Near at Hand: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2026

Nimble, economical and immediate, drawing lays bare the bones of what we see, think and feel.

Featuring APA artist Julian Martin, Near at Hand: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2026 brings together 11 artists from across Australia who channel drawing’s unique capacity for intimate expression. who channel drawing’s unique capacity for intimate expression.

For some artists, drawing encourages close observation of the people and places that make up their worlds. Others draw to give shape to the elusive forms of their imagination. All the artists in this exhibition turn to what is within reach – a glimpse of the everyday, a feeling caught on the wing – and bring it into graphic clarity through the practice of drawing.

Near at Hand highlights the directness with which these personal visions are transcribed onto the drawing surface, registering the nuances of an artist’s touch with extraordinary precision.

The exhibiting artists are Stephen Benwell (Vic), Tom Blake (WA), Andrew Browne (Vic), Emily Ferretti (Vic), Rosemary Lee (NSW), Mary MacDougall (Vic), Julian Martin (Vic), Jennifer Mills with Darcy Luker (Vic), Ryan Nazzari (WA), Louise Weaver (Vic), and Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu (NT).

Supported by the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, this is the sixth Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

All areas of the Art Gallery are physically accessible. Find full details on accessibility for the Art Gallery of New South Wales on their website.

Inside the Inside of a Wave

Every Wednesday at the Arts Project Australia (APA) studio, APA artist Spenser Coombe hosts a Lunch Time Meeting, posing questions to his peers; What things do people still collect? What are your favourite pets you have had? At the end of the working week, which foods may us people go for, as a treat?  

From these meetings, Inside the Inside of a Wave  was born. Bringing together emerging artists from APA, the exhibition invites audiences to move beneath the surface of the artwork and into the lore that shapes it.  

Looking over and under, around and within, the exhibition traces the paths between idea and image, conversation and creative conception. Along the way, it reveals the infinite perspectives, processes and stories that come together to make a work of art. 

Featuring: Aidan Sefo, Alessandra DiMattina, Andrew Nicolaides, Darcy Scott, David Mendelsohn, Jimmy Tran, Chelle Destefano, Molica Silk, Salome Felsinger, and Spenser Coombe. 

Collectively curated by APA artist Spenser Coombe and APA gallery staff. 

The Arts Project Australia gallery has accessible toilets in the Perry Street Building. They are in the northern end of the building. On the upper ground level, they are located off the northern side of the service corridor. On L1 and L2 they are located behind blue manual double doors.

Entry 30A Perry Street is wheelchair accessible and offers direct access to the Courtyard, Perry Street Building upper ground and Johnston Street Building upper ground.

Lift access is available to visit other buildings and levels.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact us on (03) 9482 4484 or at gallery@artsproject.org.au

Average Coles Experience

The Northcote Penguins are a group of artists from Arts Project Australia who engage with the contemporary art world through weekly exhibition visits, critical discussions, and direct dialogue with artists and curators.

This exhibition presents neon artworks that critique neon’s history as a marketing tool. Lit and viewable 24/7, the Penguins use the accessibility of a shop front gallery to broadcast their visual language to a public audience. To realise their artworks, the Penguins have studied the historical context of neon, navigated its production constraints, and experimented with translating their ideas into a new medium.

This exhibition features works by Aidan Sefo, Henry Deakin, Jordan Dymke, Mark Smith, Michael Camakaris, and Monica Lazzari.

Curated by The Northcote Penguins and Grace Wood.

Wheelchair accessible. This exhibition is located within the shop front window of the gallery and viewable from the street. The nearest wheelchair accessible toilets are located at Lulie Tavern, three doors down towards Hoddle Street.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact All the Very Best.

Animal Gift

Animal Gift is a group exhibition about how we look at animals. All the labour relations, and interspecies affections and languages between animals and humans. How has our love for them been knotted around our use of their bodies? Animals are sometimes divine, sometimes collaborators, sometimes loves, sometimes tools, and sometimes raw materials.  

What do we see when we look at them? And what does that say about how we see ourselves? 

