Redland Art Gallery showcases local artists with unique journeys

The upcoming exhibitions at Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland feature two local artists with unique creative journeys including one who last year had her work exhibited in Ukraine.

Rachael Wellisch – Polymorphic Magic: Textiles Transformed and Fiona West – The Marvellous and Magical: Collage and the Moving image open on Sunday 26 June and run until Sunday 14 August, 2022.

Redland City Council Mayor Karen Williams said the new exhibitions showcased two talented Queensland resident artists who used different mediums and whose work has been showcased in galleries around the world.

“The exhibitions are both very different in the materials they work with, their artistic approaches and the messages and themes that they’re both trying to convey and explore,” Cr Williams said.

“Rachael Wellisch’s use of textiles, colour and shape is not something you see in exhibitions on a regular basis and should mesmerise people, while the way that Fiona West uses large scale imagery and projection but with a whimsical tone and feel should intrigue, entertain and delight visitors to her exhibition.”

Rachael describes herself as an artist who “unifies different techniques with shades of natural indigo dye and who uses discarded, threadbare clothes and worn out bedsheets that undergo alchemical alterations to refabricate into sculptures, hand-made paper and installations.”

Rachael has exhibited in Australia and overseas including in New York, London, Vienna, Budapest, Japan, Ireland and Slovakia.

In 2021, Rachael’s work was featured in Scythia, the 10th International Mini Textile Art Exhibition, Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine.

She was one of 131 artists from 35 countries around the world whose work was selected for exhibition in what was Ukraine’s first privately organised international art event which has been running since 1995.

Sadly, Ivano-Frankivsk hasn’t escaped the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, having been struck by missiles in February and March.

“While I was delighted to have my work featured in the exhibition last year, what has happened since then in Ukraine is terrible. The work itself in Scythia wasn’t in response to any Ukrainian specific issues,” Rachael said.

“Unfortunately COVID travel restrictions last year prevented me from travelling to Ukraine for the exhibition but earlier this year I reached out to the Scythia organisers via email to express my heartfelt concerns and they appreciated the thoughts.”

Rachael says of her upcoming Redland Art Gallery exhibition:

“While the works may suggest abstractions of nature, such as rock sediment or vistas of water, the materials I use for the exhibition offer a view on the relationship between textile production, consumption and waste.”

Fiona West is a Zimbabwean-born Australian artist and author-illustrator, now based in the Redlands region. In her visual art practice, she works predominantly with large-scale photographs and intimate projections.

She has worked in the arts industry in South Africa, London and Australia, and has recently completed a Doctorate in Visual Arts through Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane. She works from her studio, Elephant Shrew Productions.

Fiona says her upcoming Redlands exhibition features the ‘marvellous and magical’ as characteristics of both puppetry and surrealism are used by her within ongoing investigations into lived experiences of displacement and belonging.

Fiona’s exhibition features large-scale photographs and intimate projections that are handcrafted using a collage and puppet typology. Visual tricks, nostalgia, childhood desires, dreams and memories create a sense of the whimsy and fantastical that underpins what Fiona calls, her “migratory experiences.”

Both exhibitions will be opened by Dr Carol McGregor, Senior Lecturer and Program Director, Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University at the launch event at 6pm on Friday June 24.

​Bookings are essential for both events. To secure your place, visit:

http://artgallery.redland.qld.gov.au/programs/public-programs/

Upcoming exhibitions at Redland Art Gallery