School of Art - RMIT University

Congratulations to Adjunct Industry Professor Esther  Anatolitis who was  appointed to the Governing Council of the National Museum of Australia.

Esther Anatolitis is an influential advocate for arts and culture and a respected champion of artists’ voices. She is a former member of the National Gallery of Australia Governing Council. Ms Anatolitis works all over Australia on strategic development, cultural infrastructure and public policy. For more than two decades she has held arts and media CEO positions as well as strategic advisory roles on museum and gallery best practice, cultural governance, creative precincts, collections and public programming.

https://www.tonyburke.com.au/media-releases/2026/new-appointments-to-arts-councils

We are thrilled to announce that RMIT School of Art Technical Officer Tinieka Page has been awarded a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris by the Art Gallery of New South Wales from April to June this year.

The Cité Internationale des Arts, the world’s largest arts residence, has been bringing together more than 300 artists of all origins and generations in the heart of Paris since 1965, giving them the opportunity to carry out a creative or research project in all disciplines.

Tinieka will be looking forward to spending time in Paris focusing on the role of drawing within her painting practice.

Congratulations to School of Art graduates' success in the Craft Fresh! 2026 Awards.

Prizes
The Amaeah Foundation Award
Selected by the Amaeah Foundation for emerging talent
Prize of $2,000
Awarded to Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) - Gold and Silversmith graduate Flynn Parker-Greer

InteriorsAu Emerging Maker Prize
This annual prize recognises outstanding emerging talent from the exhibitors of Craft's Fresh! exhibitors. A profile of the winner is published via architectureau.com.
Selected by Cassie Hansen, Editor InteriorsAu
Awarded to Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) (Honours) - Ceramics graduate Madelyn McKenzie

Congratulations also to 2024 Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) - Painting graduate Meg Kelso who was awarded the Wardle Craft Prize.

Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) - Gold and Silversmith graduate Lou Wheeler and Bachelor of Textiles (Design) were amongst the finalists.

Celebrating the next wave of Victorian graduates in contemporary craft and design. Presented annually since 1993, Fresh! showcases the energy, skill and innovation of some of the best graduating students from craft, design and fine art disciplines throughout the state.

The Fresh! 2026 selection panel comprised: Jake Nakashima-Edwards, Anke Kindle, Claudia Lau, Ella Saddington and Craft Victoria's Eliza Tiernan, Exhibitions and Curatorial Manager and Alexander Scott, Exhibitions and Projects Coordinator.




*t_wheels
e.wells




Image 1: Flynn Parker-Greer
Image 2: Madelyn McKenzie
Image 3: Flynn Parker-Greer, 'Pentagon Internal'
Image 4: Madelyn Mc
Kenzie, Image courtesy of the artist

Senior Technical Officer Gabe Nilsen's latest solo exhibition is now showing.

Tuesday 24 March - 10am - 4pm. 
Thursday 24 March - 10am - 4pm. 
Saturday 26 March  - 10am - 4pm.

1/53 Bourke Street, Melbourne (Enter Via McIlwraith place).

This exhibition is the third iteration of 'Souvenirs', a ten-year photographic project that started during a trip to Europe when I was unable to escape my nostalgia for home. Taking photographs for others, be it a friend, family member, artistic influence or my partner, stemmed from a desire to share these moments with people who inspired the memory. Speaking to the idea of time, distance and absence, this iteration of Souvenirs, 'For Lil', takes one image of a clock and presents 24 versions in two different ways. Exploring photography’s slippages and expectations, and challenging the medium's perceived infinite reproducibility, inherent boundaries, and notions of public and private.  

Congratulations to Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) (Honours) alumni Eva Stimson Clark and Martin George who are amongst five artists selected for Bayside’s 2026 Billilla Artists Studio Program, which is housed in the former servants’ quarters of the Mansion. 🎉🎉🎉

The Program provides complimentary studio space, supporting artists from diverse practices and across career stages, and fosters community engagement through public programs.

Eva Stimson Clark is an artist based on Euro-Yuroke land and the land of the Yalukit Willam people East of Narrm/Melbourne. Her ongoing creative practice is grounded in an engagement with discarded materiality presented as transformed paradigms.

Eva returned to tertiary studies after decades of juggling an art practice with other life experiences, and graduated from RMIT with a Degree in BA (Honours) in 2020.

