Reworked – In the Rupture is the Sacred Place | Siri Hayes and Oliver D Wood
Friday 7 March to Sunday 13 April 2025
This collaborative exhibition between mother, Siri Hayes, and her son, Oliver D Wood, shares the results of Wood working into, through and around Hayes’ 25-year archive of large format photographic negatives using pens, paint brushes, fire and sharp implements to create gestural line and texture. The experimental collaboration prompts notions of the mystical and explores a sacred creative place between mother and child.
Image: Siri Hayes and Oliver D Wood, Fractured river gums, 2023, Chromogenic print, 92 x 76cm, Courtesy of the artists
Arena | Alun Rhys Jones
Saturday 25 January to Sunday 2 March 2025
Proudly part of the 2025 Midsumma Festival, Alun Rhys Jones presents a solo exhibition that explores the ingrained stereotypes still surrounding LGBTQIA+ community, perpetuated by mainstream news media and the impact this continuous scrutiny has on the LGBTQIA+ world. Stereotypes will be questioned, scrutinised, dissected and reclaimed as sites of strength and pride. Arena was presented as part of our Rainbow Exhibition 2025 opportunity.
Image: Alun Rhys Jones, Blur, 2022, Charcoal on paper, 150cm x 150cm, Courtesy of the artist
Repurposed | Maria Fernandez
Wednesday 18 December 2024 to Wednesday 22 January 2025
Maria Fernandez's paintings use natural and real world materials like sand, ash, concrete, bitumen, wax, saw dust and paper pieces combined with acrylic or oil paint. Her abstract works demonstrate the endless versatility and compelling beauty of creative repurposing, and give viewers a subtle link to the natural world to which they can relate.
Image: Maria Fernandez, Entangled, 2022, Acrylic & cardboard on canvas, 50cm x 75cm
2024 diversARTy | Living & Learning Nillumbik
Wednesday 13 November - Sunday 15 December
Discover the creative stories of Living & Learning Nillumbik artists and makers. DiversARTy showcases artworks by participants and tutors in visual arts, ceramics, textile, glass, crafts and more. This annual exhibition celebrates the diversity of activities, abilities and people who come together to learn and connect at our centres.
livinglearningnillumbik.vic.gov.au
Image: Catherine Dattner, Still Life at Rodda, 2023, Acrylic on canvas (detail)
Strangely Familiar | Rochelle Van Der Merwe
Friday 4 October to Sunday 10 November 2024
Rochelle's collage works create a portal to a wondrous, fantastical world. Raised in South Africa in the mid-70s, she found solace and beauty in books and the environment, which held a constant in a political landscape she could never make sense of. Her works focus on finding common ground through storytelling and open perspectives through layer and texture.
Image: Rochelle Van Der Merwe, Reconnaissance, 2021, Handcut paper on canvas, 52cm x 52cm
Places of Curiosity & Discovery | Araluen Studio Artists
Friday 23 August to Sunday 29 September 2024
Through collaborative curation, this exhibition captures the thrill of new discoveries in the creative process - exploring innovative materials, techniques and partnerships. It fosters an inclusive and diverse creative community by celebrating the imaginative talents of artists living with disabilities. Curated by Araluen Art Connects Committee. Araluen, a non-profit NDIS provider, supports adults with disabilities. This exhibition marks Araluen's 50th anniversary, celebrating imaginations and creativity over the years.
With thanks to the Margaret Lawrence Bequest.
Image: Timonthy McCall, Pink Vessel, 2023, earthenware, 35cm x 9cm x 7cm.
New Leaves I Debra Billson and Susannah Low
Opening celebration 6.30pm Friday 12 July
12 July to 18 August 2024
Debra Billson and Susannah Low have joined forces, blending traditional crafts with contemporary techniques to revive old photographs, ephemera, plastics, fibres, and foliage into eclectic and sometimes quirky artworks. Together, they encourage us to discover fresh stories woven into reimagined elements and celebrate the potential beauty of the old and overlooked.
Debra Billson is a mixed media artist and book designer who lives and works in Eltham. Her practice focuses on crafts which are historically considered women’s work, asking: What is art? Influenced by the Nillumbik environment, Debra frequently sources items the community has abandoned to utilise in her multi-stepped artworks.
Susannah Low is a collector of tiny treasures. With a background in book design and photography and a keen interest in social history, she combines her design aesthetic with a variety of creative mediums to explore themes of nostalgia, belonging, identity, and place, often linking to the feminine perspective. Working from her studio in Briar Hill, she challenges the viewer to question what is precious.
