Hurstville Museum & Gallery 14 MacMahon Street, Hurstville, NSW 2220 The Georges River Art Prize showcases a range of the finest paintings and sculptures produced from artists nationwide. The prize also gives local young artists a platform to exhibit their works. The finalists in 2025 traverse various media, exploring subject matter that reflects contemporary art practice in Australia. The 2025 prize was assessed by a panel of three judges, Pippa Mott, Matt Bromhead and Kon Gouriotis OAM. A record breaking 410 entries were received this year making the selection process highly competitive. “The Georges River Art Prize is a wonderful celebration of creativity and talent in our community. It is a fabulous opportunity to showcase creativity, share a unique artistic vision and celebrate art and culture.” Georges River Council Mayor Elise Borg
Evie Adasal Marigold synthetic polymer on poly cotton 130 x 120 cm $4,900 ‘Marigold’ draws from my ongoing interest in cultivated landscapes and the ways they shape how we experience and interact with nature. I'm particularly drawn to the contrast within these designed spaces - how moments of softness and stillness can sit beside the bold, structured, or intensely vibrant. This work responds to that tension, inspired by the striking presence of colour in nature - how certain tones stop you in your tracks, while others dissolve quietly around them. I reduced form and focused on the emotional relationships between colours. ‘Marigold’ is both a visual and felt response - where delicacy meets intensity, and order is held lightly in the balance between contrast and connection.
Michael Ambriano Ganguddy - Distant Rain oil on canvas 41 x 51 cm $1,100 My artwork, ‘Ganguddy - Distant Rain’, captures the serene essence of nature intertwined with the vibrant hues of emotions. Ganguddy, a place of profound beauty in nature, serves as the focal point where the convergence of land and water evokes a sense of tranquillity and contemplation. Through a palette of rich colours, I aim to convey the everchanging moods of this landscape - from the soft pastels of dawn to the fiery intensity of Australian summers. The interplay of light and shadow accentuates the organic forms, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in the intricate details of the painting. Each brushstroke reflects my emotional response to this natural wonder.
Mukayi Baker Piltati acrylic on linen 91 x 152 cm $3,800 Two sisters married two brothers and they all lived together. One day the women went wandering such a long way that they forgot about their husbands. Back at camp, the husbands decided to go looking for them. The brothers decided to become Rainbow Serpents to go looking for them, and they travelled in the sky looking for their wives. Finally, they saw them hunting for carpet snakes and they put something in the hole where the women were digging. This is how the men lured the women back to Piltati where they made the sisters transform into Wanampi, then swallowed them and kept them in their throats. All four of them still live there together in the waterhole today.
Robby Bennett The Last Oyster Farmers of the Georges River oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm $6,000 ‘The Last Oyster Farmers of the Georges River’ depicts workers navigating choppy waters in Botany Bay to the oyster leases in Quibray Bay. The punt and crew struggle against the rough waters as they pass Port Botany Seaport in the distance, with a rising or setting sun symbolising the uncertain future of the industry and the health of the Georges River system. The oyster farming industry has faced significant challenges, including disease outbreaks like QX and environmental degradation from pollution and population growth. Despite this, ongoing conservation efforts led by NGOs and the remaining oyster farmers are focused on restoring oyster reefs and improving the river’s health.
Peter Berner Misremembered Landscape acrylic on board 120 x 100 cm $3,000 Inspired by many trips to South Coast, this painting is a product of those memories collected over time.
Fleur Brett Blue Torso recycled cardboard and clothing 27 x 23 x 22 cm $850 This work explores and reveres the ageing female body as both a vessel and a landscape. The artist celebrates a semi abstract female form that is based upon her own body as the artist's muse. In mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses who symbolised the arts and sciences. Today a muse is a person who serves as an artist's inspiration. Self-portraiture and 'artist as muse' are common amongst artists for practical and conceptual reasons. The self is on hand and available and it provides the artist with an intimate understanding of the subject. This work is made using a coiling basketmaking technique made from recycled clothing strips from family members.
