Jonathon Zalakos, Stretch, 2024. Image courtesy of artist.
Maree Azzopardi, Zara Collins, Brenda Hine, Francis Jaye Johnson, Lynn Petersen,
Sallie Saunders, Melinda Young &
Jonathon Zalakos
Curated by Francis Jaye Johnson
Gallery 3
Opening Thursday 22 January, 2026, 6-8pm
Friday 23 January - Sunday 15 February
Eight artists, each with distinct material practices, explore the physicality of their chosen medium within a one-metre square. Through the power of repetition and the tension between solid mass, texture, and the accumulation of small objects, they investigate how material form can evoke emotion, memory, and landscape.
Working with silver, iron, paper, cotton, canvas, ceramic, wool, and natural found objects, each artist constructs a unique terrain. From methodically organised squares of crushed charcoal mixed with sand and bone to botanical prints of iron oxide, the works reveal a spectrum of tactile experiences: iron that appears liquid, porcelain as light as fabric, and found objects transformed into wearable art or elevated as satirical comment of gender politics.
Quirky, foreboding, delicate, spiritual, sensual, and geometric—these miniature terrains resonate beyond their boundaries. United by themes of exploration, environment, and community, the artists create powerful impressions that reflect the energy between collective belonging and the expression of individuality.
About the Artists
Maree Azzopardi
Maree Azzopardi is an Australian–Maltese interdisciplinary artist who lives and works on the Central Coast of NSW on Darkinjung Country. Her work spans painting, photography, and mixed media, using materials such as charcoal, gold leaf, and relic imagery to explore memory, identity, and spiritual transformation. Her work is represented in major collections in Australia, Italy, Malta, Sweden, and the United States. Azzopardi has exhibited internationally alongside artists such as Marina Abramović, Cindy Sherman, and Tracey Moffatt. Highlights include residencies at St Vincent’s Hospital (1995) and Bundanon (2004), and exhibitions in Rome, Valletta, Melbourne, and New York. Her work has featured on the covers of ARTnews and Photofile. She has been a finalist in the Blake, Pro Hart Outback, JADA, and Paddington Art Prizes, and her solo and group exhibitions have toured widely across Europe, Australia, and the Americas. In 2024, Azzopardi won both the Gosford Art Prize and Best Work on Paper at PLC Armidale.
Zara Collins
Zara Collins is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores longing, memory, and the material trace. Working primarily with porcelain and paper, she examines how materials hold history and emotion.
She holds an MFA from the National Art School and a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. Her practice has been supported by an Ian Potter Foundation Cultural Grant and residencies including the Australia–China Council Residency (Beijing), Bundanon, and the NSW Ministry for the Arts residency at The Gunnery.
Zara has exhibited widely, presenting eight solo exhibitions and participating in numerous group shows. Her work has been recognised internationally in exhibitions such as Talente (Germany), Young Glass (Denmark), and the Japanese Jewellery Competition (Tokyo). In Australia, she has been a finalist in major awards including the Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize (winning the People’s Choice Award 2024), Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize, Meroogal Women’s Art Prize, and the Gold Coast International Ceramic Award. She works from her home studio on the Illawarra Coast.
Brenda Hine
Brenda Hine is an emerging mixed-media artist based in Canberra, with a practice shaped by her years living and exhibiting in regional Victoria. Working with paper, vintage ephemera, textiles, and stitch, she explores themes of memory and place through collage, printmaking, and bookmaking. She has exhibited widely in regional Victoria, including at Creative Ballarat’s Craft Lab, and is an active member of the Canberra Art Workshop. In Canberra, she regularly shows her work at M16 Artspace, Belconnen Arts Centre, and Strathnairn Arts. Brenda holds a Diploma in Visual Arts and Crafts and has studied at the Australian National University’s School of Art and Design.
Francis Jaye Johnson
Francis Jaye Johnson is an emerging experimental printmaker living and working on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country. Her practice explores the power of repetition and the quiet strength of small works made en masse. Each piece begins with a bold, dark printed mark on white paper, which Johnson transforms through abstraction and subversion—using text, hand-colouring, layering, and embellishment to build depth and nuance.
Her process is both meditative and exploratory, revealing how repetition can evolve into rhythm, narrative, and surprise. In 2024, Johnson was awarded Second Prize in the Craft + Design Canberra Journalling Art Challenge and received the People’s Choice Award at Brunswick Street Gallery’s Small Works Prize.
Lynn Petersen
Lynn Petersen lives on Ngunnawal country in the ACT. Her playful felt-making, textile, and installation practice explores domestic craft, interactive fabric narratives, and tactile memory through finger puppets and soft accumulations. Her career includes exhibiting installation works at regional arts centres and leading community-based making sessions. Lynn was recently finalist in the 2025 Craft + Design Canberra Journalling Art Challenge and received the Curatoreum Prize alongside Sally Blake.
Sallie Saunders
Sallie Saunders lives and works in Canberra on Ngunnawal/Ngambri land. Her mixed-media practice includes encaustic art, acrylic and collage, textile work, and watercolour. Her art explores identity, memory, and place, often referencing the ‘forgotten’ art and craft traditions of women from diverse cultures.
Sallie’s work for this exhibition explores the complex terrain of domestic servitude, the undervaluing of women’s work and creativity - and the erasure of the value of all unpaid labour to the productivity and well-being of the nation.
Sallie was a finalist in the 2023 Historic Houses Canberra Art Prize and received First Prize for a mixed-media work at the ASOC Spring Exhibition. An exhibiting member of the Canberra Art Workshop, she regularly shows work at M16 Artspace, Belconnen Arts Centre, Strathnairn Arts, and The Front Gallery. Her work is held in private collections in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK
Melinda Young
Melinda Young lives and works on Dharawal Country. Her research-based craft practice reflects experiences of being in and understanding place, underpinned by the complexities of place-based making in contemporary Australia. She is interested in materiality—the traces of human and non-human interactions left on the body and the land—working with narratives inherent in gleaned or repurposed materials.
Exhibiting extensively in Australia and internationally since 1997, her work is held in public collections and documented in numerous publications. Melinda has worked within the contemporary craft and design field for over 25 years as an educator, curator, and writer. She holds a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts and is currently undertaking a cross-disciplinary PhD in Human Geography and Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong. She is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Art & Design, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW.
Jonathon Zalakos
Jonathon Zalakos, originally from Canberra (Ngunnawal and Ngambri land), is currently completing his MFA in Jewellery and Metals at the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States. His contemporary jewellery and object practice merges traditional goldsmithing techniques with digital media and philosophical inquiry, examining how meaning is co-produced through material and perception. His work ranges from crafting the gold “grill” for Genesis Owusu’s ARIA-winning album cover to receiving the 2022 CAPO Award through Craft + Design Canberra.