Featuring Aidan Sefo, Alanna Dodd, Amani Tia, Anna Dehm, Anne Lynch, Anthony Romagnano, Brigid Hanrahan, Bronwyn Hack, Chris Mason, Diego Pizarro, Dionne Canzano, Eden Menta, Georgia Szmerling, Ian Gold, Jacob Cartelli, James Dawes, Jenny Ngo, Joanne Nethercote, Julian Martin, Lygin Ang, Matthew Gove, Michael Camakaris, Miles Howard-Wilks, Nhan Nguyễn, Paul Quick, Rebecca Scibilia, Rosie O’Brien, Ruth Howard, Salome Felsinger, Simon Paredes. Steven Ajzenberg, Terry Williams, Valerio Ciccone, William Murray, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Claire B Bushby, Danielle Freakley, Sophie Dumaresq and Tahlia Palmer.

Curated by Gok-Lim Finch

The Arts Project Australia gallery has accessible toilets in the Perry Street Building. They are in the northern end of the building. On the upper ground level, they are located off the northern side of the service corridor. On L1 and L2 they are located behind blue manual double doors.

Entry 30A Perry Street is wheelchair accessible and offers direct access to the Courtyard, Perry Street Building upper ground and Johnston Street Building upper ground.

Lift access is available to visit other buildings and levels.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact us on (03) 9482 4484 or at gallery@artsproject.org.au

A Current Affair  

Arts Project Australia artists are astute observers of current news and events. One need only attune their ears walking through the APA studio to overhear quiet, perceptive commentary and loudly vocal witticisms on the state of the world. A Current Affair presents APA artists takes on local and global headlines.  

Bringing neurodivergent perspectives to the fore, the work in this exhibition highlights the thoughts, observations, humour and curiosity of APA artists. 

Grouped thematically, the exhibition is segmented into news bulletin sections including National, World, Politics, Technology, Environment and Entertainment alongside editorial illustrations by Terry Williams, Gavin Porter and Tycho Dahlstrom. Other featured artists include Adrian Lazzaro, Aidan Sefo, Alan Constable, Anthony Romagnano, Boris Cipusev, Cathy Staughton, Chris Mason, Chris O’Brien, Daniel Pace, Daniel Richardson, Eden Menta, Joey Balliro, Josef Power, Lisa Reid, Michael Camakaris, Peter Ben, Samraing Chea, Steven Ajzenberg, Steven Perrette, Timothy Noble and Valerio Ciccone. 

 Curated by Shell Odgers. 

The Arts Project Australia gallery has accessible toilets in the Perry Street Building. They are in the northern end of the building. On the upper ground level, they are located off the northern side of the service corridor. On L1 and L2 they are located behind blue manual double doors.

Entry 30A Perry Street is wheelchair accessible and offers direct access to the Courtyard, Perry Street Building upper ground and Johnston Street Building upper ground.

Lift access is available to visit other buildings and levels.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact us on (03) 9482 4484 or at gallery@artsproject.org.au

View the exhibition from home

Ross O’Meara: Coloured Grounds

Benalla Art Gallery and Arts Project Australia proudly present  Ross O’Meara: Coloured Grounds — a Spring cabinet exhibition.

Within his practice, Ross O’Meara explores line and colour, consistently producing captivating works as part of an ongoing series. The abstracted pieces are reminiscent of long grass or reeds, the layers consisting of both dense and translucent linework. The elegant, whimsical compositions possess a soft energy and speak to slow, meditative movement. O’Meara has worked at Arts Project Australia since 2019. His work is held in private collections.

Benalla Pop-Up Art Gallery has full wheelchair access. Please contact Benalla Art Gallery at gallery@benalla.vic.gov.au or 03 5760 2619 for further information.

Lygin Ang: Window Seat

Benalla Art Gallery and Arts Project Australia proudly present Window Seat — a Winter cabinet exhibition by APA artist Lygin Ang.

Lygin Ang creates detailed landscapes and delicate images of animals using printmaking, drawing and painting processes. Within his drawings and paintings, Lygin’s subjects often have defined black outlines filled with bright colours on soft textured backgrounds. His prints are often monochromatic, and he studies other artists’ practices, to support his development of printmaking. Lygin has an excellent understanding of drypoint and linocut processes, which he uses to explore the possibilities of line and texture.

Benalla Pop-Up Art Gallery has full wheelchair access. Please contact Benalla Art Gallery at gallery@benalla.vic.gov.au or 03 5760 2619 for further information.

Other Worlds

Other Worlds brings together artists whose work draws on gaming culture, fantasy and speculative forms of storytelling. Across painting, sculpture, installation and digital media, the exhibition explores how imagined worlds are constructed and inhabited, offering spaces that sit somewhere between reality and fiction.