In Eva’s artwork, conventional art supplies, superfluous stuff, and structural crafting are combined. Handling materials is vital for inspiration, with equal agency given to process, creative play and experimentation. It is a practice of exposing hidden treasures of non-objective imagery to become artworks that don’t quite fit into the categories of painting, collage, weaving, or sculpture.

Martin George makes artworks by translating memory and observation with imagination and intuitive process.

He has an experimental approach to artmaking where ideas are developed in the studio without knowing the outcome.

Since 2016 he has held six solo exhibitions and over twenty group exhibitions in Melbourne, interstate and overseas. His work has been shortlisted for several Australian art prizes, including the ‘Bayside Painting Prize’.

Martin is represented by Nicholas Thompson Gallery.


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Image 1: Eva Stimson Clark
Image 2: Martin George. Photo Wade Muschiallie
Image 3: Billilla Mansion exterior and gardens. Photo: Mark Ashkanasy

Shared Space: HKAS-RMIT Collaborative Student Drawing Exchange Project
26 January - 27 February, 2026
Hong Kong Arts Centre
Wan Chai, Hong Kong

Curated by Greg Creek and Simon Wan

The exhibition is the product of a collaborative drawing exchange project by students from Hong Kong Art School, Hong Kong and RMIT University School of Art, Melbourne.

The aim of the project was to demonstrate the creative richness of exchange and peer-to-peer practices but also to increase the shared awareness of each of our cohorts in the Melbourne and Hong Kong BAFA Program Art Studios.

The process was very simple.

Hong Kong students were invited to take a photograph or image each of somewhere or something relevant to their Hong Kong studio spaces (at Shau Kei Wan or Chai Wan) and then to produce a small drawing in response using any mediums or style. Their reference image could be a detail, a view, a fragment, an abstraction or a sensation, colour or black and white, or any scale. Melbourne students were then invited to also make an interpretative drawing from the same photograph.

In turn, a new cohort of Melbourne students were invited to similarly supply an image sourced from their Melbourne art studio spaces, from which both they and another group HKAS students produced works on paper.

Students have not seen the paired responses until these exhibitions, where they are displayed side by side. The mediating image is not included, so what we see are responses to the same stimulus but not the stimulus itself.

The linked drawings extend across a range of approaches, mediums and motifs. Some are representational, others abstract or expressive or diagrammatic. Mediums range from graphite to thread and fabric, and much else in between. Each drawing is approximately 19.5cm high x 14cm wide and placed together with no gap between them – but sometimes the partners have rotated or manipulated the basic format.

What we the viewer experience then is a kind of hybrid – a single work made of parts.

And we become engaged as we naturally try to discern the links and themes that bind the drawings together.

Opening Wednesday 23 February, 5-7pm at First Site Gallery.

‘Future Sonic Ecologies: Re-making mangrove worlds through posthuman soundscape(s)’
On-Site with Pratyay Raha

This exhibition explores mangrove ecologies through acts of listening and the creation of posthuman soundscapes.

Underpinned by Pratyay Raha’s PhD research at RMIT University’s School of Art, this exhibition highlights listening as an active, critical method for engagement, urging audiences to attune to non-human worlds and question human-centric perspectives. It considers sound both as scientific data and as a medium for speculative art, encouraging discussions on conservation, environmental change and regenerative futures. The materials featured in the exhibition were recorded across various mangrove ecologies in India’s Sundarbans, as well as in Mornington Peninsula, Victoria and North Stradbroke Island, Queensland in Australia

‘Future Sonic Ecologies: Re-making mangrove worlds through posthuman soundscape(s)’ is a part of the On-Site exhibition series, a project showcasing the creative research of RMIT postgraduate candidates.

First Site Gallery
Basement, 344 Swanston St, Melbourne

Exhibition dates: 23 February – 20 March 2026

Image credit: Pratyay Raha, ‘Situated listening on the Sundarbans waterways’, 2025. Image by Dipanjan Mishra.

Find out more: https://www.rmit.edu.au/events/2026/february/future-sonic-ecologies

.ecologies

We’re thrilled to announce that Yi Won Park’s PhD examination exhibition, ‘Between Water and Light’, has been extended until Friday 26 February.

