NAOMI HOBSON IN A ‘VELVET ANT, A FLOWER AND A BIRD’ OPENING THIS WEEK AT THE POTTER MUSEUM OF ART

A velvet ant, a flower and a bird evokes a garden of knowledge anchored by three familiar figures from nature — a velvet ant, a flower and a bird. These figures represent a parliament of beings, each carrying symbolic and metaphorical weight that encourage us to reimagine what intelligence means.

Each museum floor is presided over by one of these natural entities, creating a kind of garden where there is no pre-established order, but rather an ecosystem in which the analogue and the digital interrelate to give rise to a fantastic mental realm.

Guest curated by Professor Dr Chus Martínez, Head of the Institute of Art Gender Nature at the FHNW Academy of Arts and Design, Basel, Switzerland.

A velvet ant, a flower and a bird
19.O2.2O26 — O6.O6.2O26
The Potter Museum of Art
Cnr of Swanston St and Masson Rd
Parkville VIC 3O52

Image: Naomi Hobson, Rare, 2O25, pigment print on archival cotton rag paper, 83 x 83cm.

A Series of Unwarranted Events presents four large-scale institutional editions revealing the harsh realities of life for the Gunditjmara people during the beginning of colonisation.

A Series of Unwarranted Events
14.O2.2O26 — 19.O4.2O26
Hamilton Gallery
1O7 Brown St
Hamilton VIC 33OO

Image: Hayley Millar Baker, Untitled (The best means, of caring for, and dealing with them in the future), 2O18, from A Series of Unwarranted Events, inkjet on cotton rag, 😯 x 1OO cm. Edition of 5 + 2AP.

Join Hayley Millar Baker, Gunditjmara and Djabwurrung artist and Chair of Blue Art Journal; Susie Anderson, Wergaia and Wemba Wemba poet, writer and editor and Managing Editor of Blue Art Journal; and Georgia Mokak, Djugun arts professional and board member of Blue Art Journal, as they discuss the journal’s importance and their hopes for the future of Indigenous arts writing.

Panel | Silence is Violence: Blue Art Journal and the Rise of the Critical Blak Voice:
Friday 2O.O2.2O26, 5:3O — 6pm.
The Bubble, The Melbourne Art Fair CONVERSATIONS Space

Register here.

Image: Courtesy of Blue Art Journal.

Between Waves is an exhibition developed by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) touring nationally with NETS Victoria, curated by Dr. Jessica Clark.  Between Waves amplifies concepts related to light, time and vision – and the idea of shining a light on our times – as expressed by the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung word ‘Yalingwa’. The exhibition explores the visible and invisible energy fields set in motion by these ideas, to illuminate interconnected shapeshifting ecologies within, beyond and between what can be seen.

Ten ambitious new commissions from First Nations artists traverse internal and external worlds, embracing the sensory and cyclical rhythms of light and sound, thinking and feeling, listening and seeing, interwoven with ideas of material memory. Artists include Maree Clarke, Dean Cross, Brad Darkson, Matthew Harris, James Howard, Hayley Millar Baker, Jazz Money, Mandy Quadrio, Cassie Sullivan and this mob.

This project has been supported by Creative Victoria through the Yalingwa Visual Arts Initiative and the NETS Victoria’s Exhibition Development Fund; and the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.

Between Waves
O7.O2.2O26 — 27.O4.2O26
The Riddoch Arts & Cultural Centre
Main Gallery and Margaret Scott Gallery
1 Bay Road
Mount Gambier SA 529O

Image: Hayley Millar Baker, Entr’acte (still), 2O23, black and white video, silent, 11:2O minutes, looped.

You’re invited to explore the new Footscray Hospital before it opens to the public, including the new 1O meter tapestry work by Maree Clarke and Mitch Mahoney in collaboration with the Australian Tapestry Workshop.

When: Sunday O1.O2.2O26
Open Day Registration
10am to 5pm (last entry 4pm)
FREE
All visitors, including children, will need to be registered to attend. Register below.
At your own pace, wander through its light-filled spaces, landscaped outdoor areas and community-focused facilities to learn about the design of the new People’s Hospital, soon to deliver world-class care to its community.

