Exhibition: UNSEEN
Exhibition: UNSEEN
As part of the 50th anniversary celebration, we are inviting you to our members’ exhibition - UNSEEN at ACU Melbourne Gallery!
UNSEEN will showcase a collection of artworks by W.A.R members. Each artist has personally selected a piece that has received little or no exposure, offering a rare glimpse into hidden creative narratives. This show features works created across different time periods and in a diverse range of mediums, spanning painting, sculpture, photography, textile art and more.
By bringing these unseen works into the public view, the exhibition challenges the historical underrepresentation of women in the visual arts and highlights the importance of visibility, recognition and artistic agency.
Opening: Friday, 11 July 2025, 6 – 8pm
Dates: 11 – 27 July 2025
Gallery Hours: Friday to Sunday, 11am – 3pm
Venue: 26 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy - Australian Catholic University Gallery, St Patrick’s Campus, Melbourne
Carmel Wallace
Venetian Optics (2019)
Recycled optical lenses, antique Venetian mirror with Murano glass, antique silver cake stand, recycled imitation pearls
30 x 30 x 30 cm
Sharon Bush
Easter Island (Rapa Nui) (1988)
Hand crafted painted porcelain necklace
22 x 15 cm
Scroll down to learn more about this work and its artist!
Lea Kannar-Lichtenberger
The REG Report (2010)
Hand coloured, Aluminium Etching (A holiday on Lord Howe) and digital print on BFK
31 x 51 cm
Beatrice Magalotti
Fragments (2024)
Cotton Material Machine & Hand Embroidery Screen printed words
45 x 33 cm
Claudia Phares
Home Works (2020)
Photography
30 x 40 x 2 cm
Dans Bain
Vestige (2012)
Textile
40 x 30 x 40 cm
Denise Bedford
Preciousness (1998)
Mixed Media
40 x 30 x 20 cm
Carolyn Cardinet
Never Shown (2012)
Found plastic
19 x 12 x 16 cm
Laurel McKenzie
Hatshepsut i (2012)
Acrylic paint, buttons, beads on stretched canvas, framed
30 x 30 x 5.5 cm
Michelle Harrington
Doughnut Barbie (2023)
Sculptural painting; found objects, ceramic, electronic, craft objects combined
27 x 33 x 7 cm
Charlene Walker
Day on the bay (2024)
Oil on Canvas
30 x 30 x 3.5 cm
Polly Hollyoak
The Little Things (2024)
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 x 3.5 cm
Jennifer Goodman
Lana 4 (2020)
Tapestry (woollen thread, felt)
33x25.5 cm
Scroll down to learn more about this work and its artist!
Jasminka Ward-Matievic
Maria Likarz-Strauss (2015)
Reworked digital reproduction on cotton (wool, cotton, beads, repurposed materials)
38 x 30 x 4 cm
Scroll down to learn more about this work and its artist!
Mel Jane Wilson
Keyhole: Echoes of Christian's Windows (2025)
Watercolour and pencil on cotton rag 650gsm
37 x 25.5 cm
Regina McDonald
Self Portrait II (1999)
Collagraph print
35.5 x 30.5 cm
Kirsty Gorter
Isolating with Familiars (2021)
Free form long stitch, cotton thread on linen
28 x 40 cm
Charlotte Clemens
Brunswick Street (2011)
Monoprint
40 x 32 x 2 cm
Carmel O'Connor
MIDWINTER (2004)
Oil on Linen
25 x 30 x 2 cm
Nicole Kemp
Eternal Vigilance (2021)
Textile sculpture, easter egg wrappers, scrap fabrics, machine and hand stitch.
17 x 12 x 20 cm
Robyn Pridham
Friday 23rd October, 2020 (2020)
Collage and Mixed Media over a Print
38 x 30 cm
Alex Bridge
Amarilla (2017)
Acrylic on stretched canvas, framed
28 x 33 x 3 cm
Hunter Smith
Productive Fantasy (2025)
Oil on Canvas
29 x 40.5 cm
Veronica Caven Aldous
Rear window (2023)
Photograph of programmed LED light installation
30 x 39 x 3 cm
Scroll down to learn more about this work and its artist!
