Past exhibitions

29 August–11 October

In its fifteenth year, this annual award is organised by the Art Collection and Galleries Unit, Deakin University, celebrating contemporary sculpture with an exhibition of 40 shortlisted works at the Deakin University Art Gallery. This year’s prize pool comes to $21,000, with a $15,000 acquisitive prize for the winner, and a non-acquisitive prize of $3,000 for the highly commended recipient. At the end of the exhibition a People’s Choice Award is determined by votes from visitors with a non-acquisitive prize of $3,000.

^{Image: 2024 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award installation view, Deakin University Art Gallery, August 2024. © and courtesy of the artists, photography Fiona Hamilton.}

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Learn more about the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award

Supported by Community Bank at Deakin University.

3 July – 16 August 2024

Image: George Gittoes on location April 2022, Borodyanke, Ukraine. Painting in progress title House Where Children Lived, 2022.^© and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Kate Parunova.

Originally staged at Hazelhurst Arts Centre, the Deakin University Art Gallery is proud to present celebrated Australian artist George Gittoes’ newest exhibition Ukraine Guernica, including collaborations with Hellen Rose and Ukrainian artist Ave Libertatemaveamor.

Not long after Russian armed forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, artist George Gittoes and his partner, musician and performance artist, Hellen Rose, left Australia for Kyiv. During two separate trips to Ukraine, George and Hellen spent time with residents as the cities were being bombed, uncovering their experiences, and documenting the devasted urban and rural landscapes through film, performance and painting. They developed friendships with artists, poets and other creatives in Kyiv, Irpin and Odessa which lead to the development of collaborative works, including the re-birth of the destroyed House of Art in Irpin and the large KISS OF DEATH mural. The most significant work produced during this time has been their new film, Ukraine Guernica - a powerhouse documentary which follows artists behind the frontline, waging a war on war in the face of the Russian Invasion.

The exhibition Ukraine Guernica will be realised as an immersive and arresting experience for visitors highlighting Gittoes unflinching belief in the power of art to counteract war.

Ukraine Guernica cements Gittoes legacy as one of Australia’s most arresting and urgent figures across art and film.

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Virtual tour artwork labels (PDF, 1MB)

17 April – 14 June 2024

Image: Jumaadi, Joli-Jolan 2022 (detail), paper cut-outs, dimensions variable, installation view as part of The National 4, Campbelltown Art Centre, Sydney 2023, © and courtesy of the artist and King Street Gallery on William, Sydney, photo by Silversalt Photography.

Jumaadi is an Indonesian/Australian artist who lives both in Sydney and Yogyakarta and works fluidly across painting, drawing, paper cuts, buffalo hide, performance, animation and installation. Jumaadi's Indigenous Javanese heritage informs his practice, as well as his personal experiences and the colonial and political histories of his homeland. Recent works and performances have addressed passages of water and those whose journeys depend on it. With a poetic sensibility and symbolism, Jumaadi weaves together personal iconographies of human and organic motifs exploring themes of place, conflict and belonging.

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When: 23 August–13 October 2023

The Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award is an annual competition showcasing outstanding sculptures from artists across Australia. An exhibition of finalists' work is held each year in August to October at the Deakin University Art Gallery.

_{Image: Installation image of the 2023 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, Deakin University Art Gallery, August 2023, photography Simon Peter Fox.}

2023 finalists

• Samara Adamson-Pinczewski
• Ourania Amvrazis
• Anindita Banerjee
• Gillian Bencke
• Annette Bukovinsky
• Melanie Cobham
• Amy Cohen
• Emma Coulter
• Augustine Dall'Ava
• Julian Di Martino
• Naomi Eller
• Carly Fischer
• Gail Hastings
• Patrick Heath
• David Jensz
• Linda Judge
• Tala Kaalim
• Sam Kariotis
• Alicia King
• Jo Lane
• Jenna Lee
• Shirley Macnamara
• Carolyn Menzies
• Dónal Molloy-Drum
• Kendal Murray
• Lori Pensini
• Kirsteen Pieterse
• Kenny Pittock
• Daniel Press
• Nina Sanadze
• Louise Skacej
• Vipoo Srivilasa
• Hiromi Tango
• Natalie Quan Yau Tso
• Carmel Wallace
• Bettina Willner-Browne
• Alana Wilson
• Ching-Yee Wong
• Petr Zly
• Simon Zoric

Supported by Community Bank at Deakin University.

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Learn more about the Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award

10 July–11 August 2023

Fayen d’Evie is an artist and writer, born in Malaysia, raised in Aotearoa New Zealand, and now living in the bushlands of Jaara country, Australia. This exhibition celebrates d’Evie’s far reaching and influential practice that explores access as a force of new creative potentialities. Using sound, touch, movement, performance and language d’Evie expands upon the limitations of the visual arts.

