CURRENT EXHIBITION

12 April / 18 May 2025

gallery one

HAYLEY ARJONA
featuring collaborative ceramics by Hayles n Link
On & On & On & On

This exhibition showcases recent paintings and ceramics by Hayley Arjona (Hayles), alongside collaborative ceramics created with Link.

The paintings and sculptures convey emotional, ecstatic, and often uncomfortable narratives, perhaps reflecting the very process of their creation. None of these works were born from specific intention or expectation; each was made impulsively, driven by the desire to explore what might unfold

Continuing her 30-year artistic journey, Hayley explores an intuitive, performative process that amplifies and translates the unconscious and subconscious into tangible forms. Through dialogue with her subjects and embodied transmutations, moving fluidly between paint and clay, she blurs the lines between intention and action, dreams, memories, and reality. In this body of work, the distinction between the origin of an idea and its execution dissolves, creating an infinite narrative. It just goes On & On & On & On …

Hayles and Link have been lifelong creative partners, collaborating on a diverse range of projects, from festival production and set design for film and television to free-range farming. Their artistic focus has recently merged in a shared exploration of clay, where they experiment with raw materials, form, glaze finishes, and firing techniques. This marks their first exhibition of collaborative artworks in a gallery.

Hayles specialises in hand building, while Link focuses on wheel throwing, glaze development, and gas kiln reduction firing. Their process is spontaneous, an evolving dialogue where each responds to the other. Neither assumes a role of expertise; instead, both approach their work with a spirit of creative surrender. The resulting sculptures reflect this dynamic exchange, each piece embodying a unique, intersubjective quality. Additionally, elements from their home, such as rocks excavated by local ant colonies, and shared life stories are embedded within these works.

Later this year, Hayles and Link will embark on a month-long residency at Driving Creek Pottery in Te Ika-a-Māui, Aotearoa, to further explore their collaborative ceramic practice.

The artists wish to acknowledge and pay respects to the Taungurung people, Elders past and present, who are the traditional custodians of the land on which these artworks were created.

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gallery two

LAETITIA OLIVIER-GARGANO
Kitchen Garden

Laetitia Olivier-Gargano presents a new suite of artworks combining hyper-real resin cast sculpture collaged into painterly watercolours alongside a collection of food-inspired ikebana vases.

A love of food and gardening is celebrated in this exhibition. The title being a play on the term for the beautiful and edible potager’s garden, that is often found in country homes, Laetitia quite literally combines the aesthetics of food and plants within her works. Focusing on the textures and colours of the garden to explore the contemplative qualities of cultivating nature. This attention to the meditative beauty of the artists’ garden is contradicted by the juxtaposition of comfort food and everyday objects.

Playing with the combination of the beauty and the reality of the world that surrounds us, Laetitia brings the suburban garden into the home kitchen. Delicate floral arrangements emerge from a tantalisingly realistic meat pie. An egg salad sandwich is flanked by whimsical watercolours of this summer’s harvest. Views through the kitchen window offer a peaceful observation and time for introspection.

Laetitia’s practice is driven by a close survey of food, plants and everyday objects, through surreal sculptural reimagining. By blurring the boundaries of complex yet recognisable forms, her work playfully incites both a sense of wonder and unease. These edible and domestic items speak to deeply personal emotions, memories and associations. Her work often engenders bodily responses from viewers due to its intense familiarity, yet complete absurdity. Our stomach turns, and we want to look away, but curiosity stops us. It is this uncanny sensation and the universality of it that her works make us aware of.

Laetitia currently works from her studio in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. She graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) from Monash University. Her work has been exhibited nationally at institutions such as Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Cement Fondu, Notfair and Firstdraft. Her work has also featured in Broadsheet, Artist Profile and Art + Australia journals. In 2019 Laetitia received the Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists, administered by NAVA. She undertook research in Japan, learning how to make their iconic plastic food samples. Laetitia’s practice often involves ‘hyper-surrealistic’ resin cast sculpture, stop-motion animation and works on paper.

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ceramic space

MATTHEW BUTTERWORTH
Your Grandma has an Only Fans

In his latest exhibition titled “Your Grandma Has an Only Fans,” Mathew Butterworth sought to create new narratives that emerge from existing ones. By utilizing porcelain ware reminiscent of pieces owned by his grandmother, Butterworth aimed to forge a connection with another time and evoke a deeper, more profound feeling. Through the processes of breaking, adding to, and meticulously rebuilding these new vessels, he challenges conventional notions of purpose and offers fresh, thought-provoking meanings that invite viewers to reflect on their own relationships with memory and heritage.