Image: Susannah Low, Treasure, 2019, Mixed media, found objects, 55cm x 42cm
Nina Kelabora: Flight
Friday 31 May to Sunday 7 July 2024
'Flight' is the first exhibition of Eltham artist, Nina Kelabora. Mythical, solitary almost-creatures, celestial forms and oceanic-air landscapes are haunted by echoes of her grandmother’s song and father’s homeland in Indonesia. A difficult and tumultuous energy fills her mixed-media works, as well as moments of peace linked to tidal rhythms.
Image (detail): Nina Kelabora, The Unknowing 2, 2022 liquid water colour & paint pen on paper, 248mm x 175mm
Joanne McFadyen | Cardboard Drought
Friday 19 April to Sunday 26 May 2024
In 'Cardboard Drought' Joanne McFadyen transfers the technique of French polishing onto cardboard packaging. McFadyen tells a narrative of climate change by using upcycled materials to highlight the local and regional impacts of drought. In cardboard she offers a glimpse of both landscape and El Nino weather patterns, with inspired imagery from Strathewen.
Image: Joanne McFadyen Cardboard Drought 2023. Shellac on cardboard 109 x 112cm.
Creative Minds | VCE Art and Design 2023
Friday 8 March to Sunday 14 April 2024.
Showcasing artworks by Nillumbik's VCE Art and Design students of 2023, this annual exhibition engages our newest generation of artists. Participating schools include Catholic Ladies College, Eltham College, Eltham High School, Plenty Valley Christian College and St Helena Secondary College.
Image (detail): Maddie Azzopardi, Untitled 30/08 2023 oil pastel on paper on wood.
Ayman Kaake: In their Names | 2024 Midsumma Exhibition
Thursday 25 January to Sunday 3 March 2024.
In this intimate installation, an inner-landscape unfolds about the experience of artist Ayman Kaake, his community and the criminalisation of homosexuality. Ayman’s friends are his models and they hail from a multiple of ethnic backgrounds, identifying as queer, gay and trans. In their Names marks out tenderly the repercussions of the criminalisation of sexuality internationally for the lives of individuals affected.
Ayman Kaake was born in Tripoli, Lebanon and arrived in Australia as a telecommunications engineer graduate in 2011. Enamoured by the camera, he lied to his family to pursue his artistic journey – enrolling in secret in visual arts in Melbourne. Ayman’s initial works were made without an artist community. As a young queer man in a country where he did not speak the language, he used his camera, purchasing his first in 2015, to photograph mainly himself. Ayman knows the experience of what it is to feel oneself a foreigner and be conflicted in ones identification with home. His works evoke borders - those of governance, culture, sexuality and oneself - through water and sand, garments and objects of ritual, and through stones which are precariously balanced on the body. Moreover Ayman reminds us of punishment and danger – the dire consequences of being uncovered and revealed as queer around the world.
Ayman won the Midsumma Australia Post Award in 2022. A book of Ayman’s artworks, published by Tall Poppy Press, will be launched during Photo 2024, an international photography festival. The book includes images from this very exhibition. In 2022, Ayman won the Brunswick Street Gallery Small Works Art Prize. Last year, Ayman was a finalist in the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art.
The presentation of this exhibition is an initiative of Nillumbik Shire Council and aligns with supporting an equitable and inclusive community where human rights are respected, participation is facilitated, barriers are addressed and diversity is celebrated. This is our inaugural Rainbow Exhibition, applications for 2025 open later this year.
Image: Ayman Kaake The Prayer Rug 2022. Print on fabric, 140xcm x 210cm (detail)
diversARTy 2023 | Living & Learning Nillumbik
Thursday 14 December 2023 to Sunday 21 January 2024.
Each year Living & Learning Nillumbik holds an exhibition at the Eltham Library Community Gallery. Showcasing the work of current participants and tutors in visual arts, ceramics, textile, glass, crafts and more.
This exhibition shares and celebrates the diversity of activities, abilities and people who come together to share, learn and connect at our Living & Learning Nillumbik centres in Diamond Creek, Eltham and Panton Hill.
Image: Opening of DiversARTy 2023. Photograph Stephen McKenzie.