Ali Griffin
SAFE HOUSE (2023)
Linen tea towels, fabric paint, wooden frame
58 x 120 x 82 cm
Gail Stiffe
Korea Journal (2004)
Handmade paper artist book
32 x 27 x 13 cm
Linda Judge
Nothing but Oranges (2024)
Recycled plastic lids/wood
30 x 30 x 40 cm
Tracey Lamb
la chaise de la dame (2017)
Aluminium & Timber
14 x 11 x 16.5 cm
Pamela Kleemann-Passi
MarTiTis (2007)
Archival digital print on Canson Rag Photographique Paper
29.7 x 42 cm
Irene Holub
Lost in Translation (2022)
Photography
29 x 40 cm
Linda Studena
Study: Waves (2023)
Willow charcoal on plywood
25 x 30 cm
Kylie Fogarty
Back Rock (2011)
Lightfast pigmented liquid ink and pigment pen on 300gsm Fine art CP paper
34 x 3 x 49 cm
Wendy Kelly
Right Turn (2022)
Felt nib pen on paper
34.5 x 26 cm
Tania Lou Smith
Untitled (lawn blower) (2017)
HD Video
Fiorella Fabian
Swell (2022-25)
MP4 Video and Sound
5:11 min
57 x 78 cm
Katie Stackhouse
The Rapids (2023)
Video and Sound
4 minutes duration
Kristen Flynn
Self-portrait butterfly head with Botticelli man and horse (2025)
Mixed print media on canvas
30 x 37 cm
Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo
Invisible (2025)
Household curtains, acrylic paint pen, thread, vintage cotton fabric, embroidery hoop
38 x 12 cm
Rosalind Simonsen
Monstera Escape Plan (2025)
Watercolour
52 x 37 x 5.5 cm
Louise Saxton
Untitled (2013)
Reclaimed needlework, lace-pins, milliners straw
29 x 28.5 cm
Tai Snaith
Ambiguous Etymology (study of inside my eyelids after crying) (2023)
Gouache on paper
40 x 30 cm
Brigit Heller
Torn (2025)
Brass
30 x 40 x 1 cm
More about the artists and their works:
Veronica Caven Aldous
Rear window (2023)
Photograph of programmed LED light installation
30 x 3 x 39 cm
I work with diverse media, but some of my work and modes of making are unseen. It isn’t possible to show all the work done. Only some make it to exhibitions. Some are recycled into later works, sold, dismantled or gifted. Most of my ephemeral, temporary light installations, videos and photographs have never been exhibited. Most work from residencies are only seen by the local people who live nearby.
I undertook a month-long residency in 2023 at AIRSpace, Oatlands, Tasmania. I spent most days exploring the town, countryside around the town, historic buildings and painting, while nights were spent outside the sandstone historical studio, gallery and accommodation house. I was setting up temporary light installations, videoing and photographing them. I was alone, and often windblown and skittish stumbling around in the dark.
One image of the installation in the front windows was printed in the local paper. The work exhibited in Unseen at ACU is Rear window, 2023 and is an example of these many thousands of photographs taken. Many move past documentation and become works unto themselves.
Here are a few other images from this residency.
While in lockdown I collected images of my artwork practice over the last five decades and compiled them into books. This visual archive provides further images of this residency.
Space Is Never Empty this series of six books is self-published through IngramSpark and available through most book outlets print on demand or ask your library to order it in. I have donated a series to the Women’s Art Register library.
They are also widely available as eBooks on devices and apps so the images of artwork can be seen larger on screens, in more vibrant colour. Found at: Apple, Kindle, Nook by Barnes and Noble, Rakuten kobo, Scribd, Indigo, Angus and Robertson, and Mondadori ...
More also at:
https://www.facebook.com/veronica.aldous
https://www.instagram.com/veronicacaven/
Sharon Bush
Easter Island (Rapa Nui) (1988)
Hand crafted painted porcelain necklace
22 x 15 cm
Sharon Bush – Ancient Realms, Jewellery
There is mystery, effort, love and even anguish in the unseen. Deep empowering feminine instincts may even flourish in these nourishing spaces. That quiet solitary time brings new creations to life. Creativity is initially an unseen process; a spark is captured, it is explored and developed into something tangible. At that stage it may enter the public sphere or remain hidden.
Creativity is a gift, a joy that rivals any other pursuits. In those moments it feels like the heart and mind are functioning at capacity and in unison. I’ve always been grateful in those moments.
My process for creating new pieces is usually, inspiration, research, working with clay, colour matching and then bringing it all together with a little history. Jewellery has always been about symbolism and empowerment over the centuries, especially when women had little power over their own lives. Some of these symbols and talisman were on display, but others were hidden away in dangerous times. Having beliefs or thoughts that were not the majority had to go unseen. The desire to be ourselves shines brighter today, especially in the way we express ourselves through caring, conversation and art.
