Pearly Whites: Fighting tooth and nail

Student-led exhibition

17 October - 5 December 2026

Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery is proud to present Pearly Whites: Fighting tooth and nail, the Gallery’s first exhibition to emerge from a curatorial placement of Honours students from the School of Design at The University of Western Australia.

Drawing on works from the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, the exhibition showcases three influential Australian artists - Tania Ferrier, Maria Kozic and Ann Newmarch. The project has provided students with a rare opportunity to work with a nationally significant collection while gaining hands-on curatorial experience through the development of a professional gallery exhibition.

Under the mentorship of Lee Kinsella, Curator of the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art, student curators Lucy Kilroe, Djordjina Ilic and Phoebe Lovegrove have developed an exhibition that explores how contemporary feminist artists challenge cultural expectations imposed on women. 

Pearly Whites: Fighting tooth and nail examines themes of excess, abjection and resistance. The selected artists employ monstrous femininity as a powerful strategy to subvert patriarchal structures and reclaim agency over representations of women's bodies and identities.

This is a unique industry training opportunity that builds on the relationship between UWA’s Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and the School of Design, and to widen access to the rich holdings of the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art.

Image: Maria Kozic, Screen scream (detail), c. 1984, two colour screenprint, 68 x 68 cm. Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, The University of Western Australia. Gift of Sally Jackson. Copyright and courtesy of the artist.