About the artists:

Robert Baines is a jeweller and a scholar. His astonishingly detailed metalwork, reflects studies in archaeometallurgy, embodies ancient techniques, such as linear wirework and granulation, with the scale, grandeur, and irony of current practice. He sometimes incorporates objects, either found or fabricated, into his complex “worlds,” often commenting sardonically on historical narratives. One of the most prominent contemporary goldsmiths in the world, he has been included in many solo and group exhibitions, most recently Fake News and True Love: Fourteen Stories by Robert Baines at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York (2019). He is the recipient of numerous international awards, among them the Bayerischer State Prize (2005) and Friedrich Becker Prize (2008) from Germany; and the Cicely and Colin Rigg Craft Award (1997), the richest craft prize in Australia. He holds a PhD from RMIT in Melbourne, where he is a professor emeritus of gold and silversmithing. In 2010, he was designated a Living Treasure: Master of Australian Craft. His work is in countless international museum collections, including National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Powerhouse Museum, Sidney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg;and Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Baines was designated Klassiker der Moderne (Modern Classic) at “Schmuck,” during Munich Jewellery Week 2022.

Roseanne Bartley is an artist/jeweller who works in an expanded relational frame. Her practice encompasses various modes of material engagement, including social processes, ambulatory and studio-based making. Born in Aotearoa/New Zealand Roseanne holds a practice-led PhD (School of Architecture) from RMIT University. She was awarded the Australia Council Barcelona residency in 2006, has received support from Australia Council (2001, 2004, 2012) Arts Victoria (2001, 2008), Punctum and the Ian Potter Foundation. Her work has been collected by NGV, Powerhouse Museum and Toowoomba Regional Gallery.

Renee Becker is a practising jeweller and metal artist from Naarm. Inspired by life's subtleties, her work is imbued with humour and playful, heartfelt sentiment. Renee likes to mark her pieces with words and subtle texture to encourage engagement. Valuing simplicity and authenticity, she allows unexpected details to shape her finished pieces. Renee’s work is reflective of her appreciation for the richness and levity found in everyday experiences.

James Cattell is a multimedia artist based born in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington, New Zealand he moved to Naarm in 1979. James creates large public art, intricate animatronic robotic sculptures and anything in between. In 1988 James established 'Honeyweather & Speight' with partner Dorelle Davidson. Since then, he has produced numerous plaster fish, paintings, mosaics, props, museum models, ceramic works, furniture items, playground pieces, carvings, mannequins, jewellery boxes, puppets, automatons, toys, murals & sculptures, as well as three picture story books; while continuing to exhibit works from the studio practice in a variety of shows and galleries.

Su san Cohn is a jew­eller and artist who utilis­es tech­nol­o­gy to mod­ernise her craft. Her work explores the val­ue and typol­o­gy of jew­ellery, draw­ing from a range of influ­ences includ­ing elec­tron­ic and dig­i­tal media, med­ical media, street and youth cul­ture, and futur­is­tic visions of cyber­space. With a his­to­ry of work­ing across art, craft, and design, Cohn’s approach to her work is eru­dite. Su san Cohn has exhib­it­ed exten­sive­ly in Aus­tralia and inter­na­tion­al­ly, and the work is held in major pub­lic and pri­vate col­lec­tions such as the Vic­to­ria & Albert Muse­um, Lon­don, Eng­land; The Shang­hai Muse­um, Chi­na; Musée des Arts Déco­rat­ifs, Paris, France; The Nation­al Gallery of Aus­tralia, Can­ber­ra; and the Nation­al Gallery of Vic­to­ria, Melbourne. Su San Cohn is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery and her work for this exhibition is courtesy Workshop 3000.

Ross Coulter is an artist working on the traditional lands of the Yalukit Willam clan of the Boon Wurrung. He holds a BFA (Hons) in Photography and MFA (Research) from the Victoria College of the Arts. Coulter has exhibited widely in a variety of artist-run initiatives  and  public institutions locally and internationally including a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria and a group exhibition at the Matsudai Nohbutai Arts Centre in Japan. Video, still photography, portraiture, performance, painting, installation, are all mediums he uses  in his artistic practice. “When I was in Year 8 at Upper Yarra High Tech I studied jewellery under Mr McGill.  Often you don’t remember too much about high school teachers, but I distinctly remember Mr McGill. He talked about collecting gold filing in his leather apron that would be melted down and used later, he taught us how to make rings, broaches and pins, saw pierced pieces and about enamelling. Mr McGill cared about his young jewellery students and knew how to inspire and encourage them…The other teacher I remember from that time was from Mr Cross. He said if you’re running, and it feels like you have a stone in your shoe, stop and check, you might have a stone in your shoe.”