Matt Butterworth Ghost wood 21 x 6 x 6 cm $850 My aim was to create a sculpture that sat gently and quietly in the space. A figure who represents those individuals we pass by daily. In this calm, inward manner I wanted to draw the viewer into the artwork. To explore its nuances and details and in doing so recognise pathways that connect to themselves.
Richard Byrnes Pulp Rhino papier mache 65 x 75 x 30 cm $2,000 A rare animal reconstituted from written agreements and legislation aimed at its protection.
Olivia Chin The visible track to the invisible thing oil on linen 142 x 117 cm $5,500 'The visible track to the invisible thing' traces pathways between observed surfaces and hidden depths. Drawing from Calvino's vision of making the invisible visible and animist understandings of interconnection, layered colour and intuitive mark making explore subtle connections between tangible landscape and unseen histories. The work interrogates presence and absence to gesture towards what lies embedded within place: memories of stone, conversations between elements, emerging future ecologies. These painted traces become cartography of the felt and continuous nature of how meaning accumulates within a place. The work invites viewers to pursue what exists beyond immediate perception, mapping territories of connection between our sensory world and deeper currents of understanding that flow beneath everyday encounters with place and belonging.
Zara Collins Teddy ceramic 17 x 19 x 18 cm $395 ‘Teddy’ is part of a larger investigation into memory and relationships between people and objects. Through my creative practice, I delve into the stories of these humble objects and the trace we leave on them. Lost single socks, missing buttons and loose stitching. These stains, marks and dangling threads become the physical trace of our lives with objects. Focusing in on the seemingly small and insignificant details invites reflection and appreciation for the simple things in life.
Samuel Condon Memories of Morandi, Horse riding boots oil on linen 35 x 27 cm $1,600 It was late 2024, it was summer, the sun was shining, and the grass was golden and dry, I took a train to Harkaway in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne to meet for the first time my gallerist Kerry Armstrong. We shared champagne and discussed our life’s passions, finding singularity in our love for horses. As well as being an avid rider, she owns several competitive horses which are exquisite examples of the fine beast. I returned to my Paris studio to complete this painting of her riding boots with a soft palette drawn from my favourite painter Morandi.
Daniela Cristallo Desert Rose Rain acrylic and oil stick on paper 66 x 53 cm $1,100 My process begins with a sensory response to place, translating the movement of rain and earth into layered marks and gestures. Soft washes and bold strokes capture the fleeting presence of water - how it moves across the land, briefly altering its surface before vanishing. Colours echo the warmth of sunlit earth and the cool relief of rain, holding both contrast and harmony. Through abstraction, I explore the desert’s rhythms, where stillness and movement coexist. This work is not about depicting a moment but evoking the sensation of change - how the land absorbs, remembers, and responds to what passes through it.
Evan Curtis Fowlers Gap diptych oil on cardboard 34 x 103.5 cm $1,250 This painting was completed en plein air with found material. I was painting solo at Fowlers Gap in western NSW and had run out of surface material. I scavenged around and found this old cardboard box on which I painted the landscape looking south toward the Gap. The cardboard box lends itself to the aridity of the region and the corrugations remind me of the corrugated iron building materials so frequently found further south in Broken Hill.
Katie Daniels A Lasting Song oil on linen board 51 x 41 cm $2,000 This is a painting of Merri Creek as it flows through Fitzroy in inner city Melbourne. Several years ago, I lived very close to the Merri and often rode my bike or walked along its banks to and from my house. Being near it always gave me comfort, and it has often inspired me artistically, with this stretch of the creek featuring numerous times as a subject in my work. This painting was inspired by a recent visit I made to the area in Spring last year. The title ‘A Lasting Song’ references the continuing inspiration of the ever changing yet timeless beauty of the Merri.
Malpiya Davey Kalaya Tjukurpa - Emu Dreaming acrylic on canvas 51 x 51 cm $850 This is Malpiya’s mother’s country near Kanpi on the APY Lands. Malpiya’s mother was born here at one of the waterholes. The kalaya (emu) is the creation being that formed this land. Malpiya’s design is a depiction of the kalaya walking around looking for mai (food) and water in the rockholes.