Circumstances are often changing in a women’s life; study, career, family, community and keeping a watchful eye on the world, to name a few. I hope newly crafted pieces will find their way to wherever they are meant to be, even if that means a few boxes stored away for a very long time or new collections online and in public spaces.
It is an honour to be among other passionate women at the Unseen Exhibition.
Sharon Bush
Ancient Realms
www.sacredliving.com.au www.facebook/ancientrealmsjewellery
Instagram: @sacred_living www.facebook/sacredlivingaustralia www.threads.net/@sacred_living?hl=en
Jennifer Goodman
Lana 4 (2020)
Tapestry (woollen thread, felt)
33x25.5 cm
A most enjoyable residency at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 2016 gave me the opportunity to explore and experiment with woollen thread and felt - a totally different medium to painting, which is the main form of my practice.
The needlepoint tapestry has proven to be a natural medium for me as my approach demands a similar obsessive perfectionism in each stitch as does each indiscernible brushstroke I apply to my canvas.
Colour is central to my practice. Making Lana 4 allowed me to enjoy the challenge of working with colour and tone using wool in placement of the paint I’m so familiar working with. Extending the colour palette to the frame has completed the picture.
It is rewarding to see that tapestry, historically viewed as a ‘women’s’ craft, is now considered to be a legitimate artistic method with many contemporary artists exploring this medium. I’m happy to have shared the experience.
Jennifer Goodman
Jasminka Ward-Matievic
Maria Likarz-Strauss (2015)
Reworked digital reproduction on cotton (wool, cotton, beads, repurposed materials)
38 x 30 x 4 cm
Unlike traditional frames which often follow the fashion and style of the time of painting or are clumsily added at a later stage, my frames respond to the image or meaning of the image directly.
I am inspired by historic golden frames. Sometimes the image itself takes precedence and the frame plays with the elements of the reconstructed artwork. At other times it expands on the story itself.
By first embroidering and then framing Maria Likarz’s Head of a Girl I am not simply seeking to re-frame our perception of the work but in a small way, I am asking the viewer to reconstruct their own understanding of the women who have persisted against the dominant male narrative. This is part of a larger body of work that honours women throughout history.
My interest in gilded frames started a long time ago.
I grew up surrounded by high mountains and baroque architecture. Initially I hated all those frilly golden churches till one day I entered a huge baroque church. Organ music was reverberating through the nave and aisles. Music of the 18th century. Suddenly I understood. The music, the architecture, the sculpture, the gold, the opulence..... It all fitted together and made sense. This was the art of my mountains.
The use of embroidery is deliberate
When I started making the frames I was not concerned about the images themselves. I chose an image because it spoke to me, because it meant something to me. Slowly the images became very specific, the frames were also adapted to the image and then the question arose about copyright. The natural step for me to take was embroidery. Photoshop, Collage or any other form of alteration was too new. Embroidery was the link to the distant past and to the beginnings of the movement towards equality.
Artists’ Suffrage League, founded by Mary Lowndes, Arts and Crafts trained glass artist. 1907.
“Some of their earliest products were displayed at the NUWSS procession of June 1908 during which 10,000 people marched on parliament to demonstrate their determination for the vote to the newly instated prime minister, Herbert Asquith. The League designed and made eighty embroidered banners for the March, which constituted the ‘most beautiful art exhibition of the year ‘. The choice of medium was no accident. Political marches were antithetical to conventional standards and expectations of female behaviour.” Maria Quirk in NGV Magazine Issue July/August 2019.
The choice of medium was no accident for me either. More than one hundred years later, embroidery might not be the typical
craft of the 21st century woman, but it links us to those who made it possible for women (in some parts of the world) to vote and be part of political life now.
It also reminds us that we still have not reached our goal of equality for all minority groups, including the largest “minority” group in the world, Women.
If the frame is a “physical division between artwork and architecture, image and object” my knitted frames try to blur that. Not only does the technique elevate them to the artwork itself but they also comment on the embroidered image itself. We are left exposed to the question, where is the boundary between art and craft.
By reworking images, using domestic /feminine techniques of knitting, crocheting and embroidery attention is drawn to issues of present day importance, particularly the exclusion of women in numerous facets of everyday life.