Influenced by video games, online communities and world-building practices, the works in Other Worlds consider the ways people use fantasy to experiment with identity, navigate experience and imagine alternative possibilities. Rather than simply providing an escape, these invented environments become sites for reflection, transformation and connection.

The exhibition invites audiences to move through a series of imagined spaces that challenge familiar perspectives and open up new ways of seeing. In these worlds, the boundaries between the personal and collective, the virtual and physical, become fluid, revealing fantasy as a powerful tool for making meaning and imagining what might exist beyond the everyday.

Featuring Abigail Michell, Aidan Sefo, Anna Dehm, Daniel Pace, Darcy Scott, Gavin Porter, Heidi Beard, Jenny Ngo, Joey Balliro, Nicholas Capaldo and Simon Madaffari.

Curated by Joey Balliro, Carolyn Hawkins and Peter Douglas.

The Northcote Project Space is located in Arts Project Australia’s studio foyer.

The studio is a two-story wheelchair accessible building.

The second story is accessible via lift or stairs.

Wheelchair accessible and gender-neutral toilets available on site.

The Northcote Project Space and studio can be a noisy place. Those with audio sensory sensitivities are recommended to bring ear protection.

Service animals and guide dogs welcome.

Social pets are unable to be inside the studio.

Always on our mind

Always on our mind celebrates the incredible artistic career and life of beloved APA artist Dionne Canzano (1970-2025).

 For 25 years, Dionne Canzano was a dedicated artist and a deeply valued presence in the APA studios. Over that time, she built a remarkable body of work, reflecting her enduring commitment to both subject and process. Her practice stands as a testament to a career shaped by talent, passion and quiet determination.

Dionne often returned to subjects close to her heart, including Elvis Presley, magpies (both in nature and of the AFL team), and a rich array of wild and domestic animals. Her images were rendered with a deft touch and a focused, attentive eye.

Dionne’s legacy is cemented not only in the significant body of work she leaves us, but also as a lasting example of how to live and create with passion and purpose. Like her beloved Elvis, her creative legacy will continue to resonate for years to come.

The Northcote Project Space is located in Arts Project Australia’s studio foyer.

The studio is a two-story wheelchair accessible building.

The second story is accessible via lift or stairs.

Wheelchair accessible and gender-neutral toilets available on site.

The Northcote Project Space and studio can be a noisy place. Those with audio sensory sensitivities are recommended to bring ear protection.

Service animals and guide dogs welcome.

Social pets are unable to be inside the studio.

5 7 3 Float Fall Petals 10 Trees

For over three decades, Fiona Longhurst has cultivated a distinctive visual language grounded in pattern, repetition, and colour. A longstanding artist in the Arts Project Australia studio since 1991, her practice has evolved with quiet persistence, producing a compelling body of work.

Her intricate fields of mark-making are animated by recurring motifs – floral forms, delicate compositional arrangements, and text. Through intuitive layering and patterning, Longhurst builds a personal visual lexicon.

This exhibition celebrates Longhurst’s enduring contribution to the APA studio and the broader contemporary art landscape, offering insight into an artist whose evolving practice is defined by tenderness, a nuanced use of colour, and a quietly compelling sense of introspection.

Coinciding with the exhibition, APA is pleased to announce the launch of a new monograph series in partnership with Perimeter Editions, with Longhurst’s accompanying publication 5 7 3 Float Fall Petals 10 Trees marking the first release. Copies available for purchase at the exhibition, or pre-order now via the Perimeter Books website.

Curated by Jo Salt.

The Arts Project Australia gallery has accessible toilets in the Perry Street Building. They are in the northern end of the building. On the upper ground level, they are located off the northern side of the service corridor. On L1 and L2 they are located behind blue manual double doors.

Entry 30A Perry Street is wheelchair accessible and offers direct access to the Courtyard, Perry Street Building upper ground and Johnston Street Building upper ground.

Lift access is available to visit other buildings and levels.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact us on (03) 9482 4484 or at gallery@artsproject.org.au

View the exhibition from home

Anna Dehm: Cabbage Salad

Benalla Art Gallery and Arts Project Australia proudly present Cabbage Salad — an Autumn cabinet exhibition by APA artist Anna Dehm.

Anna Dehm is an emerging artist whose vibrant works on paper explore rhythm, movement and intuitive form. Working with markers and mixed media techniques, including collage, she creates striking compositions where freeform shapes merge and unfold into intricate, mesmerising patterns.