Hedwig Crombie is a Naarm based artist. Crombie’s work explores jewellery and sculptural works based on Anglo-Celtic and Greco-Roman folklore, mythology and Paganism. Hedwig transforms characters from old prints and illustrations into wearable pieces, allowing the audience to weave their own stories around them.  Hedwig studied at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland and is a graduate of RMIT University (Gold and Silversmithing), Naarm/Melbourne.

Marcus Davidson is a master craftsman in gold and silver smithing, Bakelite carving, conservation and designing and fabricating unique architectural fittings. He trained as a young man on the jewellery benches of Melbourne’s finest jewellers alongside craftsmen from Turkey, Armenia, Egypt, Hungary and Russia. There he learned the traditions of gold and silver smithing, working with metals, gem hunting, setting, casting and developing designs. Over the past 40 years he has applied these master skills to all his work to create unique pieces for clients around the world. “I work in a paradox. The inspiration is antiquity, but the work is very much a product of the 21st century. I forge fuse and pin things like a 15th century artisan, but I often use bakelite, the world’s first thermoplastic, as a transport for gold, silver, platinum and gemstones. I am inspired by the otherness of materials, the mystery. How bakelite can be carved to appear like something else, a stone, coral, or wood grain and gemstones become pools of colour that you are drawn into.I work bakelite using traditional lapidary techniques, forming and carving the material wet. And like a sculptor facing stone or marble, I have to attend to the grain and structure before I make each piece.”

Andrea Eckersley is an artist and creative practice researcher at RMIT University working at the intersection of painting, fashion and design. Andrea’s work emphasises the construction and exhibition of new forms as a means of interrogating the affective and embodied experience of place, identity and community. These themes are canvassed in her scholarly publications and are the focus of her exhibition practice. Andrea is the art editor at the Deleuze and Guattari Studies Journal and has exhibited at Sarah Scout Presents, Mejia, Platform Public Contemporary Art Spaces, Anna Pappas Gallery, Nellie Castan Gallery, Craft Victoria, c3 and West Space in Naarm.

Jacquelyn Greenbank is an Ōtautahi-based artist working in sculpture and installation. Since graduating from Ilam School of Fine Arts at Canterbury University with a Distinction in Painting, Greenbank has exhibited in galleries and biennials in Aotearoa and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Starfruit and Starfruit Fruiterer in SCAPE Public Art Season 2020, Pork Chop Express at the Ashburton Art Gallery (2022) and The Golden Lady Finger at Objectspace, Auckland (2022). Greenbank’s work is held in major public and private collections. She won the Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award (2021), was recipient of the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Art Award (2015), and was a finalist in the Portage Ceramic Awards (2017, 2018).

Teegan Horat is a multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm, working across various media including silver, ceramics, found objects, and illustration. Her research work interrogates the materiality of objects and spaces, aiming to uncover and reflect on the histories of human interaction embedded within them. Her jewellery is characterised by recurrent natural and celestial motifs, drawing on historical forms to create pieces that evoke reverence and sentimentality. She holds a Bachelor in Fine Art (Honours) from RMIT University and a Diploma in Product Design from RMIT TAFE.

Minhi Park is a Korean living and making ceramics in Naarm. Minhi’s work reflects her fascination with natural lines and imperfection, as well as her appreciation and respect in raw and traditional forms that are found in old Korean cultures such as heritage buildings, monuments, crafts or even daily necessities that were used in the old days.  She continually refines her work using traditional Korean techniques that explore the lines, faces and figures with modern materials that she can find in different places. In a modern society where individuality is important, she works with the goal of permeating someone's daily life by combining their different interpretations with Minhi's efforts and sensibilities. Having studied ceramics at Kunkuk university in Seoul, Minhi then travelled and worked in several professions for about 12 years. She restarted her ceramics career in her third year in Australia where she worked as an apprentice in a ceramic studio in North Carlton. She now works independently as an artist from her home studio. 