Matt Butterworth is a contemporary Australian artist who celebrates form, colour and texture through the making of his ceramic works: "I am interested in the conflict that arises when a wall is created. My artworks (ceramic) begin with a process. I begin by throwing (on the wheel) a white porcelain vessel. I then challenge/alter this by adding coloured clays, cutting/exposing the internal form, glazing (in different stages) then finally applying and firing gold lustre. I work intuitively, taking the original narrative (one steeped in a rich history) and expose it. I want my works to challenge the very idea of a vessel while remaining faithful to its creation. I want to challenge the boundaries of ceramics and expose the limitations and expectations." Matt Butterworth’s porcelain bowls represent a radicalised interpretation of the traditional ceramic vessel. Perfectly functional golden ceramic bodies are dissected with cuts and tears, and yet they are so resolved and so exquisite. Small in scale, these bowl forms become jewels, glittering in the sun. They tell stories, they are strong, fresh and live in the present. In 2019, Matt was awarded the prestigious Manningham Victorian Ceramic Art Award, and in 2021, he was acquired by Power House Museum, who exhibited his ceramics in 'Clay Dynasty: 50 Years Of Australian Ceramics'.

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PAST EXHIBITIONS

Each morning begins with a dog walk through the bushlands in Central Victoria where we live – beautiful Dja Dja Wurrang country. It is a routine we look forward to. There are rhythms to this activity. My dog’s gait changes and adjusts from slow to fast depending on what catches his attention. He is full of anticipation, playfulness, and optimism as to what will be revealed. I adjust my pace trying to stay with him. He sniffs, ears pricked, eyes searching, alert, and open. I too stay attentive - listening, touching, smelling, looking - breathing in air deeply. There is a fragile, yet resilient rhythm to the flora and fauna in the bush which I am respectful of and which we both are becoming more attuned to, slowly finding our place.

Each day in the studio also has its own rhythms - its own measures - its own distractions and moments of attentiveness. I bring my experiences from my walks, and from the world, into the studio for deliberation. I am learning to navigate a more thoughtful measured approach in my studio practice which allows for objectivity and subjectivity to operate in different ways and at different times.

To measure is to ascertain the size, amount, or degree of something by using an instrument or device marked in standard units. To measure also means to assess the importance, effect, or value of something. Reliability and validity are concepts used to evaluate the quality of research. The consistency of a measure provides reliability. While the accuracy of a measure provides validation. I have come to realize that these concepts are not restricted to evaluating the quality of research, but rather extends out into the world. While the act of measuring operates in much of my daily life including my studio practice, I am conscious to also consider that which might be unreliable and to find other means and forms of validation.

The artwork in this exhibition begins with some form of measurement; ruled lines, grids, triangles, which maintains a structure for me to work with and against. The motifs and colours I employ, reflect long held disparate interests - tropes in abstraction, textiles, daydreaming, cultural memories, travel, migration, and place. Each of the paintings while deeply personal, use familiar forms allowing viewers to find their own entry points into the artwork. In this way we may arrive at points of shared (or divergent) values or meanings (whatever they are) which reflect how we navigate the world we live in.

This exhibition attempts at revealing this wonderful relationship between that which can be measured objectively, quantitatively, and that which occupies more subjective, qualitative spaces. The complex and nuanced decision-making process in the studio relies on trying to ascertain the importance or value of something by working within these parameters to arrive at a body of resolved work.

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gallery two

microcosm|macrocosm

CARLY FISHER
JUAN FORD
JAMES GEURTS
DESMOND LAZARO
NICK MANGAN
MICHAEL VALE
LISA WAUP

microcosm | macrocosm brings together seven artists whose work explores unique perspectives of our relationship with the universe.

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Ceramic Space

KRIS COAD
Unbound…

These works form part of an ongoing exploration into the concept of journey, thinking about how we protect and preserve what is important to us. These objects are metaphors for the journey we all undertake. The ritualistic layers of wrapping create a protective space, a place that holds and shields. A void lies within these vessels; what was there has moved on, still forms reflecting what was and contemplation of what is to come. An immeasurable space between two things as they transition into and between one to the other.

Kris Coad is a ceramic artist living and working in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. She has been a practicing artist for over 30 years, dividing her time between her studio and her work as an educator. Kris alternates exhibition work with large and small-scale ceramic commissions, both within Australia and internationally. She also produces a translucent porcelain tableware range for selected retail outlets and custom designs for haute cuisine restaurants.

Kris has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions, including the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, Korean Ceramic Biennale, Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne, Manly Museum and Art Gallery Sydney, Woollahra Small Sculpture. Commissions include the Paris Peninsula, the Municipal Offices of the Greater City of Dandenong and the Beson office CBD Melbourne. Her work has been acquired for public and private collections, including Icheon World Ceramic Centre Korea, Mino Ceramic Museum Japan Parliament House Canberra, Shepparton Art Gallery, and Manly Museum & Art Gallery. Kris’s work has been featured in many magazines, journals and custom books, including World Sculpture News, The Journal of Australian Ceramics, Vogue Living and Ceramics Art and Perception International.

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