Since joining Arts Project Australia in 2021, Dehm has developed a confident visual language defined by bold colour, layered texture and an organic sense of flow that transforms the picture plane into a dynamic, immersive field.

Benalla Pop-Up Art Gallery has full wheelchair access. Please contact Benalla Art Gallery at gallery@benalla.vic.gov.au or 03 5760 2619 for further information.

Marjorie Street – Chris & Friends

Marjorie Street – Chris & Friends brings together a collection of works that showcase the breadth and diversity of artists working at Arts Project Australia’s Northcote studio.

These works reflect experimentation, ingenuity and a strong, singular focus on making. While these artists are well-versed in traditional textile techniques, they are also rule-breakers, bending, subverting and reworking established methods to arrive at highly individual approaches.

The result is a body of work that offers fresh perspectives, unencumbered by conventional expectations of the medium.

Several artists in the exhibition are former Artists in Residence at the workshop and are delighted to be returning to exhibit here once again.

Featuring Adrian Lazzaro, Chris O’Brien, Joanne Nethercote, Bronwyn Hack, Alanna Dodd, Jade Tomsic, Mark Smith, Rosie O’Brien and Matthew Gove.

Curated by Chris O’Brien with Carolyn Hawkins and Jodie Kipps.

For more information on accessibility at Australian Tapestry Workshop please phone 03 9699 7885

So Fresh

So Fresh is an annual exhibition celebrating the dynamic and diverse voices of new and emerging artists from the Arts Project Australia studio. Featuring a range of recent works, this exhibition highlights the unique perspectives and creative energy flourishing within the studio community.

So Fresh showcases the vibrant talent and innovative practices shaping the next generation of Arts Project Australia.

Featuring: Abigail Michell, Alanna Dodd, Chelle Destefano, Elizabeth Dunkley, Eugene Ang, Henry Deakin, Jessica Ebert, Lindsay Sutherland, Loretta Lynch, Rebecca Carr, Scott Sortino, Simon Madaffari

Curated by Alanna Dodd, Rebecca Carr, and Suzie Brown

Please note this show is at the Northcote Project Space, located in Arts Project Australia’s studio in Northcote.

The Northcote Project Space is located in Arts Project Australia’s studio foyer.

The studio is a two-story wheelchair accessible building.

The second story is accessible via lift or stairs.

Wheelchair accessible and gender-neutral toilets available on site.

The Northcote Project Space and studio can be a noisy place. Those with audio sensory sensitivities are recommended to bring ear protection.

Service animals and guide dogs welcome.

Social pets are unable to be inside the studio.

Houses, Spouses, Crises and Chrises

Houses, Spouses, Crises and Chrises is the 3D Real Estate fantasy of Arts Project Australia (APA) artist and co-curator Chris O’Brien. Starting with a floorplan, Chris narrates a tale, enlists assistance, and it appears before him. Real and imagined characters become cohabitants of the space. Long-time collaborator Joanna Anderson observes Chris, acting as an editor and illustrator of our auteur.

Set in and around an abandoned old house in Northcote, the show constructs a world both mundane and surreal: where furniture is stolen in slow motion, burnt beans bubble in the fireplace, and the roar of V8s echo through the TV on lazy afternoons. A red 1971 Fiat Autobianchi waits outside – engine sputtering, ready to go, but only making it halfway down the road before the petrol runs out.

Featuring: Adrian Lazzaro, Aidan Sefo, Alan Constable, Alessandra DiMattina, Boris Cipusev, Brigid Hanrahan, Bronwyn Hack, Chris Mason, Chris O’Brien, Christian Hansen, Christian Semertzidis, Daniel Pace, Daniel Richardson, Emily Dober, Fulli Andrinopoulos, George Aristovoulou, Jasmin Kolodziejczyk, Joanna Anderson, Josef Power, Julian Martin, Lisa Reid, Malcolm Sturrock, Margaret McIntosh, Matthew Gove, Michael Camakaris, Miles Howard-Wilks, Monica Lazzari, Paul Quick, Rakhi James, Rebecca Scibilia, Ruth Howard, Simon Paredes, Terry Williams, Thomas Iacono, Tim Noble, Valerio Ciccone, and Will McConnell.

Curated by Chris O’Brien, Caroline Wylds and Sarah Lamanna.