Sean Peoples is a multidisciplinary artist with an interest in imitation, appropriation and collage. Informed by extensive research, his work seeks to integrate and parallel disparate ideas and concerns, often employing networks and models as a visual device. Peoples is also one half of The Telepathy Project, a collaboration formed in 2005 with artist Veronica Kent. Within their practice telepathy serves as an extended metaphor and working methodology through which they explore alternate ways of being, communicating and collaborating. Recent exhibitions include: Sorting Demon II, STATION, Melbourne; Alien Antique, TCB, Melbourne; Country Home Ideas, Bus projects, Melbourne; Human Animal Artist, McClelland Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne; Gertrude Studios 2015, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne; Time Inferno, Et al., San Francisco, US; Transmission, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Minor Treat, Punk Cafe, Melbourne; Primavera 2014: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

Jordan Marani makes darkly humorous work involving personal narratives, cynical observations of the human condition and explorations of family, loss and the past. Through painting and sculpture employing bright colour, humour and word play, he explores the funny side of the dark side. Recent works continue to utilise humble materials, such as bed sheets and handkerchiefs, alongside more formal and polished works on board and canvas. Marani blends lowbrow culture with high art, with an insistence on the value of the working class and crass. From 2008-2011 Jordan was co-founder and director of Hell Gallery. His work has been exhibited at Tate Modern, the National Gallery of Victoria, NADA New York, the Spinnerei Leipzig, SOCIAL Hobart, Shepparton Art Museum, Static Gallery Liverpool, Switchback Gallery, 200 Gertrude Street, Daine Singer, Neon Parc, Utopian Slumps, Ryan Renshaw, Ray Hughes Gallery, Powell Street Gallery and at ARIs including Death Be Kind, Inflight, Seventh, and West Space. He has participated in residencies at the Leipzig International Art Programme in Germany, Driving Creek Pottery in Aotearoa New Zealand, Police Point Artist-in-Residence Program Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Australia Council Liverpool Residency and Gertrude Contemporary. His work is held in the collections of the Yarra City Council, Merri-bek Art Collection, LIA Leipzig, and Ararat Textile Art Museum. Jordan Marani is represented by Daine Singer.

Mascha Moje’s practice distills ideas of material memory, while employing the impeccable craft of the master maker across a broad range of materials. For more than two decades Moje has predominantly worked within the field of Jewellery, her interest stemming from questions of how objects are worn and the interface of body and object. She employs a reductionist mode of making, fascinated with the language of the material and the essence of form. Moje’s practice is not defined by material, craft or placement, but the careful consideration of given parameters, be they the interface of body and worn object or object in space. Moje welcomes these challenges to expand on possible answers around closely investigated concepts. Mascha Moje was born in Hamburg Germany. In 1984 she travelled to Australia to undertake training in gold and silversmithing at the Australian National University, Canberra Institute of the Arts, completing her studies in 1989.  She went on to teaching roles at RMIT University, ANU and Monash University. Moje has exhibited extensively in Australia, as well as exhibitions in Denmark, Holland, Belgium, New York, Germany, Austria, Japan and completed a 3-month residency in the Ceramic Centre Hertogenbosch, Holland. Her work is widely collected in both private and public collections including NGA, NGV, AGSA, Museum for Art and Design in New York, and several public collections in Germany.

Yongping Ren is an artist working across clay, paper, drawing and colour. He is currently studying in the MFA program at RMIT and has been running @run.artistrun, Docklands since 2023.

Dell Stewart’s work combines various processes (ceramics, textiles, animation, hospitality) with a deeply embedded personal story. These practices and references assemble in immersive environments, exhibitions, publications and hands-on workshops, seeking opportunistic gatherings of people and materials. Stewart has organised and participated in numerous exhibitions, and has shown extensively in Australia and overseas. Most recently curating an exhibition and series of public programs, Tree Log Paper Book at Bus Projects in 2022. She completed a Masters of Fine Arts at Monash University in 2022 with research focused on fostering new material connections and collaboration. 