Pauline Dewar After the Floods mixed media 75 x 105 cm $3,250 When the flooding rains come to Northern NSW the Lachlan River fills the ephemeral Lake Cowal. The largest inland lake in NSW, Lake Cowal is close to West Wyalong and is home to a wonderful array of waterbirds, many of which are endangered. I was fortunate enough to be given a guided tour late last year when the lake was full, triggering the breeding of large numbers of birds. Waterbirds tend to nest in large, wet, noisy, mixed flocks, most likely for the protection offered by large numbers. The floods trigger a boom in what has been described as a ‘boom or bust ecology’, when most birds will raise at least one clutch before the times change once more.
John Edwards Captain Thunderbolt Hiding In The Landscape oil on canvas 76 x 61 cm $3,500 Narratives evolving from bushranger images are integral to a colonised Australian psyche. Characters were famed for stealing, philandering, mateyness, and murder. Frederick Wordsworth Ward AKA Captain Thunderbolt was one such legendary figure, the longest roaming bushranger in Australian history. He was also known as the Gentleman’s Bushranger with his part Aboriginal part Caucasian partner Mary-Anne Bugg, the gun-toting woman who became Captain Thunderbolt’s wife. The two travelled from the Hunter Valley to the Queensland border creating havoc and mind-bending chases with the colonial establishment that tried to track them down. As such, my painting hopes to work as homage to all bushrangers and settlers that took pride in colluding, conspiring and connecting in order to survive the harsh conditions.
John Edwards Mary Ann Bugg Avoiding The Trackers oil on canvas 76 x 61 cm $3,500 Narratives evolving from bushranger images are integral to a colonised Australian psyche. Characters were famed for stealing, philandering, mateyness, and murder. Less is known about the lives of the hardy, gun-toting women who travelled with these bushrangers. One such woman was Mary Ann Bugg, who became Captain Thunderbolt’s wife. The day-to-day duties of connecting with the land, and of keeping up appearances in less than pleasant circumstances, suggests something of her grit, the grit of an Australian ethos of making do and thriving. As such, my painting hopes to work as homage to all bushrangers and settlers that took pride in colluding, conspiring and connecting in order to survive.
Dongwang Fan Submersion acrylic on canvas 90 x 90 cm $6,000 Gazing at the vast landscape and distant horizon will connect one to the universe and make one see the change that is coming. In the remote mountains the ice is melting, and the sea level is rising. The land, villages and trees are submerged. Everything is locked under the water and dies. But one tree, a bird, a fish, and a sea lion has survived. An uncharted new world is emerging. Humanity has a responsibility to save the world from global warming and respect nature, and to live in harmony with nature by balancing development and the environment. The dialectic concepts of Yin and Yang, hard and soft, solid and void, are the essential parts of the physical world and in art.
Julia Flanagan All my dreams came true acrylic on timber assemblage 78 x 39 x 30 cm $3,900 My sculptures begin as small drawings which are then translated into larger scale timber forms. Intended to be joyous, whimsical and colourful expressions of our everyday experiences, my timber assemblages offer the audience a moment to contemplate the complexities of the everyday and to embrace the possibilities of playfulness and joy that can be found within. For me, loose geometric shapes and vibrant colour have a comforting quality, and the familiarity of the simple shapes combined with more dreamy looping forms provide a space for introspective imaginary speculation and a deeper engagement with the world around us.
Mim Fluhrer Sun portal (Pink 2025) acrylic compound and acrylic on hessian 40.5 x 40.5 cm $650 I am painting portals. My daughter calls them Sun Portals. I have discovered a medium that allows the process of paint application to slow me down, be present, and be in meditation with it. There is a tension of colour, materiality and form which invites the viewer to pause, and feel the vibration of their combined existence. Each portal I paint is created with a blessing, embedded in the brush strokes and in the mix of paint. ‘Sun Portal (Pink 2025)’ is a blessing for the heart.
Richard Goncalves Information Junior Vs Consumer acrylic on board 91.5 x 61 cm $1,500 ‘Information Junior Vs Consumer’ is a satirical take of today’s info-centric society, where information consumption consumes the consumer. With one wallet sized smart device at our fingertips, we enter a tsunami of information that is continuously vying for our immediate attention. Today, the simplicity of maintaining a life without a smart device is near impossible to achieve. One of the biggest challenges we face as consumers is the ability to filter information as it becomes more accessible and AI and algorithms makes information more targeted, encroaching into our daily habits and conscious stream and taking us away from the things that matter most.
