Ella The Art Wonderer

25/03/2026

Kids stand apart at Top Arts 🎭
Every year the exhibits the most outstanding artworks by VCE students. This year 43 emerging artists give us a visual of what young creative Victorians are thinking now, and it’s wonderful🤩

This annual showcase at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia in .square is free to see and runs until the 19th of July.
It’s an exhibition that always brings hope for the future in the talent it presents but this year feels special somehow.
There’s a level of self and art historical awareness throughout that had me enthralled 🤩
These kids know their 💩!

I was happy to be swept back to the Baroque by Geordie Williamson’s Allegory of a blanket.
Julian Opie’s oeuvre immediately comes to mind with Shaun McKearney’s work.

Grant Wood’s infamous painting, American gothic is eluded to by Audrey Jacque’s incredible painting, The echo of someone else’s memory.

I see Francis Bacon’s influence on Zindzi Clayfords haunting oil on canvas. And the soul of the surrealists in Tim Yarrow’s Breeding burdens.

But it’s the whimsical miniatures that really spoke to me this year. Sandra Abeywardena’s hairy caterpillar 🐛, Tess Simmons tiny eyelashed owl and Willow Hines’s ecological microcosm in a mini fridge all come to mind.

Cameron Ma’s tiny clay figures facing off in her sculptural work, Seeing you, seeing me is my favourite work in the show. Superbly executed, these intricate clay creatutes are an allegory for the mother-daughter relationship and more broadly understanding our differences.

Every artist in this show is exceptional and I dearly hope this is the beginning of their artistic careers. It’s an honour to be one of the chosen from over 1100 submissions. Keep that art coming kids!

Fun fact: I had a painting in the equivalent of Top Arts (See last pic 🤦‍♀️)Despite the work still making me cringe, the accolade made me believe I could have a future in art. The exposure made me realise I don’t have the balls to be an artist. The same can’t be said for fellow student, .reisch who continues to back herself as an artist. Respect ✊🏻 Steph!

19/03/2026

If like me, you've ever wondered who Banksy is, well now we know and it's certainly not who I expected! What a legend!

An in-depth investigation drawing on court files, photos and public records reports the world-famous anonymous artist is a Bristol-born man who later adopted a new identity.

21/02/2026

Loving the LOCALS 🥂📸❤️‍🔥

Exhibition openings are an excellent way to meet other art interested people over free drinks. And Outre’s annual showcase of local talent always draws a big fun crowd.

My fav way to start at convo at a group art show like this is to ask, “What’s your favourite work?” Answers always lead to insights; into the person, our shared interests and the artwork itself.

Hearing how & why an artwork resonates with someone makes you view it anew and brings you closer to someone you just met.

I learned ‘s fav work was ‘She’ll be right, mate’ by for its reimagining of Frederick McCubbin’s famous Heidelberg school painting with a giant friendly octopus serving tea.

was drawn to the mysterious landscapes of , and .luke.art 🌆 While fav artwork was ‘Grape Ape’ by .berry_

My fav work was ‘Gmork’ by As an 80’s kid, I’m haunted by the face of The NeverEnding Story’s messenger of the Nothing 🐺

captures the sinister character perfectly with splashes of neon paint piled on impasto style that vibrate against the predominant black blue hues.

I had the pleasure of talking with many of the artists in the show about their work including still life aficionado and who was drinking with iconic fashionista, 🍻

I noted so many worthy works as I quaffed my Prosecco like ‘Strawberry Matcha Love’ by , ‘Cute Commute (an ode to my bike)’ 🚲 by , ‘Fire Horse’ by , ‘Land of Plenty’ by , ‘Skin’ by , ‘Eastern Grass Owl’ by , ‘Fugu with Little Hats at a Kuromon Market Stall’ by , ‘First Contact’ by , ‘Home (where I want to be) by , ‘The Heron’s Vow’ by and more than instagram will let me mention!

If you weren’t there on opening night, it’s 🆒, you can still go find out which work in the show is your fav in Fitzroy until the 15th of March 😉❤️🖼️👍🏻

04/01/2026

Gargantuan gowns by Boss Ladies at the National Gallery of Victoria 💃

140 works by iconic designers Vivienne Westwood & Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons are on display at the NGV International until April 19th 2026.

Vivienne Westwood was a lifelong heroine of mine. She embodied style, class and being an artistic badass. As an 80’s kid, she shaped the style of our generation; from punk to pop to couture. It’s incredible to see that breadth of her work in this exhibition.

Despite my fandom, I found myself drawn more to the outrageous designs of Her wild, unconventional construction creates garments that look more like wearable contemporary art than clothes.

Both self taught designers are masters of playing with proportions. While Westwood flatters with corsets, bustles, bows and ruffles drawn from the Victorian era, Kawakubo distorts with lumps, asymmetry, and architectural forms that feel 🆕.

Look 5, from Kawakubo’s Break Free collection for spring-summer 2024 is my top look in the show. The brightly patterned kimono style dress is a masterpiece 🙌🏻 it’s hard to spot so be sure to look for it!

Westwood’s Watteau Grand dress and gloves from her 1995 spring-summer collection is my fav of her gowns. The girly combo of shot purples and pinks with huge bows trimmed in blue fringe is lavishly OTT.

I still draw inspo from Westwood’s rebellious spirit and live by her words of wisdom; “You’ve got to read, you’ve got to go to art galleries!” But now I will follow Kawakubo’s future collections for Comme des Garçons with keen interest 👁️‍🗨️

Fun fact: Last time I was in London I went to Worlds End (located where opened her S*X store in 1974) but to my dismay I arrived minutes too late and had to settle for window shopping while enjoying Italian across the road at Frantoio 🍝 🍷 😝

21/09/2025

Spiritual art peeks through The Veil at Buxton Contemporary until November 1st 2025 🌚🪬👁️‍🗨️

Enter an ancient, supernatural realm where everything is connected in a cyclical exchange of energy, memory and emotion.