This exhibition surveys recent projects with a range of interdisciplinary collaborators including, among others, performance maker Alex Craig, dancers Benjamin Hancock and Anna Seymour, printmaker Trent Walter, and paintings by the San Francisco-based artist and advocate Jennifer Justice. Curated by James Lynch. >

_{Fayen d’Evie and Trent Walter, Janaleen sings, and hides 2017, tactile screenprint and 3-channel audio description. Printed by Trent Walter, Negative Press. © and courtesy of the artist}

Download the exhibition catalogue

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Virtual tour artwork labels, from left clockwise around gallery:

Jennifer Justice
Bourgeois and Brâncuși in Conversation  2023
acrylic on paper
courtesy of the artist

Jennifer Justice
Tornado 2023
acrylic on canvas
courtesy of the artist

Fayen d’Evie, Trent Walter and Bryan Phillips
Janaleen sings, and hides. 2017
unique state tactile screenprint with debossing and sound
printed by Trent Walter, Negative Press

Andy Slater
Hauntings (HM Castlemaine) 2019
site-specific sound recordings

Fayen d’Evie, Anna Seymour and Pippa Samaya
Shape of an Echo 2019
digital video with sound
13.5 mins

Hillary Goidell
To Catch a Thing in Flight 2020
digital video featuring audio description
13.04 min

Fayen d’Evie and Benjamin Hancock
Essays in vibrational poetics {~} ...  ,  ...  ;  ... (2nd edition)  2021
digital video with sound
18.13 mins

Fayen d’Evie
Essays in vibrational poetics {.} Acknowledging Margaret Woodward, Núria López, Mrs Eaves, and women who painted the caves in tactile poetics 2019
granite, quartz, marble, bronze, ochre, charcoal
courtesy of the artist

Aaron McPeake and Fayen d’Evie
Resonant Cuts 2011
bronze bell slices  
courtesy of the artists

Fayen d’Evie and Benjamin Hancock
H(e)R {~~~} ... , ... ; x 2021
digital video without sound
6.23 mins

Fayen d’Evie and Benjamin Hancock
H(e)R {~~~} … , … ; x ; o 2022
Fayen d’Evie and Benjamin Hancock
digital video featuring audiodescription  
10.43 mins

Fayen d’Evie and Benjamin Hancock
{~~~} ... , ... ; x // typographic notes 2021
digital video without sound
12.17 mins

Fayen d'Evie, Anna Seymour, Vincent Chan and Trent Walter  
Essays in gestural poetics {;;}  // We get in touch with things at the point they break down. // Endnote: The ethical handling of empty space. // Care is a cognate to grief. 2021
three framed screenprints and six tactile UV prints

Fayen d’Evie and Trent Walter
Ascending/Descending Sonic Shadows 2019
photopolymer relief prints, embossing with Braille and laser-cut, soft cover artist book
printed and published by Negative Press Melbourne with assistance by Chelsea Collins and Lizzie Boon
sewn by George Matoulas, Braille by Nigel Herring at Pentronics, text layout by Hayden Daniel

Fayen d’Evie and Benjamin Hancock
{~~~~} Further Toward, Further Toward A Deconstruction of Phallic Univocality: Deferrals 2022
digital video without sound
26.41 mins

Fayen d'EVIE
Ex- [excerpt restaged]  2011/2023
engraved steel, acrylic paint, dye sublimated painting

10 July–9 August 2023

Paul Laspagis is an accomplished artist who lives and works near Deakin University’s Burwood Campus. Born in Limnos, Greece in 1949 and migrating to Melbourne in 1957, Laspagis studied at the National Gallery Art School with John Brack and Alun Leach-Jones. Laspagis then spent over 10 years working in art education. He is a dedicated artist using oil on canvas, drawings and in print media who has exhibited extensively in Melbourne and overseas.

The works on display show two different aspects to this artist’s work: the first being the human figure and second being the landscape. Although the pictures appear abstracted, there are clear visual references to people and place. Laspagis travels to the landscape of the Yarra Valley and works directly on drawings whilst in the bush. He then returns to the studio and translates those drawings into works that celebrate the underlying origin of the structure and form.

_{Paul Laspagis, Yarra Valley 2017, Oil on canvas, 183 x 130 cm. Collection of the artist, Photography Rodney Denholm  © copyright and courtesy of the artist}

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18 April–9 June 2023

When we inhale and exhale, our bodies transform through the process of inflation and deflation. Drawing on the inflatable form as both material and metaphor, Conflated brings disparate artists together to explore bodies, environments and cultures through contemporary art. Here, the cycle of breathing serves as a framework through which a wide array of experiences, behaviours and expressions are examined.