Dogs are like sunshine | Emily Viski
Friday 3 November to Sunday 10 December 2023
‘Dogs are like sunshine’ is a playful exhibition by emerging artist, Emily Viski, her paintings explore colour, form and mark making. Viski’s joyful works aim to spread happiness and brighten people’s days.
Image: Emily Viski, Emily in Paris, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60cm
The way of Japanese ink | Junko Azukawa
Friday 14 July to Sunday 20 August 2023
Junko Azukawa’s exhibition showcases Japanese ink paintings, Sumi-e and a cinematic short film exploring her artistic process. Sumi-e is a philosophy, it’s a way of living and an art form. Sumi soot ink painting began in China around the 8th century and then evolved in Japan as a Zen discipline. Sumi-e is practiced by monks and Samurai as well as artists. For Azukawa, ink painting has become a powerful way to express the moment and explore ideas of inner self-growth.
Image: Junko Azukawa, Nobody Owns, 2021, Sumi ink on paper, 60 x 85cm, Courtesy of the artist
Creative Minds
Friday 6 October to Sunday 29 October 2023
‘Creative Minds’ showcases artworks created by Nillumbik’s VCE Art and Studio Arts students of 2022. An annual exhibition presented at the Eltham Library Community Gallery celebrating artwork by our youth.
Participating High Schools include: Catholic Ladies' College, Eltham College, Eltham High School and Plenty Valley Christian College.
Image: Jessica Roff, Stand Your Ground, 2022, Watercolour on canvas, Courtesy of the artist and Catholic Ladies' College
Talking and listening to country - Brian Stevens, Julie Tipene-O’Toole and Tiaki Mitchell
Friday 25 August to Sunday 1 October 2023
This exhibition is an invitation and reminder to all, to come sit and listen deeply to what the country has to tell us.
When we practice this, we begin to hear more clearly. Then and only then, will the country reveal its memories and messages that can help us heal the land and our people. The answers have always been there, we just need to ask and listen.
The works in this show are a response from artists Brian Stevens, Julie Tipene-O’Toole and Tiaki Mitchell to the practice of talking and listening to country.
Image: Brian Stevens, Orbs – messages in the sky, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, Courtesy of the artist
Body of Landscape | Randal Pound
Friday 21 April to Sunday 28 May 2023
Randal Pound is inspired by people and the patterns created by their actions, interactions, situations and the things they leave behind. In this exhibition, Pound uses intuitive and abstract marks within his work and explores concepts of the human figure in or as landscape. Much of the imagery within his body of work is inspired by the Plenty River Gorge in Nillumbik.
Image: Randal Pound, Self Portrait, 2016, Ink and gouache on paper, 40 x 30cm, Courtesy of the artist
Nostalgic | Xi Guo
Friday 10 March to Sunday 16 April 2023
Slow down, cherish the past and take a break from fast paced modern life in Xi Guo’s exhibition of painting and mixed media works. Xi Guo cherishes the times when computers and smart phones only appeared in science fiction films. Guo hopes her artworks spark beautiful conversations between older and younger generations.
Image: Xi Guo, Drying Chrysanthemums, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 101cm, Courtesy of the artist
From Strange Pages | Roslyn Quin
Friday 27 January to Sunday 5 March 2023
Inspired by old folklore and archaic amusements, Roslyn Quin’s exhibition explores the deeply human hunger for sharing the delightful and uncanny. Quin uses discarded materials, found items, and a plethora of collage and mixed media techniques to slowly build a reflection of the world as she sees it.
Visit Roslyn Quinn's website.
Image: Roslyn Quin, Civilisation fish, 2022, fabric and paper collage, 12.5 x 8cm, Courtesy of the artist
diversARTy | Living & Learning Nillumbik
Friday 9 December 2022 to Sunday 22 January 2023
In December each year Living & Learning Nillumbik hold an exhibition at the Eltham Library Community Gallery which showcases the work of current participants and tutors including visual arts, ceramics, textile, glass, crafts and more. It celebrates the diversity of activities, abilities and people who come together to share, learn and connect at our centres.
Visit the Living & Learning Nillumbik website
Image: Julie Barrington, Magical Creatures, 2021, Stoneware, shino glaze, dimensions variable
Araluen Centre | Art and Agency
Friday 28 October to Sunday 4 December 2022
Art and Agency is an exhibition that celebrates the art created by artists with a disability. Araluen is an organisation supporting adults with disabilities. It’s supported studios Art Connects, provides the artists the space and the assistance they need to create wonderful works of art. This exhibition will give a number of these artists an opportunity to plan and develop their own exhibition. It will give them choice and control and highlight a community of artists that have historically been overlooked.