The Arts Project Australia gallery has accessible toilets in the Perry Street Building. They are in the northern end of the building. On the upper ground level, they are located off the northern side of the service corridor. On L1 and L2 they are located behind blue manual double doors.

Entry 30A Perry Street is wheelchair accessible and offers direct access to the Courtyard, Perry Street Building upper ground and Johnston Street Building upper ground.

Lift access is available to visit other buildings and levels.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact us on (03) 9482 4484 or at gallery@artsproject.org.au

View the exhibition from home

Jordan Dymke – Who Am I?

Gertrude, in partnership with Arts Project Australia (APA), presents the pilot of a new exhibition initiative as part of a program designed to foster artistic exchange and creative development for practicing artists. Each year, an APA studio artist will be paired with a Gertrude Studio Program artist (current or alumni) to collaborate over a 12-month period. The partnership culminates in a solo exhibition at Gertrude Glasshouse, supporting artistic growth, opportunities for professional development, and deeper connections between creative communities.

For this first project in 2026, APA artist Jordan Dymke has partnered with recent Gertrude studio artist Francis Carmody to explore new modes of self-portraiture, personal narrative and identity through large-scale painting. Who am I? focuses on a commitment to using oneself as both the subject, and the subject of enquiry.

Jordan Dymke works primarily in figurative painting, drawing, and ceramics. His practice is grounded in self-reflection and introspection, using drawing from life and collected images to examine his own body as a site of identity, biography, and personal inquiry. The images are often pared back and partially rendered, creating works that hover between depiction and impression. His works have an elusive quality, echoing the shifting and unresolved nature of looking inward.

Dymke joined Arts Project Australia in 2012. He has featured in group exhibitions throughout Australia, including Symbiosis, presented through the Miegunyah Creative Fellowship at Buxton Contemporary, Naarm Melbourne; Das Boot at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Naarm Melbourne; and Variations at Arts Project Australia, Collingwood Yards, Naarm Melbourne.

The collaboration between Gertrude and Arts Project Australia is supported by Michael Schwarz and David Clouston.

Gertrude Glasshouse is fully wheelchair accessible, however Glasshouse Road is an uneven bluestone street. Glasshouse Road can be accessed by car from Wellington Street and passengers can be dropped off at the door.

Ambulant toilet and baby change facilities available.

For further information, please call Gertrude Glasshouse on  (03) 9480 0068.

Sharing Practice – The APA Portrait Project

Sharing Practice presents a series of photographic portraits by Penelope Hunt created in close collaboration with artists from Arts Project Australia. The exhibition explores portraiture as a site of exchange, where relationships, time, and shared practice shape how artists see and represent one another.

Hunt’s long association with Arts Project Australia has fostered deep professional and personal connections. These relationships underpin the portraits, allowing each image to move beyond surface likeness toward a more nuanced reflection of artistic identity and process. By exhibiting the portraits as well as artworks by each artist, the exhibition establishes a dialogue between photographic representation and creative practice.

The project is grounded in reciprocity. Working alongside the artists over many years, Hunt has engaged in an ongoing exchange of ideas, observations, and ways of seeing. This collaborative process informs both the portraits and the broader curatorial approach, positioning the exhibition as a shared space of engagement and reflection.

Sharing Practice acknowledges the responsibility and tension inherent in portraiture. Rather than attempting to define or contain its subjects, the exhibition celebrates difference, individuality, and the evolving relationships that emerge through sustained creative engagement. Together, the works honour each artist’s unique perspective while recognising the collective experience of making, seeing, and sharing within the studio environment.

Commissioned by Michael Schwarz and David Clouston, Penelope Hunt was invited to create a series of photographic portraits offering insight into Arts Project artists and their individual practices. The project evolved from Hunt’s long association with Arts Project Australia and her prize-winning portrait of Alan Constable, Finding Focus, in the 2019 BIFB Martin Kantor Portrait Prize.

Photographic portraits by Penelope Hunt. Artworks by Alan Constable, Terry Williams, Lisa Reid, Chris O’Brien, Miles Howard-Wilks, Chris Mason, Monica Lazzari, Jacob Cartelli, Georgia Szmerling, Fiona Longhurst and Sam Ashdown.

Glasshouse project space is located above Gertrude Glasshouse on Level 1 and is only accessible via stairs.
Ambulant toilet and baby change facilities available downstairs.
For further information, please call Gertrude Glasshouse on  (03) 9480 0068.