PhD Project Title Je (제): ‘Jindgo Story – Korean Shamanism and the Art of Displacement’

‘Jindgo Story’ examines the experience of feeling culturally adrift within my hybrid South Korean-Australian identity, using the aesthetic and symbolic framework of Korean shamanism and autoethnographic reflection. Core elements of Korean shamanic practices, such as ritual, water, colour and light, form primary areas of material investigation in the studio, with a particular focus on the symbolic resonances of these elements. Interdisciplinary practices, such as animation, installation, projection and performance, are explored for their potential to unpack cultural hybridity. Hybrid animal motifs serve as autobiographical metaphors through which to investigate the psychological complexity of hybrid cultural identity, drawing on notions of shamanic spirit animals. A key motif is the ‘Jindgo’, a personal invention that weaves together narratives of the Korean Jindo dog with those of the Australian dingo. Storytelling, a fundamental aspect of Korean shamanism, also forms a core element in this autoethnographic study through the use and analysis of interdisciplinary visual narratives.

Viewing hours this week 
Tues-Fri 12.30-4.30pm

Venue
SITE EIGHT Gallery
Building 2, Level 2, Room 8
Bowen Street (off La Trobe Street)
Melbourne
Lift access via Rodda Lane



Images: Yi Won Park, exhibition details from ‘Between water and light’ ,mixed media installation,2026
Photography by Brent Leideritz
leideritz

The PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival Independent Programme’s International feature: Celebrating Indonesian Design runway show is brought to you by RMIT Fashion and Textiles Design and the Australian Embassy Indonesia. The two institutions share a passion for the potentials of fashion and textiles to share stories, and are committed to showcasing thoughtful and exciting fashion and textile design that celebrates culture and exchange. Led by Associate Dean Design and School of Art alumnus, Dr Tassia Joannides, Associate Lecturer Kate Reynolds, and Lecturer Dr Emma Lynas. The event will be held in the spectacular architectural backdrop of the Salon at The Capitol, showcasing the collections of two prominent Indonesian designers:

https://anwthing.com/ 
https://www.studiojeje.com/ 

Event information: 
Sunday 22nd February 2026
6 pm to 8 pm
Seating by 6:45pm
Runway at 7:00pm
The Capitol, 113 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000

Bookings are free, but space is limited, so please RSVP below to secure your ticket.

Please RSVP via Humanatix by Friday 20th February.  
https://events.humanitix.com/international-feature-celebrating-indonesian-design

The event is proudly presented as part of PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Independent Programme with support from RMIT University, the Australian Embassy Indonesia, Jakarta Fashion Week, Qantas and Dewi Magazine.

More information about the event can be found below.
 https://melbournefashionfestival.com.au/2026-programme/international-feature-celebrating-indonesian-design

Please join us at the opening celebration of Yi won Park’s PhD examination exhibition ‘Between Water and Light’ on Thursday 19 February, 5pm - 7pm at SITE EIGHT Gallery.

PhD Project Title Je (제): ‘Jindgo Story – Korean Shamanism and the Art of Displacement’

‘Jindgo Story’ examines the experience of feeling culturally adrift within my hybrid South Korean-Australian identity, using the aesthetic and symbolic framework of Korean shamanism and autoethnographic reflection. Core elements of Korean shamanic practices, such as ritual, water, colour and light, form primary areas of material investigation in the studio, with a particular focus on the symbolic resonances of these elements. Interdisciplinary practices, such as animation, installation, projection and performance, are explored for their potential to unpack cultural hybridity. Hybrid animal motifs serve as autobiographical metaphors through which to investigate the psychological complexity of hybrid cultural identity, drawing on notions of shamanic spirit animals. A key motif is the ‘Jindgo’, a personal invention that weaves together narratives of the Korean Jindo dog with those of the Australian dingo. Storytelling, a fundamental aspect of Korean shamanism, also forms a core element in this autoethnographic study through the use and analysis of interdisciplinary visual narratives.

Viewing Hours
11:00 am – 5:00 pm
17–20 February 2026

Venue
SITE EIGHT Gallery
Building 2, Level 2, Room 8
Bowen Street (off La Trobe Street)
Melbourne
Lift access via Rodda Lane



Image Caption
Yiwon Park, ‘Between Water and Light’, 2023, Installation with resin sculptures, Dimensions variable
Photograph by Faris Al Amudi