Visit the Araluen website
Image: Melissa Kent, Spaces inbetween, 2020, mixed media, 84 x 89cm
Catrine Berlatier & Chantal Stewart | Of Two Minds
Friday 16 September to Sunday 23 October 2022
Of Two Minds is an exhibition of works by two friends of 40 years. Both originally from France, Berlatier and Stewart share similar artistic sensibilities. There is a common thread of lightness, purity of lines and elegance present in both their practices, be it Chantal’s graceful drawings and refined ceramics, or Catrine’s delicate jewellery and diaphanous textiles.
Image: Catrine Berlatier, Woven Necklaces, 2018-2021, Canson paper, dimensions variable
Creative Minds: Nillumbik VCE Arts, Studio Arts & Fashion students of 2021
Friday 5 August to Sunday 11 September 2022
A showcase of artworks created by Nillumbik’s VCE Art, Studio Arts & Fashion students. An annual exhibition presented at the Eltham Library Community Gallery. Showcasing works from the following schools: Catholic Ladies College, Eltham College, Eltham High School & Plenty Valley Christian College.
Image: Bianca Walker, Loss, 2021, Mixed media on paper, 42 x 59cm,Courtesy of the artist and Catholic Ladies College
Chloe Vallance | Sit. Walk. Wonder
Saturday 25 June to Sunday 31 July 2022
Sit. Walk. Wonder explores studio-based drawings by local artist Chloe Vallance. Chloe’s works are developed by observing everyday activities of people and animals. Chloe is interested in moments of contemplation. Often the figures in her works are seen to be looking into the middle distance, pausing or walking, each on their own journey.
Image: Chloe Vallance, Music, 2021, colour pencil on plywood, 29.5 x 35cm
The Artistry of Books | Thou Art Mum
Friday 20 May to Sunday 19 June 2022
Books are portable magic. They can take us to faraway lands filled with emotive adventures, mysteries to solve and dragons to chase. Words and diagrams teach us about nature, our world and our past. Beautiful images of art, architecture and animals grace the pages and our imaginations.
See how books have inspired our group of TAM artists, from how they are physically constructed, to stories we’ve experienced and knowledge we’ve gleaned. We welcome you to our exhibition, The Artistry of Books, and join us on a journey without leaving the room.
Image: Deborah Bowen, Alice’s Adventures, 2020, kiln formed glass
Open Studios 2022 - Nillumbik Open Studio Artists
Friday 8 April to Sunday 15 May 2022
The Nillumbik Artists Open Studio program involves over 28 studios working across various art forms, including painting, ceramics, metal work, sculpture, printmaking and glass work. Each of the artists involved in the program will have work in the exhibition.
Visit the Artists Open Studios website.
Image: M L Pittard, Red Flower, 2021
Naughty See Monkey & Louise Jade | Dancing on Sunshine
Friday 4 March to Sunday 3 April 2022
No matter what the day brings, I get unequivocal joy being in the studio improvising and being immersed in my creative process.
- Naughty
Being in thrall of my creative process: the contemplation, the execution and process, is at once thrilling and gentling for my being. Making Art is inevitable.
- Louise
Image: Naughty See Monkey, 98 pool of reflections, 2007, Oil and collage on paper, 60 x 42cm
Deb Garrett & Kate Belvedere | Solitude
Friday 21 January to Sunday 27 February 2022
Inspired by the landscape, Deb Garrett and Kate Belvedere’s practice explore feelings of solitude, isolation, quietness and emptiness through a variety of mediums - photography, drawing, print making and ceramics. Ironically, their shared interest in solitude has brought them together. Deb Garrett’s work centres around finding stillness and quiet in order to connect to a space. Also having lived in the area for many years, Deb’s interested in capturing the landscape during these quiet moments, particularly during dawn when there is a sense of calm and stillness that can sometimes also be unnervingly eerie. Kate Belvedere’s work centres around themes of decay and the indifference of nature as well as exploring the duality of the life giving and life taking aspects of the natural world. Her work particularly references native Australian bowerbirds, and their enchantment with decorating their nests with bright blue objects.
Image credits:
Left: Kate Belvedere, Into the Abyss, 2019, oil on board, 21 x 29 cm
Right: Deb Garrett, The pond in Summer 1, 2021, Giclee print photograph on cotton rag, 29 x 42 cm