CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
CARING FOR THE BROKENNESS OF THINGS
A body of work by Anita Johnson presented as part of the requirements for the conferral of the degree: Doctor of Creative Arts.
9 - 24 February 2026 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 9:30am to 4:00pm)
UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG
1 Northfields Avenue, Keiraville.
Please note: The exhibition occupies two gallery spaces:
Start at TAEM Gallery in B25 then send a message to 0416148202 to access the Hope Theatre gallery.
• TAEM Gallery, Building 25, First floor.
• Hope Theatre Project Space, Building 40, Second floor.
As an artist-repairer, Anita Johnson activates broken world thinking and feminist care ethics in the embodied and empathetic ways she works with found-broken objects. Performing with them, felting around them and making prosthetics for objects, approaching them as lively things needing care. Through this object-oriented approach sculptural assemblage is reframed as a form of transformative repair and four categories of broken things are distinguished: broken accidentally, wilfully, durationally neglected or abandoned as unfinished things. By applying the elements of care ethics to inanimate fractured things, Johnson examines how sensations of empathy and solidarity with materials can drive and inform the creative process - when salvaging things, preparing materials, assembling and exhibiting - producing repair-effects on the artist, the objects made, and on the viewer of her works.
SECOND LOOK: LEGACY — AN EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY TEXTILE WORKS.
27 November 2025 — 28 February 2026
Curated by: Barbara Rogers, Michele Elliot, Melinda Young, and Cecilia Heffer
opening 27 November 6-8pm, by A/Prof Belinda von Mengersen.
Australian Design Centre
101 William Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney
https://australiandesigncentre.com/
Artists: Stephanie Beaupark, Boni Cairncross, Vita Cochran, Ro Cook, Michele Elliot, Nicole Ellis, Jo Fowles, Blake Griffiths, Vivien, Haley, Beth Hatton, Cecilia Heffer, Chris Hutch, Anita Johnson, Brenda Livermore, Christina Newberry, Lisa Pang, Emma Peters, Barbara Rogers, Sylvie Veness, and Melinda Young.
The exhibition continues to honour Liz Williamson’s legacy and vision through work that explores concepts of repair, reuse, and innovative approaches to reimagining materials. A showcase of the diverse textile methods and processes practitioners engage with to extend the lifecycle of materials in environmentally creative ways. The event will celebrate the intricate nature of textile thinking inherent in craft skills and how meaning and narratives are expressed and emerge through making.
NATURE MACHINE: 6TH TAMWORTH TEXTILE TRIENNIAL
Saturday, 19 September 2026 to Sunday, 22 November 2026
Opening, 6pm, Friday, 18th September 2026
https://tamworthregionalgallery.com.au/6th-tamworth-textile-triennial
Artists:
Abdullah M. I. Syed | Alycia Bennett | Anita Johnson | Cara Johnson | Ellen Ferrier | Jackson Farley | Jacky Cheng | Jacqueline Stojanovic| Janette Murrungun | Jennifer Robertson | Joseph E Burgess | Juanella Donovan | Juanita McLaulan | Lauren Kerjan | Lucia Dohrmann | Margaret Woodward & Justy Phillips | Rebecca Mayo | Sharon Peoples.
Tamworth Regional Gallery is proud to present Nature Machine: The 6th Tamworth Textile Triennial, a major national exhibition that showcases the vision and innovation of contemporary textile practice across Australia. The Triennial stands as the most important platform for contemporary textile practice in Australia - providing a vital space for artists to explore pressing ideas, connect with audiences, and to continue to sustain, and celebrate the National Textile Collection. The exhibition will be held first in Tamworth Regional Gallery and then tour galleries around Australia for two years.
Curated by Blake Griffiths, Nature Machine brings together leading and emerging textile artists whose practices reflect the profound and often complex ways makers grapple with the complex relationship between hand, body and machine. With boldness and care, the exhibition asks: how can artists create in ways that sustain, rather than deplete, the materials and ecologies they work with? The artists of Nature Machine experiment with growing, harvesting, recycling, and reimagining textile resources, while others turn to the virtual, embracing artificial intelligence and machine production to explore and challenge the changing role of textiles in a technological age. From permaculture to programming, each artist demonstrates how making can become a form of ecological stewardship; their material innovations and technical mastery revealing not only the ingenuity of Australian textile practice today but also, the deep responsibility artists feel toward the environments that sustain them. The exhibition celebrates the diverse ways artists are responding to urgent environmental concerns, protecting traditions, revaluing craft knowledge, and proposing new ways of living with, and making from, the world around us.