Audrey Tan is a multidisciplinary artist and jeweller currently based in Naarm via Boorloo. Working across drawing, bricolage, metalsmithing and gardening, Audrey is specifically interested in the entanglements that exist between people and objects - and how objects of adornment can act as absorbers of energy, and markers of time, site and self. Recent exhibitions include triple power of plants, Goolugatup Heathcote (WA), I’m writing this in case there is a spell to make me forget, Assembly Point (VIC), eternal return boulevard, TCB Gallery (VIC), Swamp Breathing, Blindside (VIC) & blowing my nose on the hem of my dress, Mailbox Art Space (VIC).

Meredith Turnbull’s practice focuses on the world of things as the form-creating basis of culture. She is interested in making and material, and the experiential and temporal register of forms. Her practice engages various disciplines and approaches including making, writing, curating, collaboration and inter-generational production. Turnbull is a Naarm based artist, curator and writer. She has exhibited and curated exhibitions nationally and internationally, developed major projects in Australia for Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University, the Centre for Contemporary Photography, the National Gallery of Victoria and Heide Museum of Modern Art. Meredith Turnbull is represented by Daine Singer.

Roma Turnbull-Coulter is an emerging artist based in Naarm, who’s practice includes slime, painting, drawing, photography, video, performance and sculpture. Roma’s first exhibition was in 2016 when she was invited collaborate with Meredith Turnbull in the group exhibition “Mum” at the Stockroom in Kyneton, curated by Claire Needham. She has subsequently gone on to show in the annual c3 fundraiser, ‘Faux Studio’ in 2016, with Ross Coulter at Musée du Strip in 2019 and in ‘All Together’ at Social at Salamanca Arts Centre and at SAM Shepparton in 2022.

Manon van Kouswijk is a Dutch artist and contemporary jeweller who lives and works in Naarm and Toora, Australia. She studied fine art and contemporary jewellery at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam where later she worked as Head of the Jewellery Department before moving to Australia in 2010. The word ‘findings’ has multiple meanings. It is commonly used to describe the outcome of research, investigation or a discovery however it also refers to the small tools and various materials used by an artisan: a jeweller’s findings. This duality is very accurate in describing Manon’s position as an artist within the field of contemporary jewellery. She views her practice as an ongoing exploration of the potential for jewellery to happen. Her findings are mediated through the making of objects, through photography, drawing, artist books and exhibitions. Rather than having a recognisable visual language, her works are connected through a consistent interest in archetypal objects and in the public and private contexts in which these objects are used, worn, displayed and / or preserved. Manon’s work is exhibited in galleries and museums and is part of private and public collections worldwide. Manon van Kouswijk is represented by Gallery Funaki.

Mashara Wachjudy’s practice is centered in image-making that extends from photography to poetry, textile, sculpture and installation. Her practice considers observations, thoughts and feelings surrounding memory, archives, architecture, mythology, cross-cultural experience and the spaces in which these things meet and intersect.  Recent projects and exhibitions include Streaming Surrounds residency and performance curated by Temporary Position; Mengingat 25 Tahun Reformasi with Woven Kolektif curated by Dwiki Nugroho Mukti & Savitri Sastrawan at Cemeti Institute in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Text Tile curated by Anna Fiedler, Madeline Simm and Tia Ansell at CAVES in Melbourne, Australia; CASCADE with Woven Kolektif at Outer Space in Brisbane, Australia 2021; and in 2021 she was commissioned by West Space to present a solo exhibition for PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography. Mashara has exhibited extensively across Australia in spaces including Firstdraft, Bus Projects, Casula Powerhouse, Bankstown Art Centre, Outerspace, Byron School of Art, Seventh Gallery, Cement Fondu, The Honeymoon Suite and Verge Gallery as well as internationally.

Benjamin Woods is a practicing in Naarm on Boon wurrung, Bunurong, and Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country. He produces writing, sculpture and sound art through his research into imbalances between notions of form and matter in forming practices. He has been writing about and producing spatial-sonic artworks for the last 15 years. These works focus on intersections of embodied listening with queer practices. He holds a BFA Honours (2010) and MFA (2012) from the Victorian College of the Arts; and a PhD from Monash University, Fine Art (2022). He is often working collaboratively and collectively, such as in Tributaries (with Geoff Robinson, Saskia Schut, Ying-Lan Dann), and in Lèlè/乐乐 (with Yongping Ren)."