Conflated is a NETS Victoria touring exhibition, curated by Zoë Bastin and Claire Watson. Participating artists include Zoë Bastin, Andy Butler, David Cross, Bronwyn Hack, Amrita Hepi with Prue Stent and Honey Long, Christopher Langton, Eugenia Lim, James Nguyen and Steven Rhall. This project was assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

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13 February – 5 April 2023

This exhibition features artworks by current lecturers and teaching staff from Deakin University’s School of Communication and Creative Arts, that were created while they attended art school. Art School Confidential celebrates creative discoveries in all their varied forms and the importance of a creative education experience. It explores the histories of artistic endeavours at the university and the transit of artistic practices over time.

Contributions by Bradley Axiak, Anindita Banerjee, Wendy Beatty, Cameron Bishop, David Cross, Joel Gailer, Tara Gilbee, Simon Grennan, Aaron Hoffman, Victoria Holessis, Penelope Hunt, Todd Johnson, Ilona Jetmar, Katie Lee, Sean Loughrey, Amber Smith, Sorcha Wilcox, Annie Wilson, Bruce Zhou and others. Curated by James Lynch.

^{Marta Oktaba, In the studio 2023, ink on paper. © and courtesy of the artist.}

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This is the 12th year of the award, and we were pleased to receive 306 entries, from which 41 works were selected. Congratulations to our finalists and Scotty So for his winning entry, Surburbkin in Red, 01. 

^{Scotty So, Surburbkin in Red, 01, nylon, metal. Winner of 2022 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award. © and courtesy of the artist.}

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The external judges were Lyndel Wischer and Robert Hague, with Leanne Willis representing Deakin.

26 August to 30 September 2022

Artwork from the Atiq and Nira Rahman Collection.

^{I Rafiqun Nabi, At Noon in the Field, 2014, Acrylic on Canvas, 89 cm x 89 cm, From the Atiq and Nira Rahman Collection © and courtesy of the artist}

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19 July–26 August 2022

The Deakin University Art Gallery is pleased to present Holding in the hand, an exhibition featuring newly commissioned and rarely seen artworks by artists Scott Duncan, Marta Oktaba, Rachel Schenberg, Michael Staniak and Evan Whittington. In an era in which direct touch and proximity to others are avoided; holding onto something precious, being held and sensations of tactility have extra meaning. Holding in the hand explores the ways a new generation of emerging artists consider the hand and the haptic as symbolic sites of interface and communication. It investigates the integration of artistic processes, media and materials creating new forms, meta-languages and hyper-surfaces, to better understand our digital and mediated worlds.

^{Marta OKTABA, Stuck on the internet 2020, ink on found paper. © and courtesy of the artist}

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24 May – 8 July 2022

The Garbage and the Flowers is a collection of painted plastic artworks spanning over fifteen years by artist Sarah Goffman. Disposable PET bottles and single use plastic packaging have been carefully upcycled by Goffman through her creativity and artistic skill since the early two-thousands. Using the histories of ceramic design and decoration to mimic, copy and transform, Goffman recreates objects of desire from the refuse of consumer culture, creating complex artistic artefacts for our time. Curated by James Lynch, Deakin University.

^{Sarah Goffman, Plastic Arts 2009. PET plastics, acrylic and enamel paint. © and courtesy of the artist. Photo by Mike Myers}

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5 April–15 May 2022

The Deakin University Art Gallery is pleased to present 'There we were all in one place' – an early career survey exhibition of cross-cultural artist Hayley Millar Baker (Gunditjmara). From 2016 to 2019, Hayley Millar Baker produced five photographic series. Made almost exclusively in black and white, the photographs use historical reappropriation and citation, in tandem with digital editing and archival research, to consider human experiences of time, memory and place. Millar Baker’s layered photographic assemblages affirm Aboriginal experience and culture within the Australian imaginary to form a complex image narrative of place, family, identity and survival. Curated by Stella Rosa McDonald, this project is a UTS Gallery and Art Collection Touring exhibition. The exhibition is accompanied by a unique Learning Experience designed by Wiradjuri curator and educator Emily McDaniel in consultation with the artist.

^{I'm the Captain Now 2016, inkjet on cotton rag, 7 parts, 20 × 20cm (each). Courtesy the artist and Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne}

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Featuring a selection of precious artworks from the City of Whitehorse Art Collection, this exhibition looks at how the local environment and landscapes have changed through time. It includes stunning examples of the work of well-known artists such as Louis Buvelot, E. Phillips Fox, Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts alongside contemporary artists William Breen, David Frazer, Mary Tonkin and Rosalind Atkins. Curated by Jacquie Nichols-Reeves, City of Whitehorse.

