Migration and belonging, transformation and desire, and resistance and self-determination are explored by leading Australian artists and emerging curatorial voices in three new exhibitions opening at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery next week.
Eye Lash Horizon is the first major solo presentation of Perth-born artist Sarah Contos in Western Australia. It explores the rich visual universe that has defined the artist’s practice over the past two decades.
A touring exhibition from UNSW Galleries, the showcase brings together two major bodies of work created in 2024. At its centre is MoTH-eRR, an immersive three-channel video and sound installation that draws on German Expressionist cinema, speculative imagery and early artificial intelligence software to explore the complexities of motherhood, desire and transformation.
Alongside the video installation, Contos presents large-scale sculptural environments populated by plush cocoons and moulting forms assembled from fabrics, mirrors, chains, lights and found objects.
Combining references from art history, fashion, science fiction and popular culture, the works create an imaginative landscape where memory, fantasy and personal transformation collide.
Curated by Paola Anselmi, Mother Island features work by Susan Flavell, Louise Monte and Olga Cironis that examines migration, memory, maternal inheritance and the enduring pull of home.
Through sculpture, installation and textile-based works, the artists transform everyday materials into powerful explorations of personal and collective histories. Across the exhibition, found and repurposed materials become vessels for stories of care, resilience, displacement and belonging.
Flavell’s works emerge from acts of stitching, patching and repair, reflecting on ecological loss, sanctuary and motherhood. Monte responds to the often-unseen labour of women through installations that draw on her mother’s history. Cironis considers conflict, ecology and survival through a feminist lens, reclaiming camouflage as a symbol of female strength and endurance.
“The exhibition explores the idea of the ‘mother island’ as both refuge and anchor, asking audiences to consider the ways we remain connected to our points of origin even as we forge new paths,” Ms Anselmi said.
Pearly Whites: Fighting Tooth and Nail is the gallery’s first exhibition developed through a curatorial placement involving Honours students from UWA’s School of Design.
Drawing on works from the Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, students Lucy Kilroe, Djordjina Ilic, Tania Tehan and Phoebe Lovegrove have developed an exhibition featuring influential artists Tania Ferrier, Maria Kozic and Ann Newmarch.
Developed under the mentorship of Lee Kinsella, curator of the Cruthers Collection, the project provides students with hands-on experience working with one of Australia’s most significant collections.
“The exhibition explores the monstrous feminine as a strategy of resistance, examining how artists have challenged cultural expectations placed upon women through works featuring excess, abjection and acts of creative defiance,” Ms Kinsella said.
Across the three exhibitions, the artists and curators invite audiences to reflect on the stories we inherit, the identities we construct, and the ways creativity helps us understand our place in the world.
All exhibitions open at LWAG at 6pm on Friday 16 October and run until Saturday 5 December, alongside Strike Camps: The photographs of John Wilson.
The Gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm, and admission is free. For more information and to register for opening events, visit the website.