A velvet ant, a flower and a bird

APA artists Miles Howard-Wilks and Anthony Romagnano unveil newly commissioned artworks in A velvet ant, a flower and a bird. This major new exhibition 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.

Drawing from the University of Melbourne’s Classics, Biology, and Art collections, alongside new commissions and performances; historic and contemporary art co-mingle to envision intelligence as living, continually evolving, interconnected and interdependent.

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.

Participating artists include: Adrian Mauriks, Agnieszka Polska, Alan Craiger-Smith, Alexa Karolinski & Ingo Niermann, Alexandra Copeland, Ann Lislegaard, Anouk Tschanz, Anthony Romagnano, Archie Barry, Barbara A Swarbrick, Benjamin Armstrong, Brent Harris, Carol Murphy, Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran, David Noonan, Derek Tumala, Din Matamoro, Eduardo Navarro, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Harold Munkara, Heather B Swann, Helen Ganalmirriwuy Garrawurra, Helen Maudsley, Ian Wayne Abdullah, Inge King AM, Ingela Ihrman, Jane Jin Kaisen, Joan Jonas, John Pule, Josie Papialuk, Judith Pungkarta Inkamala, Julia Mensch, Kate Daw, Lauren Burrow, Liss Fenwick, Lorraine Jenyns, Malcolm Howie, Margaret Rarru Garrawurra, Marian Tubbs, Mel O’Callaghan, Mia Boe, Miles Howard-Wilks, Nabilah Nordin, Naomi Hobson, Neha Choksi, Noemi Pfister, Noriko Nakamura, Percy Grainger, Pippin Louise Drysdale, Rivane Neuenschwander & Cao Guimarães, Rosslynd Piggot, Rrikin Burarrwaŋa, Salvador Dalí, Taloi Havini, Tamara Henderson, Teelah George, Tessa Laird, and Tony Warburton

If you need assistance when you are at the Potter, see the Potter’s friendly staff anywhere in the buildings.

A welcome hub is located near the entrance.

If you would like assistance entering the Potter or need more information, we recommend contacting potter-info@unimelb.edu.au before you arrive.

Woven Mantle

Benalla Art Gallery and Arts Project Australia proudly present Woven Myrtle — a Summer cabinet exhibition by APA artist Ruth Howard.

Ruth Howard is a multi-disciplinary artist working in painting and ceramics on an intimate scale. In her minimalist paintings, a single object floats on a flat plane, emphasising the interplay between shape and negative space. Her ceramic sculptures explore organic form and the transformative nature of glaze, often depicting abstracted creatures and natural elements that appear newly formed from the earth or sea. By layering and stacking clay, Howard creates vertical structures that feel organic and elemental. Their textured surfaces drip with glaze, accentuating each curve and indentation to create tactile works that invite both touch and quiet reflection.

Ruth Howard has worked in the Arts Project studio since 1998 and held her first solo show at Arts Project Australia in 2015. She has been included in numerous group exhibitions including Spring 1883, The Establishment, Sydney; Turning the Page, Gallery 101, Ontario; Hybrid Making – new work from Australia, Canada and Scotland, Project Ability Gallery, Scotland; and Face-Up, Idiom Studio, Wellington

Benalla Art Gallery has full wheelchair access via a ramp entrance at the front of the building.  The café deck and floor can also be accessed via a ramp.

Disabled toilets and infant facilities are also available within the building.

Annual Gala 2025

Arts Project Australia’s Annual Gala is our end-of-year celebration, honouring the achievements and diverse practices of every artist in our studio. This much-anticipated event is the only exhibition each year to showcase the full breadth of talent across our program with up to 200 works on display spanning painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, ceramics and textiles.

All artworks are available for purchase and can be taken home on the day. When the bell rings at 3pm, sales begin, first-come, first-served with buyers removing works directly from the gallery walls and plinths.

Join us on Saturday 13 December at our Collingwood Yards gallery for an afternoon of art, community and celebration. Preview 2:30 – 3pm. Sales commence when the bell rings at 3pm, sharp!

The Arts Project Australia gallery has accessible toilets in the Perry Street Building. They are in the northern end of the building. On the upper ground level, they are located off the northern side of the service corridor. On L1 and L2 they are located behind blue manual double doors.

Entry 30A Perry Street is wheelchair accessible and offers direct access to the Courtyard, Perry Street Building upper ground and Johnston Street Building upper ground.

