OBSERVER: The Arts with Peter Kemp
Déjà vu – Mark Forbes
is a captivating exhibition of C-Type prints featuring a number of large scale images from Mark Forbes’s recent monograph Collected Memories alongside a handful of images that have not been shared anywhere previously before.
The images Déjà vu explore hoe photographs evolve into memories over time, shaping personal and shared narratives.
Photographed on medium format film, the series reflects mindfulness, storytelling, and the beauty found in life’s fleeing, everyday moments.
The imagery captures ordinary, often overlooked moments that evoke a sense of nostalgia and longing.
While deeply personal, the collection is designed to connect with viewers on an emotional level, inviting them to project their own stories and experiences onto the works.
This interplay between personal history and universal connection lies at the heart of the exhibition.
Exhibition closes Saturday March 1.
Kingston Art Gallery
979/985 Nepean Hwy, Moorabbin
Launch
Town Hall Gallery Program Launch and Exhibition Opening.
Join the Gallery to celebrate the ;launch of the 2025 Town Hall Gallery Program as well as the official opening of three new exhibitions at Town Hall Gallery: major exhibition Seasonal Shifts, and community exhibitions: On Whose Shoulders I Stand On by Susie Raz, and Welcome to My World by Joshua Romas.
Formalities will begin at 2.30pm in the Hawthorn Arts Centre foyer, followed by a series of curator and artist talks about each of the new exhibitions on display.
Free bookings encouraged.
Event :Saturday, February 22. 3pm- 4pm.
Town Hall Gallery
360 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn
At Convent
84 Days in Shigaraki –
Colin Hopkins
This exhibition showcases the body of work and creative process deeloped by Colin Hopkins during his 840-day residency at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Koka, Japan.
This exhibition features a series of small-scale ceramic pieces that explore the intersection of materiality, form, and spatial awareness, drawing on Hopkins’s diverse background in music, architecture and pottery.
During his time un Shigaraki, Hopkins immersed himself in the region’s centuries-old ceramic traditions, while also pushing the boundaries of technique through experimentation in clay throwing, glazing and firing. Working with locally sourced materials, his creations reflect a profound engagement with the raw, tactile nature of the medium, balanced by the precision and discipline he gained from his architectural background – heightened by the influence of renowned architectural design and craftmanship.
Each piece in the exhibition embodies a study in balance and tension, where the fluidity of the clay meets the careful structural considerations in inherent in Hopkins’s work. The pieces capture both the natural predictability of the material and the internal design space and form.
Exhibition opens February 20 and closes March 1. From 8am – 10pm.
Abbotsford Convent
1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford
Sullivan
& Strumpf
Free Form – Contemporary Abstraction
Sullivan & Strumpf are excited to announce Free Form, a new exhibition bringing together key voices working in contemporary abstraction.
Since the early 1900s, abstract art has been central to the story of modern art.
Moving away from representational imagery, abstraction favoured the sensory and placed focus on colour, shape, for and gestural marks.
To abstract something is to reduce to its purest form or most simple interpretation.
Abstract art can be seen to hold spiritual and moral connotations for order and purity. It may also evoke lyrical qualities, influenced by sound and music.
Free Form seeks to share a fresh perspective on abstraction and how these influences still apply yet have come to find new meaning and relevance in contemporary practice.
Curated by Sullivan & Strumpf Associate Director Siobhan Sloper, the exhibition includes a diverse collection of works traversing painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography and video.
Exhibition closes March 8.
Sullivan & Strumpf
107/109 Rupert St, Collingwood
Peter Kemp