Paul Gorjan Autumn in Mt Victoria oil on canvas 30 x 60 cm $660 A typical street in the Blue Mountains village of Mt Victoria has many deciduous trees whose leaves turn red and yellow and make for a pretty scene.
Michelle Hanlin Desert Forms acrylic on canvas 61 x 61 cm $3,000 In ‘Desert Forms’, I explore the interplay between painterly gesture, colour, and ambiguous figure/ground relationships to evoke shifting landscapes and architectural remnants. Geomorphic structures, weathered sculptural assemblages, and abandoned habitations informs the composition, where forms appear both eroded and reconfigured over time. By incorporating monoprints and framed imagery within the painting, I create a sense of paintings within paintings— expanding the subject’s boundaries and layering multiple perspectives. This approach balances the concrete with the visionary, reinforcing the relationship between painting, sculpture, and surface. The result is a work that is simultaneously abstraction and representation, inviting the viewer into a world of fractured forms and atmospheric narratives.
Tahlia Henderson The Death of Optimism watercolour on paper 52.5 x 42 cm $3,600 Dharug Country is full of an abundance of active wildlife in the warmer months. On one bushwalk late last year we stumbled upon a Goanna with a Brown snake in a death grip. The snake fought hard and tightened his body around its neck. Even after the snake’s head was bitten off, the body continued to try to strangle and fight off the goanna. Although amazing to witness, it felt like we'd seen a bad omen. Now in the Year of the Snake, the state of politics at home and an escalation of global conflicts makes many of us pessimistic when looking forward into the future. There is always hope, but to have a sense of optimism seems foolish.
Atipalku Intjalki Tjukurpa Mulayangu acrylic on canvas 122 x 152 cm $5,200 Tjukurpa Mulayangu is a men’s law place. They made this place and campsite. Mulayangu made this place. Over in the west is the other side of Amata which is my father’s country. This is a sacred place called Tankalanya. This is all I can say.
Annabelle Josse Horse Head Rock oil on board 20.5 x 25.5 cm $750 This painting is part of a body of work developed over several years through both plein air studies of the NSW South Coast and studio-based introspections to reflect my intimate dialogue with the landscape, capturing not only the visual forms but also the emotional and primal energies embedded within the environment. This work is based on a view of the rugged coast near Bermagui, NSW. Horse Head Rock is generally seen from the front. Unrecognisable from the back, the rock conveys a raw and immutable energy.
Natasha Junmanee Blue and white porcelain collection oil on canvas 61 x 91 cm $5,500 Blue and white porcelain has been cherished by people around the world. Originating in China, it gained widespread popularity before spreading to Europe and other countries. In this painting, I seek to showcase the beauty of blue and white porcelain, which embodies a fusion of diverse cultures and tells the story of its global journey. I used a traditional Thai pattern in the background to highlight the subject and incorporated iconic Australian flower and animal motifs on the vase and bowl. The addition of flowers enriches the composition and enhances the colour contrast. My painting aims to pay homage to the timeless allure of blue and white porcelain and its enduring significance across different cultures and continents.
James Lai Autumn in the valley acrylic on canvas 80 x 100 cm $2,400 I see the landscape as theatre, with its stage and the natural elements as characters. The characterisation of the natural elements draws out the movement, dialogue and drama in the country landscape in autumn. I look for shapes and colours in the landscape and portray them in a way to give an abstract quality to the work. Colour provides structure to the painting and the texture achieves a tactile quality. The abstract aspects allow the viewer the opportunity to interpret what they see and the figurative elements are added to enable them to anchor their perspectives.
Langaliki Lewis Tali / Sand dune acrylic on linen 116 x 141 cm $4,200 This design is inspired by the red sand dunes that are found throughout the central desert. There is a large red sand dune near Ernabella named Wamikata which is a popular place for looking for maku (witchetty grubs) and for teaching Milpatjunanyi (telling stories in the sand) to children.
