended – Wayne Conduit Prize: Narrative is what drives my art practice. My most recent body of work explores the notion of visual storytelling and has been inspired by a personal mythology I have been writing. My paintings tend
PSYCHOLOGICAL LANDSCAPES: TRANSLATING INNER STATES INTO PAINTED FORM Rufus Punton is a painter and printmaker. His work reflects his rural country upbringing drawing inspiration from vintage photographs from his grandparent’s collection, depicting people and rural landscapes in Victoria from the
My artistic work began with an ache – an absence shaped by distance and the subtle weight of diaspora. Living away from home, I felt an underlying urge to adapt, blend, and reshape myself to fit in. Yet, through this
A Journey of Self-Healing My current practice explores the process of self-healing through art, using oil painting as a medium for emotional reflection and unconscious expression. Through an intuitive and process-based approach, I seek to release control and allow each
Hillooo! Everybody, listen everybody beautiful artworks on the website uwu. w-well I love all things random, but I am inspire huge by music players named Britney smalls. Some people known me to say (sigh) *demands pats*. Of the other hand
BRITTLE AND TRANSPARENT LIKE GLASS contemplates my mixed Japanese and Anglo-Australian heritage, exploring the abstract space that exists between these two cultures. Navigating this duality, I confront the intricate emotions of shame and pride tied to my cultural identity, often
WHAT’S IN MY ARSENAL explores the intertwined narratives of what it is like to be a woman who has given a life of service, in support of her country, within an historically male bastion. The resulting work is multi-layered, delving
Selena Xiao is an artist who has drawn inspiration from both China and Australia, capturing the elements of our world through her unique perspective. She not only explores traditional Eastern artistic techniques but also boldly experiments with new media combinations.
My studio work in this exhibition focuses on the grid and how it can be used to recreate an image, both accurately and abstractly. Using the grid as a method for tracing an image onto a different scale and surface
Learning Through Unlearning: The abandonment of Ideas and Embracing Process-Based Painting My work is guided by my interest in deepening the connection of the artist to medium relationship, investigating possibilities that are presented to me through intuitive methods. With a
ACAE Gallery Emerging Artist Award. SAFETY WITHIN DIVERSE BODIES Sharon Xin Xu (b.2000), 徐欣, is an emerging Cantonese-Australian artist working on unceded lands of the Eastern Kulin nation, Naarm (Melbourne), and the Eora nation, Warrane (Sydney). Her work predominantly examines
PAINTING THE DARK ECOLOGY engages with the ecological crisis not only as an environmental issue but as a cultural one, confronting life and death, the aftermath of Colonialism, extinction and the degradation of habitats. It manifests as Vanitas symbolism, distressed
HER VOICE. This installation artwork concerned with oriental feminism is inspired by the White Paper Movement in China which protested the COVID-zero lockdown. The white paper was blank in the initial development to reflect that anyone can express their voice
LIQUID CHAOS Sienna Mensch (She/They) is a Geelong/Djilang based queer abstract artist, who lives and works on Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri country. Sienna’s work is an exploration of how different colours and forms interact with one another to evoke emotion from
A DELICATE CONFLUENCE. My practice explores the place where polar forces converge, where light and matter meet, the immaterial and material, the ethereal and the structured; where destructive harshness and soft delicacy exist in the same space. My multimedia works
Through the series Dream States, Sofya investigates the relationship between dreams and reality, as well as mental and physical states. She uses distortion and exaggeration of colour and proportion, in combination with contrast between vivid and clear, and hazy and
My practice takes up space, it exhausts itself emotionally, and tears its own heart out. Obsessions and emotions are pinned down temporarily or cut up and recreated. It is a way of finding my voice and looking back before moving
WHERE HEARTS ONCE SLEPT is a deeply personal exploration of memory, longing, and childhood. Through these paintings, I invite viewers into the emotional landscapes of my own recollections; places where light, colour, and feeling intertwine. My work acts as a
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” –Georgia O’Keeffe. My painting series, Thoughtful Chaos, delves into the joyful physicality of painting, embracing spontaneity and instinct
ONCE MY FLOWERS FELL INTO THE OCEAN. An exploration of lost connections to the maternal and biophilic, a project of stories and solace. Through Victorian botanical language, I narrate the resurgence of my maternal line from patrilineal control. Complex surfaces
Elements of thought relating to the passage of time circulate with a focus gravitating towards human connection, relation and experience. In recognising the connection and collection of moments we share through solidarity and commonality, an exploration of mark-making, materiality and
COMING ONTO ME: AWAY FROM ME. I want to write you a love letter. This project considers desire, and discomfort. ‘Often it is the desire between us and the object of desire that fills the space in between with
BLIND FAITH. Walk through the desert for 1000 miles. Feel the steps of your body as you do, the shift of your clothes as they brush against your body. Your truest protection against the beating sun that betrays no cardinal
My creations are the machinations of my subconscious, I never know what I’m doing when I do it. I simply start and keep on going, it doesn’t feel like I’m making work, rather that it’s making me. I have been
