Michael Desmond, You are here (detail), 2025. Image courtesy of the artist.
Michael Desmond, Peta Jones,
Bryn Desmond-Jones & Ossian Desmond-Jones
Gallery 1 & Gallery 2
Friday 5 September - Sunday 28 September
Opening Thursday 4 September 2025, 6pm-8pm
The exhibition is intended to extend the research of our previous family exhibition, Four views of Black Mountain, held at M16 in 2023. The Botanic Gardens allow an appreciation of the sheer diversity of plants from all over Australia as well as local flora and fauna. The Gardens combine the idea of plant zoo and conservation center with a focus into research into plant taxonomy. In addition to the scientific side, the Botanic Gardens in Canberra have strong community connections and it is an iconic site of discovery, reflection and memory. The Gardens work as an important bridge between city and natural environment, increasingly significant given climate change. The intention of the exhibition is to channel the stunning patterns, colours and forms of the Botanic Gardens to interweave beauty and emotion and generate an appreciation of the poetry of this unique site.
As each of the individual artist has a different approach to art making, their different use of media is intended to further reinforce the idea of diversity and playful investigation.
About the Artists
Michael Desmond
Michael Desmond will exhibit a series of figurative paintings and drawings with an emphasis on colour. Paintings might also be combined in groups of multiple panels like screens. His subject matter draws on the flora and fauna of the Botanic Gardens, interpreted via a personal mythology.
Peta Jones
Peta Jones has worked with photography, textiles and sculpture. Her drawings are inspired by the forms found in nature and relate back to the human form. For the exhibition Rendezvous: Notes from the Botanic Gardens, she will present a series of observational drawings as well as large pastels and watercolours considering the architecture of various plants as increasingly abstract forms.
Bryn Desmond-Jones
Bryn Desmond-Jones completed a Masters degree in Electronic arts (RMIT) and works in Computer Animation and Illustration. (View online portfolio www.bryndj.com) He has previously exhibited animations, 'zines, paper cut-outs and screen prints in Sydney but will for this show exhibit a temporary wall drawing as well as a collaborative interactive installation with Ossian Desmond-Jones.
Ossian Desmond-Jones
Ossian Desmond-Jones completed a Masters degree in Advanced Computer Science at ANU in 2017. His continuing interest in Photography, particularly in Alternative processes has seen him attend several workshops held at the Gold Street Studios in Trentham working in various methods of the photographic process. For this exhibition Ossian will make photographic prints of the gardens using 19th century equipment and processes such as carbon and salt prints.