Kylee Malloy we don't live here anymore mixed media on board 30 x 30 cm $565 In my dreams grief and joy are uneasy friends, they know each other, and circle warily. This work is a dreamscape narrative of searching in empty, muddled, memory filled places, where my people have been, where I have been, and left.
Kevin McKay Pavilion oil on handmade cotton paper 87 x 118 cm $5,000 The Oak Park Pavilion houses a public toilet, but also serves as an entry point to the beach with change rooms open to the sky and a central chamber framing a view of the expansive sea and distant horizon. It is a threshold, a place of transition, and despite its utilitarian function presents like a classical temple in its engagement with light and space. This work is painted on a heavy sheet of handmade paper that I inherited from my late studio partner. The friction between image and materials correlates with the need to find beauty in the midst of the difficult and ordinary.
Bindi Mira-Bateman Ornithology I Blue Faced Honeyeater woven textile 85 x 122 cm $395 As a weaver, I explore simple runs of straight textile as the most basic expression of this craft. These strips are clearly recognisable as just off the loom with only colour and texture as embellishment, then folded and draped in a continuous length. I explore the natural and the handmade as complementing each other, with structured forms given life through layering, texture, and inherent irregularity. I’m inspired by the natural environment especially birdlife, and this piece is reference to the Blue Faced Honeyeater, and their distinctive blue and green plumage. This piece is a contemporary interpretation of nature, to recognise technique, to appreciate colour, form and tactility and above all to celebrate the ingenuity of being human.
Sally Mowbray Away oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm $2,800 ‘Away’ is a painting which began as an observation of Celadon ceramic pictorial glazes mixed with a second reference of swirled glass in decorative paperweights. I’m interested in the quiet reveries available in such objects and wanted to use these sensibilities to develop a composition that borrowed from them while also proposing a continuous landscape. Using close contrast colours the work came together in layers of oil paint, marble dust and oil stick with forms appearing and dissolving in the accumulations of paint. ‘Away’ reminds me of the quiet space of introspection and the journeys offered through the act of visual observation.
Jasmine Mowbray Ordinary Days oil on canvas 70 x 50 cm $1,400 This work aims to suggest water and mineral elements falling vertically before rising in plumes. I was interested in working with mineral matter in the paint to gain a geological ballast. The work comes from a series where I have been considering how to describe ancient worlds and forms.
Lina Ocolisan Contours of Silence ceramic 25 x 15 x 12 cm $475 ‘Contours of Silence’ is part of a series of sculptural slip cast forms influenced by the current discourse surrounding gender-based violence, which explores the fragile duality between our public personas and private selves. The exterior is architecturally precise, embodying society's expectation of conformity and stoicism and represents the public facade, the mask that many are forced to wear, hiding the suffering that lies beneath. In contrast, the interior with its delicate texture highlights the hidden, often unspoken, realities of trauma from violence and abuse. Ultimately this sculpture is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit. It celebrates our capacity to endure, to mask pain in grace, and to find strength in our most vulnerable moments.
Felicity O'Connor Relics oil on canvas 100 x 122 cm $3,900 My paintings arise from an engagement with the external starting point of the landscape and arrive at something that is both non-representational yet simultaneously tied to a sense of place. ‘Relics’ continues the dialogue about desert landscapes and impermanence. Forms that existed in the painting previously are like relics as they are worked over, sanded and rediscovered. These elements of the painting continue to actively participate in the finished work. Through this, ‘Relics’ also comments on the ancient history of the Australian landscape.
Sarah Park Glimmering Glow oil on linen 30 x 40 cm $800 ‘Glimmering Glow’ continues my exploration of light and shadow, capturing the interplay between the human form and the delicate intricacy of a handheld fan. In this piece, sunlight filters through the fan’s patterns, casting fleeting, lace-like shadows across my hands and arms. Each artwork in this series is a study in contrast - solid and ethereal, stillness and movement - evoking curiosity, delight, and a deeper appreciation for the overlooked details in everyday beauty. Through this balance of light and shadow, I seek to create a moment of quiet intrigue, where the viewer becomes attuned to the beauty in the in-between.