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^{Louis Buvelot, Switzerland/Australia 1814-1888, The Big Tree, Gardiners Creek c.1869, oil on linen. Purchase 2004, Image courtesy City of Whitehorse}

14 April–11 June 2021

Held in collaboration with Deakin University Art Gallery, Grounded in Flux is a reflexive exhibition of the NIKERI Institute that celebrates the research strengths and community engagement of this important Deakin Institution. NIKERI (National Indigenous Knowledges, Education, Research and Innovation Institute) grew from the 33 year legacy of IKE (Institute of Koorie Education) and continues to be a leader in the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People through Deakin’s unique community-based learning model. Grounded in Flux includes a celebration of ‘Sovereign Threads’ drawn from the unique collection of Gary Foley, video installations celebrating the Institute, and a sandpit installation by Dr Tyson Yunkaporta.

Curated by Kiri Wicks, Rebecca Gerrett-Magee and Leanne Willis.

^{Ms Kiri Wicks and Dr Jenny Murray Jones, Connected to Country, a discussion with community, © image supplied by the artists.}

30 October–5 December 2019

This exhibition showcases a number of important acquisitions to the Deakin University Art Collection. The University’s Art Collection is constantly changing and evolving but is always reflective of the diverse cultural life at Deakin; brave, accessible, inspiring, stylish, and savvy. This exhibition features treasured examples of leading and emerging Australian painting, sculpture, photo-media, and artist books that have been donated or purchased for the Collection in recent years.

Curated by Leanne Willis and James Lynch, Deakin University.

_{Peta Clancy Fissures in Time # 2017, archival pigment print. Image © and courtesy of the artist. Deakin University Art Collection}

24 July–1 September, 2019

_{Todd Johnson 3 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours (detail) 2018, digital inkjet print. Image © and courtesy of the artist}

Deakin University Art Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of current Deakin Higher Degree by Research candidates from the fields of Art and Performance. The exhibition showcased the interdisciplinary and experimental approaches to art making and how practice-based research is informed through the everyday. The exhibition included a special performance at Burwood Open Day on Sunday 25 August. Artists include Todd Johnson, Victoria Holessis, Jan Nelson, Kirsten Lyttle, Rachel Hanlon, Maddie Leach and Lynda Roberts. Curated by James Lynch, Dr David Cross and Dr Jondi Keane.

When: 29 May–12 July 2019
Tuesday to Friday 10am–4pm, Open only during exhibitions
Where: Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne Burwood Campus 
Building FA, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, VIC 3125

In its tenth anniversary year this annual acquisitive award and exhibition is organised by the Art Collection and Galleries Unit displaying the work of the 2019 finalists.

Congratulations to the winner of the 2019 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award:

Kate Ellis for ‘Untitled. Poodle Paw 2019’

JUDGING PANEL STATEMENT

In selecting ‘Untitled. Poodle Paw 2019’ by Kate Ellis as the winner the judges felt that the work was beautifully resolved and crafted. The work is a seductive object with a sense of mystery or strangeness, where experimental materials have been refined to articulate the artist’s ideas in a commanding way. The inscribing of the lines on the delicate surface give it a sense of being a ritualistic or sacred object that could have been from hundreds of years ago or could be from the future. It has an inherent sense of melancholy and ambiguity which creates a feeling of magic, inferring a deep understanding of art history combined with an appreciation and exploration of contemporary art. The viewer is challenged to consider the value we place on animals, perhaps one day this may be all we have left to reflect on as we are encouraged to look beyond the surface to the structures that are hidden underneath and consider their meaning.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORK

Materials
Beeswax, damar resin, silk thread, acrylic fur, poodle fur

Technique
Initially modelled in a high grade plasticine by hand, the piece is then cast in beeswax to achieve a translucent, 'perfect' wax. Silk thread spirals are then pressed by hand into the surface of the wax. The fur tufts are hand sewn.

Artist statement
The fur of the coiffed poodle has a softness, an immaterial quality, ambiguous boundaries; yet the weightlessness is also suffocating and there is a sense of a heavier gravitational field. Under their coats poodles are dogs, descendants of the wolf. They are wild creatures, manicured for an interior dependent existence.

When: 27 May–12 July
Where: Deakin University Downtown Gallery
Deakin Downtown, Level 12, Tower 2 Collins Square, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne, VIC 3008

WANG Ying, member of China Artists’ Association, Director of Education Calligraphy and Painting Association, China.

Since an early age, WANG Ying has had a passion for painting and calligraphy. He studied Western painting in Beijing Children’s Palace as a teenager and took extra studies in the Fine Arts Department while studying at Capital Normal University; successively studying with famous calligraphers and painters such as Xuetao Wang, Xuguang Zhang and Zhibin Liang.