Each artwork in this exhibition serves as a portal to the space in-between life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, the physical world and the otherworldly.

Resisting feminist and First Nations labels, this show speaks to the interconnectivity of the female experience through different cultural contexts and across time.

Senior Curator Hannah Presley & Assistant curator Isabella Hone-Saunders provoke memories of moments when we felt the spiritual puncture our everyday lives.

A mass of hessian bags greets you like ghosts in Lisa Waup's Holding Country. The bags glow eerily with uniform yet unique reflective monochromatic prints.

Leading lines zigzag subtly along the wall from Waup’s work to the first of three films by Hayley Millar Baker that haunt the galleries with primal noises and psychological dread. Her film noir horror mini-movies feature fearless female protagonists presenting supernatural Indigenous perspectives 🎥

Continuing this dark aesthetic is Aneta Grzeszykowska‘s unnerving photographic series. In a uniquely curated combination of 14 black & white stills, the artists daughter poses with a hyperreal silicone bust of her Mother.

Lena Yarinkura’s handwoven spiders in giant webs hang on blue night sky walls reminding us of the role arachnids play as mediators between the physical and spiritual realms🕷️🕸️🕯️

Glenda Nicholls weaves the sky’s reflection in water with cotton and feathers that float serenely above the staircase connecting the gallery floors 🌌🌊🪽

Upstairs Hannah Gartside's divinely guided textiles form sculptural works that glitter and spin with a sense of wild vintage magic.

The show is serious yet whimsical. Psychically grounded with an inclusive world view, the works speak to cultural endurance, the impacts of colonialism and the transformative power of the female voice ❤️‍🔥

11/08/2025

Take part in Five Acts of Love until the 24th August ❤️ This show isn’t about romantic love but rather the circle of life and its perpetual state of becoming from an Islamic perspective ☪️

Curator Dr Nur Shkembi draws inspiration from Muslim scholar and poet, Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī’s notion that “To love is to risk everything”.

ACCA’s great hall is sombre with artworks spotlit to glow like beacons in the night. Each one aches with a deeply personal meditation on one of the 5 acts; Resistance, Revolution, Intimacy, Memory and Annihilation.

Khaled Sabsabi’s 3 part work, “At the speed of light” opens with an arc of screens, 💯 photographic paintings and multilingual text print outs; all attempting to convey the divinity of the speed of light.

Ali Tahayori uses fractured glass to reconfigure family photos with haunting results. Alongside, realistic wooden stingrays circle under thousands of shimmering crystal rain drops in Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s “Pretty Beach” 🌊

Spinning hypnoticly behind, is Hossein Valamanesh’s pivotal work, “The lover circles his own heart”, which grounds the show in the traditions of contemporary Islamic art making in Australia.

Megan Cope piles reconstituted dugong bones in the centre of a dark, sandy vortex in her luminous work, “The tide waits for no-one”. Cope’s icy blue circle pairs perfectly with the red, raw natural pigments of D Harding’s “She come from the low-country, he come from the high country”.

Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s life-size sculpture of a Palestine mountain gazelle bares “Witness” to Yhonnie Scarce’s heartbreakingly personal work featuring archival images of her family.

Political female perspectives are explored in the gallery spaces.
Hoda Afshar’s huge photo series” is a tribute to feminist rebellion and collective grief felt by Iranian women after the murder of Jina Amini in 2022.

Saodat Ismailova’s Film collage “Her right” is dedicated to the memory of women who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Uzbek women to choose how they dress today.

The anti-white-cube-aesthetic reflects the seriousness of the deeply political artists in the show and moves ACCA towards an Islamic and decolonial Australian art history.

29/07/2025

It’s truth telling time at The University of Melbourne
65,000 Years. A Short History of Australian Art is now showing at the Potter Museum of Art

The ironic title sets the tone for what to expect in this outstanding, humongous First Nations exhibition.

The show is packed with powerful imagery and beautiful artworks sharing ancient wisdom and confronting experiences of racism and violence.

was historically responsible for crimes against the indigenous people of this country which they address in a room dedicated to scientific racism.

Here the horrors of our racist past are laid bare. Heart-wrenching works speak back to the violence perpetrated on Aboriginal people in the name of science by the university.

Profound installation works by & illustrate how historical trauma amplifies over time and through generations.

addresses archival footage of human remains being unceremoniously removed in a compelling video that cuts to the core of the university’s racist past.

This exhibition showcases many artworks that depict discrimination faced by the Aboriginal community in ways non indigenous Australians may not even be aware of.

I was horrified to learn there was a time that Aboriginal people were segregated at the cinema from Robert Campbell Jnr’s painting, Roped off at the pictures.

Other artists like , , , and illustrate the kind of difficult scenarios faced by Australia’s indigenous community but ‘s installation, Taking the children away is utterly devastating 💔

The exhibition reframes Australia’s perpetuated colonial narrative as the invasion and war it was. The aesthetics & narrative presented will resonate with you long after you’ve left the museum.

The ownership taken by The University of Melbourne for their involvement in racist practices and perpetuating the myth of peaceful settlement, makes me proud to be a student here now and part of the emerging Melbourne Art Curatorship Society.

65,000 is essential viewing for every Australian, housing many must-know First Nations artists works and truths about our shared history in this so-called lucky country 🇦🇺