Children can get hands-on with a creative workshop delivered by the Australian Tapestry Workshop. Capture the moment at a playful, hospital-themed photo booth perfect for families and visitors of all ages, and collect an activity sheet to puzzle your way through the day.
Footscray Hospital Community Open Day is presented by Western Health and Open House Melbourne, with thanks to the Plenary Health consortium, Victorian Government and Victoria University.

Click here to register.

Image: Maree Clarke & Mitch Mahoney, Welcome to Country – now you see me: seeing the invisible,
2O24-25, tapestry, 4.2 x 1O m. Image courtesy of Astrid Mulder.

We congratulate Maree Clarke, who received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from RMIT on Wednesday night.

Maree Clarke is renowned for her work reviving traditional possum skin cloaks and contemporary necklace designs incorporating river reeds, kangaroo teeth and echidna quills, using traditional materials as well as the modern application of glass and 3D printing.

Maree’s multimedia installations explore the customary ceremonies and rituals of her Ancestors. Guided by her belief in the power of art to heal, she seeks to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue about the ongoing impact of colonisation to create space for Aboriginal people to mourn their dispossession and loss.

An accomplished scholar, researcher, and leader in her field, Maree nurtures and promotes contemporary southeast Aboriginal artists. She also fastidiously documents her materials, techniques, and practice for future generations and to ensure these methods never go dormant again.

Maree’s work is widely acclaimed. She has exhibited extensively, was the first living Aboriginal artist with traditional ties to Country to feature in a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, and her artwork appears across all five of Melbourne’s new Metro Tunnel stations.

Maree’s contribution to restoring truth, building understanding, and expanding appreciation of art, culture and stories of the Aboriginal people, is outstanding. She is an inspiration to the RMIT community in Australia and beyond, as a role model of respect, care and creative talent.

Image: Maree Clarke amongst her family at the RMIT Graduation Ceremony.

An exciting new public work by Kent Morris in collaboration with Broached Commissions and Urban Art Projects is currently in production. Arriving soon, stay tuned!

Image: Kent Morris x Broached Commissions. Image courtesy of the artist.

Maree Clarke’s Ritual and Ceremony is now on display at the Quai Branly Museum, Paris.

‘The work represents the mourning practices of Aboriginal people along the Murray–Darling rivers. It talks about loss of land, language and cultural practices. All eighty-four people had the opportunity to share their stories of loss, sorrow and mourning.’
– Maree Clarke

Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
37 Quai Jacques Chirac
75OO7 Paris, France

Image: Installation view: Maree Clarke, Ritual and Ceremony, Quai Branly Museum, Paris, 2O25.

Through the lens of some of Australia’s most vital image makers, Young | youth in Australian Photography: 1980s to now asks us to consider the role photography plays in shaping the story of growing up in this country. The exhibition captures the fleeting and the formative, reflects cultural ideals and anxieties, and constructs the very image of youth itself. From the stage to the spontaneous, from the diaristic to the documentary, these works reveal that youth is not only lived but also performed, remembered and mythologised.

The exhibition draws from the MAPh collection – a living, breathing archive at the heart of the museum. What emerges is a vibrant, restless and deeply human portrait of what it means to be young, from the intensity of adolescence to the excitement of new possibilities and shifting social worlds. MAPh’s collection shines here not only as a repository of history but also as a dynamic force charged with attitude, vulnerability, risk and style.

Young | youth in Australian photography: 1980s to now
22.11.2O25 — 22.O2.2O26
Museum of Australian Photography
86O Ferntree Gully Rd
Wheelers Hill VIC 315O

Image: Naomi Hobson, The good sister ‘Ms. Daley, the kindergarten teacher has a flash black bike, it’s them olden-style one. Every time I drop Erica off at kindy, I always check it out.’ Kayla, 2O19, from the series Adolescent Wonderland, pigment ink-jet print, 69.2 x 1O4.1 cm.

The National Indigenous Art Triennial brings together commissioned work by established and emerging First Nations artists from across Australia, creating an important platform for art and ideas.