An accomplished artist, WANG Ying has exhibited his work around the world, including at the UN in New York in 2012 (attended by then United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his wife); joint exhibitions with Nobel Prize Laureate Sir Konstantin Novoselov in 2015 at Leeds University and in 2018 at Manchester University and most recently a solo exhibition at Huddersfield University, UK, from which Prince Andrew, Duke of York collected a work. WANG Ying is currently the Education Counsellor of the Education Office of the Chinese Consulate General in Melbourne.

This exhibition features watercolour and ink scenes of cities and landscapes he has visited from England to his current home in Melbourne. Familiar scenes are captured in lyrical beauty with fascinating contrasts between the sharp Australian light and the flowing hills of England. All elegantly captured in a blend of traditional Chinese and contemporary Western oeuvre.

^{_{Image: WANG Ying, Impression of Geelong Harbour, 2019, watercolour and ink on paper, 41 x 30 cm © the artist Image courtesy the artist, photography Simon Peter Fox}}

8 April–17 May 2019

Baranbinja artist Ralph Rogers explores his cultural and ancestral connections to Brewarrina and the history of aqua culture associated with the area. Stories about the creator Byamee, which are central to the kinship of the Baranbinja and Ngemba people of North West New South Wales, are deeply and vibrantly expressed. The Torch supports current and former Indigenous offenders in Victoria through its Indigenous Arts in Prisons and Community program. The program provides art, cultural and arts vocational support to Indigenous men and women who are greatly over represented in the criminal justice system. Opportunities to create new pathways through art and culture and reduce recidivism are central to the program.

Curated by Kent Morris, The Torch

^{Ralph Rogers Tribute to My Grandmother, Evelyn Crawford (detail) 2018 acrylic on canvas 191 x 137 cm © the artist and courtesy of the Torch}

10 April – 17 May 2019

Whether it be one of the massive stone structures for the largest contemporary land art undertaking in the world, or a large-scale public sculpture in metal, every work has its genesis in an idea which is brought to life in a maquette. This exhibition explores the journey of an artwork from Maquette to Major Sculpture though an exhibition of the work of Andrew Rogers, titled Evolution. This exhibition of maquettes and sculptures will be framed by installation images of his large-scale public works. Andrew Rogers is a leading contemporary Australian artist whose work is exhibited in major galleries across Australia and internationally. His work can be found in prominent public and private collections around the world. Curated by Leanne Willis, Deakin University.

^{Andrew Rogers I Am (detail) 2014, stainless steel, 65 x 30 x 24 cm © the artist and image courtesy the artist.}

13 February - 29 March 2019

This ambitious exhibition brings together contemporary Australian artists working with mirrors, mirrored surfaces and reflections, transforming three separate galleries across the Deakin University campuses into a series of dizzying spatial encounters.

The project engages increasing audience desire to see images of themselves reflected in exhibitions and also considers how contemporary culture often represents itself as a duplicate or double. Key historical examples will frame the exhibition inviting the viewer to speculate on what they see and how our experiences of representation have changed over time.

Curated by James Lynch, Deakin University.

^{Meng-Yu Yan, New moon cleanse I 2018, framed digital print on Ilford gold mono, 35 x 45 cm (framed). © the artist and courtesy of Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney}

12 September – 19 October, 2018

Deakin is immensely proud to celebrate 40 years since our first students walked into the graduation tent at the Waurn Ponds Campus in Geelong. From humble beginnings to a global university with over 56,000 students and over 230,000 alumni, our University and alumni have developed and prospered together. This exhibition explores the early years of Deakin and the vibrant Waurn Ponds Campus life. It recognises our alumni as the beating heart of the University’s story, to be treasured and acknowledged as integral to the success of Deakin and its positive impact on the world.

_{Deakin University Waurn Ponds Campus circa 1978, image courtesy of Deakin Archives}

5 September–19 October, 2018

In its tenth year, this annual acquisitive award and exhibition is organised by the Art Collection and Galleries Unit at Deakin University. This exhibition of finalists’ works provides a fascinating snap shot of contemporary sculpture.

We are pleased to congratulate Hannah Toohey on winning the 2018 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award for her work titled, Archaea No 4.  Ms Toohey won the $10,000 prize and her sculpture will become part of the Deakin University Art Collection.  The finalists and winners were selected by the judging panel including Lisa Byrne, Director of McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Robyne Latham, practising artist and former Deakin academic and Leanne Willis, Senior Manager of Art Collection and Galleries representing Deakin University.

In selecting Archaea No 4 as the winner the judges felt the work was well executed with a clarity of construction resulting in a fascinating tension between the formal nature of the spheres and the elongated stick like legs.  They also felt it was well resolved as a small sculpture in its own right and enjoyed its poise which contrasted with the whimsical nature of the work and its implied sense of movement.

The accompanying Contemporary Small Sculpture Exhibition featured the 40 shortlisted works.

