VTS group work_2016

Back and Forth - Callum Preston

Back
Back and Forth by callum-preston

Back and Forth - Callum Preston

23 Jun 2025 – 24 Oct 2025


The world around us is in constant motion, a series of actions and reactions that make up our time on Earth. Back and Forth is a celebration- willing the chaos to be calming and finding inspiration in the everyday. 

Artist Callum Preston spent his first 20 years in Hume, growing up in the suburb of Westmeadows. An energetic child, he skated streets, biked under flightpaths, splashed through creeks, and explored neighbourhoods, always chasing the next adventure. To Preston, Hume represents this ongoing movement and youthful energy. 

This series of paintings capture sense memories- flashes of light, colour, and feeling. Using sharp, controlled brushstrokes, Preston draws on the bold visual language of everyday signs: shop fronts, bus stop numbers, council wayfinding, and school notes. These simplified flashcards represent ordinary moments that quietly shape the experience of growing up, balancing self-purpose with an uncertain future. 

Preston is a self-taught graphic designer and artist focused on nostalgia. His work spans murals, commercial projects, and solo exhibitions worldwide. His installations invite viewers to revisit personal memories while sharing his own stories. 

Created in his Broadmeadows studio with mostly salvaged materials, Back and Forth highlights reuse as a core part of his practice. 

This exhibition was commissioned as part of the 2025 Hume Winter Lights Festival, Hume City's premier arts and cultural event, held biennially in Broadmeadows. 


gallery

Town Hall Broadmeadows
10 Dimboola Road
Broadmeadows, 3047

Hours
Monday: 8.30am - 5.00pm
Tuesday: 8.30am - 5.00pm
Wednesday: 8.30am - 5.00pm
Thursday: 8.30am - 5.00pm
Friday: 8.30am - 5.00pm
Saturday & Sunday: Closed

Contact: Hume Galleries - gallery@hume.vic.gov.au


The Public Galleries Association of Victoria (PGAV) acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the lands where our office is located, and all Traditional Owners of country throughout Victoria and Australia. We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples enduring traditions and continuing creative cultures. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging.

We are an LGBTQIA+ friendly organisation that celebrates diversity. We are committed to providing safe, culturally appropriate, and inclusive services for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, disability, sexuality, or gender identity.

Aboriginal Flag
Torres Straight Islander Flag
Progress-Pride-Flag