Lift access is available to visit other buildings and levels.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact us on (03) 9482 4484 or at gallery@artsproject.org.au

View the exhibition from home

Whispers in the Walls

There’s something in the stillness. A flicker at the corner of the eye. A presence just beyond the threshold, or perhaps only a creak in the floorboards, a murmur you can’t quite place.

Whispers in the Walls gathers artists whose work traverses the eerie, the surreal, and the quietly unsettling. Shadows stretch, forms blur, and liminal figures emerge—ghostly, grotesque, and at times absurd. Not always threatening, not entirely benign.

This is a space where beauty meets decay, and the unknown is felt more than seen. Whispers in the Walls invites you to linger in the in-between: the twilight zone between reality and dream, presence and absence, where things feel a little off, a little haunted, and never quite what they seem.

Curated by Aidan Sefo and Carolyn Hawkins.

The Northcote Project Space is located in Arts Project Australia’s studio foyer.

The studio is a two-story wheelchair accessible building.

The second story is accessible via lift or stairs.

Wheelchair accessible and gender-neutral toilets available on site.

The Northcote Project Space and studio can be a noisy place. Those with audio sensory sensitivities are recommended to bring ear protection.

Service animals and guide dogs welcome.

Social pets are unable to be inside the studio.

Stop Work

Stop Work contains artworks that act as proposals to remake the purpose, shape, and meaning of work in our collective experience.

In the last five years, our globalised society has experienced multiple transformations that have complicated our ways of exchanging labour for money. The COVID-19 pandemic rendered many in-person jobs untenable, prompting a wave of improvised adaptations to prop up business as usual. The rug-pull has continued into the era of artificial intelligence and robot labour, driving both economic and existential dread. With the concept of a ‘steady job’ now obsolete, it’s nearly impossible to predict what employment will look like in even two years’ time. This offers artists the perfect vantage point to ask: what was work?

The artists in this exhibition offer singular perspectives on the imploding norms of labour. They reflect on what work once was, what it is now, and what it might become – drawn from lived experiences that challenge conventional understandings of productivity. Artworks explore sabotage and monkey-wrenching, inefficiency and de-optimisation, and imagination as a defiant force against exploitation.

Featuring Michael Candy, Nicholas Capaldo, Samraing Chea, David Fitzpatrick, Martin Forster, Lychandra Gieseman, Pascale Giorgi, Cameron Gresswell, Christian Hansen, Rakhi James, Adrian Lazzaro, and Cathy Staughton.

Curated by Loren Kronemyer.

The Arts Project Australia gallery has accessible toilets in the Perry Street Building. They are in the northern end of the building. On the upper ground level, they are located off the northern side of the service corridor. On L1 and L2 they are located behind blue manual double doors.

Entry 30A Perry Street is wheelchair accessible and offers direct access to the Courtyard, Perry Street Building upper ground and Johnston Street Building upper ground.

Lift access is available to visit other buildings and levels.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact us on (03) 9482 4484 or at gallery@artsproject.org.au

View the exhibition from home

Embodied: Limitless 2025 Commission Series

Limitless is a landmark exhibition series that invites APA artists to undertake ambitious commissions on a significant scale. Launched with two inaugural bodies of work, the series establishes a framework for immersive, long-form creative development, building momentum toward new possibilities and opportunities. It affirms APA’s commitment to seeing neurodivergent artists and artists with intellectual disabilities central to the national and international arts landscape – visible, valued, and flourishing in their practice.

The initiative builds upon APA’s longstanding foundation – one that has consistently supported experimentation and artistic growth. It foregrounds risk-taking, collaboration, and innovation, and fosters both individual and collective development. In doing so, it offers artists the opportunity to expand their practice and explore new directions in their work.

As the first exhibition in the Limitless series, Embodied signals a focus on artistic rigour and experimental, process-driven practice. Featuring major new commissions by Mark Smith and Bronwyn Hack, the exhibition frames the body as both subject and metaphor, inviting expansive and deeply personal interpretations.

Curated by Jo Salt.

The Arts Project Australia gallery has accessible toilets in the Perry Street Building. They are in the northern end of the building. On the upper ground level, they are located off the northern side of the service corridor. On L1 and L2 they are located behind blue manual double doors.

Entry 30A Perry Street is wheelchair accessible and offers direct access to the Courtyard, Perry Street Building upper ground and Johnston Street Building upper ground.