25 July - 7 September 2018

Paint, Painting, Painted is an exhibition featuring emerging Melbourne artists Matthew Dettmer, Sarah Gosling and Laura Skerlj. Working with divergent approaches to painting and painting processes, these artists have been born into an internet era defined by a proliferation of images, big data and social media. Amidst this state of constant distractions, the artists consider how subjectivity manages to impose itself, even when we are not looking. Curated by James Lynch, Deakin University.

^{Matthew Dettmer, Hippy Pocket (detail) 2018. Image courtesy of the artist.}

25 July - 26 August, 2018

In 1818 Mak Sai Ying arrived in Sydney as the first known migrant of Chinese descent – the start of a 200-year journey of the Chinese community in Australia. At this 200 year milestone, the Australian population now comprises over 1.2 million Chinese Australians – a community that has influenced the evolution of contemporary Australian Society and, in the future, will play a pivotal role in the shaping of Australia as a nation, particularly in its engagement with the Asia Pacific region. Deakin University is celebrating this bicentenary by staging an exhibition called Wearing Your Heart On Your Sleeve, a journey about a personal and collective identity reflected through the garments Chinese Australians have worn over the past 200 years in Australia.

^{Wedding portrait of Sam Chung Gon and Queenie Young in Sydney c1920s. Donated by Frank Chinn, Chinese Museum Collection}

28 May–20 July 2018

The Torch supports current and former Indigenous Australian offenders in Victoria through its arts in prison and community program. The program provides art, cultural strengthening and arts vocational support to Indigenous Australian inmates and parolees, who are greatly over-represented in the criminal justice system. Opportunities to create new pathways through art and culture, and reduce recidivism are central to the program. This exhibition builds from successful exhibitions at Deakin in 2017 and is curated by artist and The Torch CEO Kent Morris (Barkindji).

^{Robby Wirramanda, Wergaia Wotjobaluk, New Beginnings #2 2017, acrylic on canvas 61 x 92 cm.}

29 June–18 July, 2018

Brody Xarhakos started painting as a teenager. With his love of street art, which grew into a stirring passion, he created and explored the realms of painting in the outside world. He studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2014 predominately in the medium of painting, and now, more recently, with the moving image, projection and digital soundscapes. This exhibition consists of paintings that were created to be used as activators and discussion points in a peer mentoring workshop with Deakin's Helping Students program coordinators.

Xarhakos questions whether mentoring communities could be the ugly machinery of the new capitalism or whether they are an expression of genuine interplay, reciprocity, exchange and learning? This collection of works explores metaphors created collaboratively and re-imagines them with a gentle energy and openness, gesturing towards further dialogues.

^{Brody Xarhakos, Diamond, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 122x92cm. Collection of the artist, image courtesy of the artist.}

30 May–13 July 2018

Immersed is a collection of portraits of First Nations women that celebrates resistance against patriarchal colonialism. Each woman presents herself as she wants you to see her. The portraits offer a glimpse of individual resistance, power and beauty.

'First Nations women are over-represented in systems of control. Our lives are treated as an inconvenience to white society. Our existence unsettles white Australia because it is a reminder that First Nations people are still here, that sovereignty was never ceded. Even though we are surrounded by ugliness, we immerse ourselves in the fight for equality and justice. Unashamed and unapologetic, this collection invites you to see First Nations women as we see ourselves.' - Artist statement, from email conversation, January 2018.

^{Boneta-Marie Mabo, Nayuka Gorrie, 2018 (detail). Image courtesy of the artist.}

9 April – 27 June 2018

Deakin University joined with other Melbourne galleries to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the National Gallery of Victoria's inaugural exhibition The Field. The exhibition included works by George Johnson, Normana Wight, Stephen Bram, John Peart, Graeme Johnson, Robert Rooney, Janet Dawson, Sydney Ball, Wilma Tabacco and Stephen Wickham, along with other non-objective and abstract art from the Collection of Deakin University.

The Centre for Abstract+Non-Objective Art is a new area of specialty for the University Collection.

^{Logo design: Stephen McLaughlan}

9 April – 25 May 2018

Artist Gosia Wlodarczak's latest project is a series of 31 performances that took place each day throughout December 2017. While dressed up in designer garments selected from her extensive wardrobe collection, Wlodarczak completed various domestic chores around her home, which were in turn documented by photographer Longin Sarnecki and uploaded onto social media for interaction.

The entire set of 31 photographs will be exhibited as a series of high-resolution archival prints at Deakin University’s Downtown Gallery. Wlodarczak’s project sets out to establish a dialogue between the two phrases: the artist is always working and women's work is never done.

