Bringing contemporary art, design and fashion together, New Exuberance celebrates creative collaboration, sustainability and the versatility of textile craft. Incorporating graphic, furniture and product design, fashion and the visual arts, the works play with surface patterning, material experimentation, storytelling and conceptual ideas.
Australian textile-based practices are flourishing, with makers finding renewed confidence in community-driven products and collaborations. The notable visibility of First Nations’ practices is partly due to the passionate vision of new enterprises like First Nations Fashion + Design, reinforced by meaningful and covetable textile designs produced by artists across the ‘Top End’, in remote art centres and in urban collectives across the country.
The exhibition showcases the work of more than 30 textile creatives and includes 10 commissioned furniture pieces produced by designers associated with JamFactory.
Featuring Bábbarra Women’s Centre x Daniel Emma, Frida Las Vegas, Grace Lillian Lee, Hannah Gartside, Ikuntji Artists, Iordanes Spyridon Gogos, Jemima Wyman, Kate Just, Lisa Waup x Verner, Nina Walton, Nixi Killick, Paul McCann, Romance Was Born, The Social Studio x Among Atem x Romance Was Born, Tiwi Design, Vita Cochran, Wah-Wah Australia with Kaylene Whiskey, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran and Reg Mombasa.
Image: WAH-WAH x Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, 2022 (detail), Australian merino wool as modelled by Ramesh, Kirthana Selvaraj, Remy Faint, Julie Faint. Stylist Kirsty Barros. Photo Lexi Laphor. Courtesy of WAH-WAH Australia, Matilda Riddle.
Symposium: Contemporary Australian Fashion Here & Now
Thursday 2 May, 9.30am-4.30pm
Join industry leaders, curators and designers for a full day of in-depth discussion about Australia’s fashion industry. Learn about the history of Australian fashion, First Nations designers’ work, the significance of fashion as an instrument for responsibility, social consciousness and community collaboration, as well as a tool for cultural and environmental sustainability. Discover what does the future of Australian fashion look like?
Speakers include Meryl Ryan, the exhibition curator, Paola Di Trocchio, a leading fashion curator, writer and speaker, formerly Curator Fashion at the NGV, Nathan McGuire, Director of Mob in Fashion, designer of ready-to-wear men's label SOLID OCHRE and leading First Nations model, Juanita Page, founder and designer of Joseph & James and Nixi Killick, New Exuberance exhibiting artist, designer and imagineer.
Find out more: https://mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au/Events/Symposium-Contemporary-Australian-Fashion-Here-Now
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (MPRG)
Civic Reserve
350 Dunns Road
Mornington VIC 3931
T: +61 (3) 5950 1580
E: mprg@mornpen.vic.gov.au
W: www.mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au
Opening Hours
Tuesday to Sunday: 11am – 4pm
Closed Mondays and all Public Holidays
Free entry
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 and celebrate cultural diversity.