Thani Fee is a multi disciplinary artist based in Naarm (Melbourne), originally from the north west coast of Tasmania. Working within the expanded field her process driven practice is instinct-led and materially engaged. Drawing from abstract expressionism, she works through
THE INTRA-ACTION OF PAINTING: SURFACE, COLOUR, AND GESTURE AS EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE The Intra-Action of Painting presents a series of works that explore how abstraction, as a physical and material process, generates form through embodied experience. Painting here is approached as
Exploring the notion that materials are imbued with memory, my practice investigates the affective power of objects when included in figurative and still-life imagery. Collecting and preserving objects that once sat as quiet backdrops to our daily lives has become
RUIN “The truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me. Nothing. They’re something to look at on late-night TV. That’s all they are.” Raymond Carver
WHAT WE SHARE Through painting and sculpture, I explore what it means to exist within a body and to feel a sense of belonging among others. My work focuses on connection, touch, and proximity. In What We Share, I have
Wombs Enter my body and bear all it bears. Gaze upon me and meet the eyes that gaze This project, inspired by readings on surrogacy and feminist ethics, explores femininity through the lens of the Other. Curvilinear forms intertwine traces
SUBLIMINAL DREAMSCAPES Subliminal Dreamscapes is a series of works that aim to explore the fragility of mortality, nuanced morality and the essence of life. Through dark aesthetic choices and compelling
Tolarno Hotel Painting Prize. CANDID: AN APPRECIATION OF MOMENTS THAT ARE OFTEN OVERLOOKED Vittoria Cugno (b.2001) is an emerging Melbourne based artist who specialises in oil portrait paintings. In the past year, Vittoria has focused on capturing candid moments in
Fragment Of Affection Fragments of Affection is an ongoing series that traces the fragile relationship between melancholy, memory and tenderness through my recurring character SiSi ,a symbolic extension of my inner self. Across multiple panels and compositions. SiSi drifts through
MY SOUVENIRS FROM MELBOURNE This project is based on observations of buildings in the City of Melbourne. I employ digital illustration and animation to create a series of sketches, combining my Asian background with further city exploration while on my
Winner: Trocadero Art Space Exhibition Award. http://www.trocaderoartspace.com.au/ Highly Commended: ACAE Gallery. https://acaearts.com.au/ I lift my heart with my hands into the night sky, Hanging it on the crescent moon. The heart feels soft and fluffy, almost weightless. Looking down, I
My research is related to memory, and I collected many memories and images from my childhood and recollections. My collection reveals around ‘dreamcore’ and desserts from my childhood, the millennial generation, there were very many drink and dessert shops, and
“When the Earth Remembers” is a gestural act of salvation, a primal ritual that confronts personal trauma by dissolving the self into a liminal, elemental landscape. The title signifies a profound connection between the body and the earth, suggesting that
MIRROR AND ILLUSION Xiaoyou Fu is a contemporary artist. By exploring photography and mixed media, I looked at other ways to communicate emotion and depict ambience. I also exhibited certain ethereal aspects of Eastern culture in an abstract form. Through
BY THE POND is a series of works in response to the pond in Carlton Gardens. These paintings draw from my experiences of this place and the duck’s impressions on me. Over the past year, I have been visiting the
PERSONA I have slowly slipped into the life of an immigrant since 2017 when I started studying in New Zealand—then attending university in Melbourne from 2020 to 2022, where I will be graduating at the end of the year, and
Highly Commended ACAE Gallery. Highly Commended Tolarno Award. _________________________________ The Unseen Energy. “Non-be-ing (wu) is the beginning of the heavenly and the earthly; 無名天地之始 Be-ing (you) is the mother of all myriad things. 有名萬物之母” My creative exploration delves into the
Project ILLUMINATE Documentation of the ancient Jewish ritual of Candle-Lighting on Friday night before sunset, as well as on the eve of Jewish holidays. The custom is for women over the age of three to light a candle (married women
MY HANDS EXIST AND WITH THEM I CREATE PROBLEMS AND ART. To grasp something is to care for it, to hold space for its weight, and to insist on its relevance.The dual meaning of the word grasp speaks to this intersection: it
UNSTILL My work engages with ideas relating to inspiration and influence. Our perspective on everything doesn’t come naturally, we learn how and what we see. Unstill is a series of non-narrative, still life oil paintings, made using multiple layers where
THE MAGICAL JOURNEY: CORAL AND PHOENIX is a fictional story about the magical adventure journeys of Princess Coral and Phoenix. The five metre long mixed media painting is divided into twelve storylines. The stories reference Western and Eastern myths, religious stories,
FESTERING DESIRE – A LONGING FOR THE MAKE-BELIEVE you are what I drown myself in, a virus, my obsession. This series of work culminates as a result of years of therapeutic abreaction – bringing forth repressed emotions of fear, guilt,
AN UN-COMING OF AGE The still-life object acts as a vessel in the exploration of the beauty of the everyday. Its accessibility and familiarity allow the bowl, the vase, the cup, to resonate universally. The stylisation of the vase becomes
PAINTING THOSE I KNOW AND LOVE explores transformation, intimacy, and identity through painting. Drawing on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the work reflects on how relationships and selfhood continually evolve. After moving from Sunshine Coast to Melbourne, I have grown comfortable in my