^{Gosia Wlodarczak, Artist Not @(at) Work, digital photograph archival print on paper. Photo by Longin Sarnecki, courtesy of the artist.}

11 April – 18 May 2018

Printmaking stimulates visualisation and exchange in the activities of Wollongong based artist Lucas Ihlein. Across his work involving socially engaged art, agriculture and environmental management, he expresses an affinity with print media.

This exhibition surveys his printmaking activities focussing on artist-led contexts including Squatspace, Big Fag Press and Teaching & Learning Cinema. The exhibition presents editioned and intervention/performance related artworks highlighting Ihlein’s promotional flair, appreciation for the economies of print and commitment to grassroots change. This exhibition is supported by the School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University.

^{Donna Squire, Alecia Bellgrove 2018, Digital photograph. Image courtesy of the artist.}

12 February – 29 March 2018

YOLO is a social media acronym meaning You Only Live Once. Pamela Irving’s ‘YOLO Man’ character started life in her murals at St Kilda’s Luna Park and were most recently shown at the Gallery of Contemporary Mosaics in Chicago, USA.

In this series of original ink drawings and mosaics to be exhibited for the first time in Australia, YOLO Man is depicted carrying a variety of apocalyptic figures on his head, hands and sometimes even his tongue. Often struggling due to the gravitas of those that burden him, YOLO man however manages the task with great optimism.

Irving appropriates imagery from both well-known and obscure mosaics, drawings and paintings about the apocalypse. YOLO Man is a much loved character of the artist and a great edict to live by.

^{Pamela Irving Yolo Man & Bruegel's Barrel Bug (detail) 2015, Ink on paper. Image courtesy of the artist}

13 February – 29 March 2018
Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne Burwood Campus
Building FA, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood VIC 3125

The English tradition of a drawing room was a dedicated space in the house designed to entertain visitors. Historically, a ‘withdrawing’ room was a room to which the owner of the house, family members or distinguished guests could withdraw for privacy to encourage social interaction, play, comedy, story-telling and drama.

The Drawing Room is an exhibition in the form of a series of short residencies by Australian artists: Anastasia Klose, Euan Heng, Kenny Pittock and Zilverster - Sharon Goodwin and Irena Hanenbergh. The exhibition focuses on the qualities of drawing as a medium of thinking and talking: exploring the intimate, informal, immediate and conversational nature of putting pencil to paper and sharing this with others.

View catalogue here

^{Kenny Pittock, Me drawing Phil Jupitas drawing McCubbin 2017. Digital photograph of felt tipped pen on paper. Image courtesy of the artist}

1 November – 15 December 2017
Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne Burwood Campus
Building FA, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood VIC 3125

'In art there is a need for truth, not sincerity.' - Malevich

Instigated by artist Stephen L Wickham, The Void Visible. Abstraction & Non-Objective Art is an exhibition with fellow artists and close colleagues Stephen McCarthy, Andrew Christofides and Wilma Tabacco. Featuring important works from this genre the artists will investigate the various legacies and continuities within the practice of Abstraction & Non-Objective Art in the context of contemporary Australian Art.

_{Wilma Tabacco, Night Flight 2008-09, Oil on linen, 152x183cm. Image courtesy of the artist, photography by Simon Peter Fox}

14 September – 20 October 2017

Drawing moves between materials like steel, the body and voice in the work of artist Hannah Quinlivan. Working in collaboration with artists, classically-trained vocalists and dancers, Travelling Light explores the notion of adaptation in a time of constant motion. The question of movement seems to haunt our times. Some move freely while others are forced to stand still – creating new types of tension. This exhibition based on a series of dance, movement, sound and sculptural urban interventions developed in Berlin, culminates at the Deakin University Art Gallery at Burwood Campus.

Images and footage from the official opening night on Wednesday 13 September, including a special performance of Transition with vocalists Louise Keast and Shikara Ringdahl, can be found on our Facebook page.

Visit our YouTube page to watch the Deakin Alumni Webinar from 6 September, Travelling Light with Exhibition Artist Hannah Quinlivan.

26 July – 8 September 2017

This exhibition at the Deakin University Art Gallery brings together thirteen artists and current Higher Degree by Research candidates in the fields of art and performance in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin. Co-curated by Professor David Cross, Dr Patrick Pound and James Lynch,this large scale exhibition expands across four locations at Deakin University including the Art Gallery and the main library gallery space at Melbourne's Burwood Campus, the Pop Up gallery at Deakin Downtown and The Project Space at the Geelong Waterfront Campus.

7 June – 14 July 2017

In its ninth year, this annual acquisitive award and exhibition is organised by the Art Collection and Galleries Unit at Deakin University.

Tthe winner, Melbourne-based artist Richard Stringer, was announced at the launch of the five-week exhibition of finalists' works on Tuesday 6 June.