Sassy Park On the border ceramic 36 x 22 x 18 cm $3,500 Inspired by Sydney dancer Eileen Kramer (1914-2024) and current world events, this figure combines ideas of female histories, fashion and sculptural traditions with the materiality of clay and magma glazes. The way the mediums suggest elements like lace and the movement of fabric lends the work both a sense of weight and liveliness. A face that is only just there looks out towards the border. A flowered shoe peeps from below a hemline; swags of fabric and flowers on her waistline embellish a dress impressed with finger-marks. Sassy Park is known for her figurative works that playfully explore historical ceramic traditions and contemporary themes, often focusing on vulnerability, fragility, and the intimacies of everyday life.
Tamara Pottier Caught Between - A self portrait in chaos oil on canvas 110 x 76 cm $3,000 This artwork is a snapshot of an artist caught between ambition and laundry. Ghostly pots float in the backgroundevidence of what could be made, if only there were more hours in the day and energy to match. On the floor, her child's drawings and toys mingle with scattered thoughts, a playful contrast to the weight of daily life. Sitting under the spotlight, she takes it all in, knowing that art and life are always works in progress.
Nadera Rasulova Veins of a Sunburnt Land oil on canvas 53 x 48 cm $765 ‘Veins of a Sunburnt Land’ captures the pulse of an arid landscape - where soil cracks, light bends, and the memory of rain lingers in the haze. Layers of oil washes and solvent bleed into one another, mimicking the erosion of time, the way heat scorches and reshapes the terrain. This work is both a love letter and a lament, exploring the land’s resilience and fragility. The interplay of colour and texture evokes a landscape that is at once ancient and fleeting, a place where history is etched into the earth itself.
Isobel Rayson Things Left Unsaid relief carving on painted wooden chairs 87 x 115 x 42 cm $3,200 ‘Things Left Unsaid’ captures a moment of quiet introspection. It explores the unspoken exchange of thoughts and ideas that occurs when one is alone in the studio and speaks to the solitary life of an artist. The work features two wooden chairs positioned directly opposite one another, activating a mirror image effect, further emphasised by the fine repetitive lines carved into each chair. These carved marks weave and intertwine across the seats, alluding to the cyclical or ruminating nature of these silent conversations.
Lee Salomone Ancestor stool #2 wood, soil and bronze 106 x 36 x 29 cm $11,000 My grandmother passed on the pleasure of gardening when I was a pre-schooler. To rid me from her patch, she annexed off a small plot and this was a gateway. Today, as an adult, I begin and end every day in my garden. As an artist, gardening has infected & affected my art practice. I source inspiration from nature by simply witnessing her colours, designs, and forms. The small wooden stool is the actual stool my grandmother used in the garden. I have layered the top surface with soil from that garden as soil carries story. Soil is fundamental to all who inhabit Australia and a country is defined by the stories it chooses to tell and the ones it does not.
Therese Shanley So quiet oil on board 90 x 110 cm $7,500 Sometimes I find that there is never enough time in the day, or days in the week, or weeks in the year to do all the things that I wish I could do. Sometimes those things are making a hundred new paintings that are in my head ready to come out, or reading the twenty novels that I have stacked beside my bed or simply washing the three baskets of laundry that continue to wait patiently for me. Sometimes it's extra time in the day needed to weed the garden, take the dog for a longer walk, bake those biscuits that I've been talking about baking, but ‘So quiet’ is not one of those times.
Gary Smith Nardoo Street acrylic on board 51 x 61 cm $480 ‘Nardoo Street’ celebrates the diversity of the suburbs and domestic architecture. Personal security, comfortability, homelessness and dislocation are explored. It is a personal social story.
Dave Snook The Deer oil on board 40 x 35 cm $1,100 On the day of the sitter’s eighteenth birthday this moment was captured. The expression is one of timid apprehension and yet there is a quiet determination and self confidence that suggests an empowerment in the young woman.