BLOG SECTIONS
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
CARING FOR THE BROKENNESS OF THINGS
A body of work by Anita Johnson presented as part of the requirements for the conferral of the degree: Doctor of Creative Arts.
9 - 24 February 2026 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 9:30am to 4:00pm)
UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG
1 Northfields Avenue, Keiraville.
Please note: The exhibition occupies two gallery spaces:
Start at TAEM Gallery in B25 then send a message to 0416148202 to access the Hope Theatre gallery.
• TAEM Gallery, Building 25, First floor.
• Hope Theatre Project Space, Building 40, Second floor.
As an artist-repairer, Anita Johnson activates broken world thinking and feminist care ethics in the embodied and empathetic ways she works with found-broken objects. Performing with them, felting around them and making prosthetics for objects, approaching them as lively things needing care. Through this object-oriented approach sculptural assemblage is reframed as a form of transformative repair and four categories of broken things are distinguished: broken accidentally, wilfully, durationally neglected or abandoned as unfinished things. By applying the elements of care ethics to inanimate fractured things, Johnson examines how sensations of empathy and solidarity with materials can drive and inform the creative process - when salvaging things, preparing materials, assembling and exhibiting - producing repair-effects on the artist, the objects made, and on the viewer of her works.
SECOND LOOK: LEGACY — AN EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY TEXTILE WORKS.
27 November 2025 — 28 February 2026
Curated by: Barbara Rogers, Michele Elliot, Melinda Young, and Cecilia Heffer
opening 27 November 6-8pm, by A/Prof Belinda von Mengersen.
Australian Design Centre
101 William Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney
https://australiandesigncentre.com/
Artists: Stephanie Beaupark, Boni Cairncross, Vita Cochran, Ro Cook, Michele Elliot, Nicole Ellis, Jo Fowles, Blake Griffiths, Vivien, Haley, Beth Hatton, Cecilia Heffer, Chris Hutch, Anita Johnson, Brenda Livermore, Christina Newberry, Lisa Pang, Emma Peters, Barbara Rogers, Sylvie Veness, and Melinda Young.
The exhibition continues to honour Liz Williamson’s legacy and vision through work that explores concepts of repair, reuse, and innovative approaches to reimagining materials. A showcase of the diverse textile methods and processes practitioners engage with to extend the lifecycle of materials in environmentally creative ways. The event will celebrate the intricate nature of textile thinking inherent in craft skills and how meaning and narratives are expressed and emerge through making.
NATURE MACHINE: 6TH TAMWORTH TEXTILE TRIENNIAL
Saturday, 19 September 2026 to Sunday, 22 November 2026
Opening, 6pm, Friday, 18th September 2026
https://tamworthregionalgallery.com.au/6th-tamworth-textile-triennial
Artists:
Abdullah M. I. Syed | Alycia Bennett | Anita Johnson | Cara Johnson | Ellen Ferrier | Jackson Farley | Jacky Cheng | Jacqueline Stojanovic| Janette Murrungun | Jennifer Robertson | Joseph E Burgess | Juanella Donovan | Juanita McLaulan | Lauren Kerjan | Lucia Dohrmann | Margaret Woodward & Justy Phillips | Rebecca Mayo | Sharon Peoples.
Tamworth Regional Gallery is proud to present Nature Machine: The 6th Tamworth Textile Triennial, a major national exhibition that showcases the vision and innovation of contemporary textile practice across Australia. The Triennial stands as the most important platform for contemporary textile practice in Australia - providing a vital space for artists to explore pressing ideas, connect with audiences, and to continue to sustain, and celebrate the National Textile Collection. The exhibition will be held first in Tamworth Regional Gallery and then tour galleries around Australia for two years.
Curated by Blake Griffiths, Nature Machine brings together leading and emerging textile artists whose practices reflect the profound and often complex ways makers grapple with the complex relationship between hand, body and machine. With boldness and care, the exhibition asks: how can artists create in ways that sustain, rather than deplete, the materials and ecologies they work with? The artists of Nature Machine experiment with growing, harvesting, recycling, and reimagining textile resources, while others turn to the virtual, embracing artificial intelligence and machine production to explore and challenge the changing role of textiles in a technological age. From permaculture to programming, each artist demonstrates how making can become a form of ecological stewardship; their material innovations and technical mastery revealing not only the ingenuity of Australian textile practice today but also, the deep responsibility artists feel toward the environments that sustain them. The exhibition celebrates the diverse ways artists are responding to urgent environmental concerns, protecting traditions, revaluing craft knowledge, and proposing new ways of living with, and making from, the world around us.
BLOG SECTIONS