Lift access is available to visit other buildings and levels.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact us on (03) 9482 4484 or at gallery@artsproject.org.au

View the exhibition from home

Biophilic Tendency

The artists hands are clearly visible in the ceramic pinch pots, plaques and sculptures which culminate in Biophilic Tendency. The pieces are at first glance abstracted, yet on closer inspection are united by their mimicry of natural and organic forms, including geological aggregates, coral organisms, seed pods, their resulting flora, and the landscapes in which these reside. Distilled into hand-built forms, each piece is rendered instinctively in clay then marked with intricate surface pattern. Richly layered glaze has been applied with intuitive and vivid use of colour, creating motifs that warp and shift into rhythmic decoration. Biophilic Tendency celebrates the innate human inclination to seek connections with nature and other living systems.

Ally DiMattina, Sal Felsinger, Sam Forster and Dave Mendelsohn are studio artists at Arts Project Australia (APA), an internationally leading visual arts organisation that champions neurodivergent artists and artists with intellectual disability. Through their studio program, exhibition opportunities, and professional development pathways, they empower Arts Project artists to develop their practice and meaningful careers in the contemporary art world.

Presented by Mailbox Art Space and Arts Project Australia this exhibition will open on Sunday 10 August from 4pm at Mailbox Art Space. All are welcome.

Curated by Shell Odgers.

Please note Mailbox Art Space is located in the foyer of a heritage listed building and is accessed via 8 stairs. Bathrooms are available in the Grand Hyatt across the road (entry via Russel Street). For more information please contact Mailbox Art Space at mailboxartspace@gmail.com

Cameron Gresswell: Sound and Image

Celebrating the life and work of APA artist Cameron Gresswell, this commemorative exhibition honours his bold, music-infused visual language – a body of work defined by expressive colour, rhythmic composition, and a deep personal connection to sound and collecting.

Gresswell worked primarily with acrylic and pastel on paper. His compositions often featured meandering lyrics, band names, and album titles, anchored by two brightly coloured vinyl records – a recurring motif in his work. These visual elements transformed his personal vinyl archive into a dynamic field of text, form, and colour. His spontaneous style captured the pulse and energy of music, creating a unique visual rhythm that reflected his dual passions for sound and image.

Gresswell is remembered within the APA community as a brilliant colourist and an avid music collector. His work reflects a profound sense of personal meaning, turning the act of collecting music into a rich visual practice. Held in private collections, his legacy lives on through the vibrancy and clarity of his artistic voice.

Cameron Gresswell’s contribution to the studio continues to resonate through the bold, expressive energy of his work and the deep creative presence he brought to the APA studio.

Please note this show is at the Northcote Project Space, located in Arts Project Australia’s studio in Northcote.

The Northcote Project Space is located in Arts Project Australia’s studio foyer.

The studio is a two-story wheelchair accessible building.

The second story is accessible via lift or stairs.

Wheelchair accessible and gender-neutral toilets available on site.

The Northcote Project Space and studio can be a noisy place. Those with audio sensory sensitivities are recommended to bring ear protection.

Service animals and guide dogs welcome.

Social pets are unable to be inside the studio.

Landscape: A Different View

Landscape: A Different View invites you to explore the world through a range of artistic perspectives that reimagine our relationship with place. This group exhibition brings together a diverse collection of works by Arts Project Australia artists that blend the energy of urban life with the calm of rural settings, challenging traditional ideas of landscape. 

Each artist offers a unique lens, transforming familiar environments into compelling narratives. From structured cityscapes to organic natural forms, the works reflect the fluid, ever-changing nature of the world around us. 

Celebrating difference in vision, style, and experience, the exhibition reveals that landscapes are not fixed—they are shaped by how we see and feel them. 

 Together, these works form a shared vision: one that encourages us to look beyond the surface, embrace multiple viewpoints, and discover beauty in all environments. 

Curated by Paul Hodges, Suzanne Brown and James McDonald.

The Arts Project Australia gallery has accessible toilets in the Perry Street Building. They are in the northern end of the building. On the upper ground level, they are located off the northern side of the service corridor. On L1 and L2 they are located behind blue manual double doors.

Entry 30A Perry Street is wheelchair accessible and offers direct access to the Courtyard, Perry Street Building upper ground and Johnston Street Building upper ground.

Lift access is available to visit other buildings and levels.

If you have any additional questions or need further accommodations, please contact us on (03) 9482 4484 or at gallery@artsproject.org.au

View the exhibition from home