Kate Vassallo Radiate acrylic on canvas 92 x 82 cm $2,750 ‘Radiate’ was repetitiously and ritualistically built up slowly with thin layers of acrylic paint, applied by dragging a brush in a repeated radial direction. The colours obscure or merge as layered, changing visually over time in relation to one another. Similarly, as the chance-based geometric shapes layer, they slowly soften their hard edges. Using the golden ratio to dictate the vertical form cutting through the painting, the transparent deep purple is intended to further complicate the colour. I wanted to push softness and ambiguity in this work, while creating complex and dense patches of colour. I wanted the painting to have a sense of history and memory imbedded in it, which considers agency, intuition, and labour.
Agus Wijaya Divide, conquer, repeat? mixed media 65 x 45 x 25 cm $3,688 Amid ongoing chaos, I contemplate identity-based solidarity and careful performativity, how we often overlook something due to its foreignness or fall prey to divisive narratives. I grew up amid biases against Chinese Indonesians in Indonesia, existing from the Dutch colonisation’s ‘divide et impera' (divide and conquer), the West-backed 1965 massacre and the 1998 riot that happened when I was 12 years old. Making became my safe space for solace and understanding. Now raising a young family in Penshurst, I seek to reconnect with my cultural heritage and inheritance, to reclaim aspects of my identity and pass on some values to my children. Among them are animism and belief in transcending boundaries for shared happiness – beyond identity, nationality and borders.
Bradlee Wiseman Modern Dance oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm $2,500 I'm interested in exploring new visual territories by examining the dialogue between images and their construction. ‘Modern Dance’ finds a balanced composition by herding form, line and colour through ongoing movement and flux. Each element is drawn from a fragmented visual experience, either in the physical or online world, and transposed onto the painting's surface before being manoeuvred into place. The oscillating process slowly continues until a new composition is formed. This painting reflects the push and pull as a rhythm, an experience akin to a dance.
Mei Zhao Garden C. IV acrylic, pigment, concrete powder, and collage on hessian on wood 112 x 92 cm $4,500 This work responds to the erased Chinese market gardens of the 1900s around Curl Curl Lagoon, codified as "Garden C" in council documents. Through textured surfaces in painted media, I reinterpret these lost landscapes as reimagined and embodied experiences. The linework evokes the deep gouges of irrigation channels and gridded patterns seen in maps and aerial photography. The caked mixture of acrylic pigment and concrete powder creates a pastel spectrum—goldenrod yellow, bole reddishbrowns, and greyed lilac blue reflect soil and waterways, while mossy greens suggest vegetation. The scratched text “Ah” attempts to locate the presence of unidentified Chinese individuals in historical records, which can be translated into Chinese as “ ”, signifying a person without a name.
人
Zi Xin / Sylvia Atypical year of snake ceramic 33 x 15 x 15 cm & 14 x 26 x 20 cm $1,800 ‘Atypical Year of the Snake’ breathes new life into tradition, inspired by Chinese idioms that celebrate harmless imperfection ( (huà shé tiān zú), "to draw a snake and add feet," and (hǔ tóu shé wěi), "tiger’s head, snake’s tail.".
画蛇添足 虎头蛇尾
These lanterns, unlike their auspicious counterparts, do not carry blessings but call for unconditional love. Transformed from delicate paper to lasting ceramic, they transcend the fleeting nature of festive light. Their glow does not seek fortune, but whispers of acceptance and love, untainted by success or failure.
Zuza Zochowski Due North 2024 oil on linen 44 x 53 cm $850 Another year passes and tankers still line the horizon, waiting their turn to deliver or take away. Over time, I have researched naval exploration with the idea of healthier travel options for our environment only to delve into the realities of the tankers that grow in numbers every day. I navigate my thoughts as I paint the realities of my local Illawarra seascape. In the coarse marks my brushes make on the linen, the abstract moments between fence lines that cut into the image, I navigate the love/hate relationship I have with human structures juxtaposed within the organic environment. They make great contrasts to paint, even as I experience them as interlopers in our natural environment.
Hurstville Museum & Gallery 14 MacMahon Street, Hurstville, NSW 2220 Tuesday - Saturday: 10am - 4pm
Artworks from this collection are available for sale following the opening of the exhibition on Friday 29 August 2025.
Sunday: 2pm - 5pm t: +61 2 9330 6444 e: museumgallery@georgesriver.nsw.gov.au
Please contact Hurstville Museum & Gallery for artwork sales enquiries.