Deakin Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jane den Hollander, presented Mr Stringer with the $10,000 acquisitive prize for his work titled, House on Fire. The piece is now part of the Deakin University Art Collection.

Download the media release about the Contemporary Small Sculpture Award winner (PDF, 120.2 KB)

_{Installation view of 2017 Small Sculpture Award Exhibition.}

29 May – 14 July 2017
Deakin University Downtown Gallery

The Torch supports current and former Indigenous offenders in Victoria through its indigenous Arts in Prisons and Community program.

The program provides art, cultural strengthening and arts vocational support to Indigenous inmates and parolees who are greatly over represented in the criminal justice system.

Opportunities to create new pathways through art and culture and reduce recidivism are central to the program.

_{Namib Mata Mata, Yorta Yorta/Muthi Muthi, Magpie Goose Hunting, Acrylic on canvas 2016, 131x100 cm}

30 March – 12 May 2017 and 7 June – 14 July 2017

In the 1950s, the wool trade epitomised the Australian way of life. Australia's export economy rode high 'on the sheep's back'. In this captivating exhibition, photojournalist Francis Reiss documents the life and times of a rural enterprise at Burren Burren, near Collarenebri, New South Wales. Enduring images of Rex White and his family, taken in 1951, offer a glimpse of the 30,000 acres and 5000 sheep that symbolise a successful farm at the height of the wool boom in Australia.

_{Francis Reiss, Rex White The iconic farmer 1951, reprinted 2013.}

26 April – 26 May 2017

Jessie Bullivant, Lauren Burrow, Eugene Carchesio, Laresa Kosloff, Rob Mchaffie, Ian Milliss, Elyse De Valle and Simon Zoric.

Increasingly we are asked to be improving ourselves seemingly 24/7. The pressure to be transforming into something better is constant but for what purpose and what reward? Unproductive Thinking mediates on these ideologies. How do artists engage their time and how does the production of art differ from the incessant push to be always efficient, diligent and productive members of society. Unproductive Thinking features the humorous, poetic and mundane means artists employ to seek out imaginative alternatives.

The exhibition features work by Australia's leading emerging and established artists displayed throughout Deakin University's Burwood campus.

8 June – 15 July 2016

In its eighth year, this annual acquisitive award and exhibition is organised by the Art Collection and Galleries Unit at Deakin University. One outstanding entry is awarded $10,000 and becomes part of the Deakin University Art Collection.

Melbourne artist Geoffrey Bartlett was selected from an exceptional field of 305 entries from around the world to receive the 2016 award for his striking work titled Fusion Revisited. 

Previous winners include artists: Kendal Murray 2015, Mikala Dwyer 2014, Michael Sibel 2013, Lisa Roet 2012, Stephen Bird 2011, Robert Hague 2010 and Stephen Benwell 2009.

_{Deakin University Small Sculpture Award (installation view) 2016}

13 April – 27 May 2016

Still in progress... is an exhibition of work by current Deakin University PhD Students enrolled in the School of Communication and Creative Arts. It includes works by artists Sandra Minchin-Delohery, Todd Johnson, Kirsten Lyttle, Danielle McCarthy, Greg Penn, Ron Gallagher, Rachel Hanlon, Louise Morris, Ilona Jetmar, Alison Bennett, Keith MacDonald and Daniela Bertol.

_{Gregg Penn, Free of Internal Dialogue, 2016, Video still. Image courtesy of the artist.}

28 April – 29 May 2015

Found in Translation: Deakin University Art Gallery is part of Gosia Wlodarczak's ongoing Instruction Drawing project. Taking a drawing produced during a residency at the Western Washington University Art Gallery in 2012 as her starting point, Wlodarczak has developed two pictorial alphabets, each letter of the English alphabet represented by a small detail of this drawing.

Using these pictorial alphabets, Wlodarczak created a series of three site-specific wall drawings, each containing encoded texts. The first was completed by the artist; the second, by Deakin University Art Gallery staff using a manual provided by the artist, 'Instruction for the Maker'; and the third was a collaboration with visitors to the exhibition.

Texts selected by the artist and University staff, which relate to project and to the specific context of the University setting, are encoded within two of the drawings, which may be decoded using a set of instructions provided by the artist 'Instruction for the viewer'. Visitors to the exhibition were invited to contribute a word to the project, which the artist translated into a third wall drawing during a four-day residency from 28 April to 1 May, culminating in a collaborative concrete poem.

Gosia Wlodarczak extends the practice of drawing in performative, interactive and conceptual projects that respond to her direct environment and explore the idea of drawing and language being coded modes of communication.

_{Gosia Wlodarczak, Dust cover Eero Saarinen womb sofa, 2012, Performance with pigment marker, acrylic, stains and marks on canvas. Deakin University Art Collection.
Photo: Longin Sarneci}