waste not, want not artists & makers
jane bodnaruk
In 2020, Jane Bodnaruk completed a Master of Visual Arts at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. Jane utilises textiles – preferably second hand, to make art engaging with women and their lives, past and present. In 2023, she was invited to exhibit in with a small group of artists in the exhibition Texture at Canberra Contemporary Art Space Lakeside, curated by Dan Toua. Jane created a set of 6 vignettes focused on the varied manifestations and providers of care. Also, in 2023 she had a solo exhibition, Is it over yet?, at Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney.
In 2022, she was invited to exhibit at ANCA gallery, Canberra in Otherwise and Elsewhere they speak, and Barometer Gallery, Sydney in Second Look II. Jane was a founding member of untethered fibre artists and exhibited with them in NSW and interstate from 2015 until 2022.
rozalie sherwood
Rozalie Sherwood is a mixed media and textile artist working in inks and acrylics on linen, favouring this medium for its refusal to be tightly controlled. After drawing with the inks and acrylics, she uses a sewing machine needle as if it were a pen or pencil – with a technique that allows movement in any direction – to create variations in tone and depth. The stitching holds, contains and supports the story being told.
Having worked in the fashion industry as a practitioner and then teacher, Sherwood has refined her use of textiles and uses her familiarity with cloth, fibres and the tools of the textile trade to her advantage, to develop ways of working that convey her ideas through art-making.
By creating work that embodies the emotion generated by a story or experience, Sherwood’s work becomes a container for stories. Preferring intuitive line-making to precision, she embraces and highlights the accidental.
amanda benn
Amanda Benn (1962), Perth WA., completed a BA Fine Arts Curtin University (1982) majoring in painting and printmaking. She has held five solo exhibitions, including exhibiting paintings and sculptures Perth International Arts Festival (2000) and large-scale sculptures at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (2003). She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions throughout WA. Amanda works from her Beaconsfield studio in Fremantle, WA. Her work is held in private collections and Fremantle Hospital.
nettie sumner
Nettie Sumner is a contemporary artist whose collections evoke stories of Australian landscapes and culture.
Using reimagined traditional crafts, Nettie Sumner creates contemporary work in wire and clay. She has mastered the art of hand knitting wire pods in palettes of metallic, copper, and bronze wires to create strong visual stories and narratives.
Her pieces form a curated collection of installations and sculptures using different techniques, materials and treatments.
jem olsen
Jem is a Ballarat based textile artist and activist with a particular interest in experimental print, collage and embroidery techniques using found objects and upcycled materials. Her work seeks to encourage critical reflection and discussion of current political, social and environmental issues. With a background in psychology and education, she also has a strong interest in the therapeutic outcomes to be gained from engaging in regular arts practice.
kris estreich
Kris Estreich is a mixed media artist working with collage, assemblage, papermaking and drawing. Within her colourful textured works, one can see a diverse, often unexpected range of recycled and repurposed items.
Kris explores various themes from environmental and social issues to humorous aspects of daily life. Over the past 40 years, she has had many solo and group exhibitions. Her most recent solo exhibition was at Logan gallery, Brisbane, in October/November 2022. She lives and works in Brisbane, Queensland.
julia wright
Julia Wright is drawn to weathered, organic, irregular forms and the repetition of simple shapes like clusters of barnacles, seed pods, knotted tree roots and growth patterns of lichen. Her mixed media textiles pieces suggest fragments of landscape without being figurative. Recycled fabrics and threads are hand-dyed and used in combination with wire and shaped metal forms to add delicate details, simple organic structures and focal points within stitched textural compositions.
Julia trained in Applied Design at Edinburgh College of Art and has been teaching Textiles and exhibiting her work for over 20 years. Now based in Manchester, England, she records inspiration through drawing, photography, sampling and creating sketchbooks.
di ellis
Ellis is a Melbourne born artist with a degree in fine art printmaking from RMIT. She has exhibited both in Australia and internationally including the USA and the UK. Current interests include 3D embroidery and embroidered animation. Her embroidery has been featured on the cover of a European Textile Magazine and has been included in the recently published book, Exhuberance An Artists Perspective, showcasing 20 Australian textile artists.
Barbie was conceived as a restorative subject to embroider after the dark days of Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns. From the 2D grew Barbies ride The Lovette based on the 1968 Corvette.
catherine lees
I am a contemporary textile and mixed media artist whose work reflects a lifelong interest in the expression of ideas through creativity and design.
The tactile quality of textile art inspires me, especially when combined with non-traditional materials such as metal, metallic threads and fabrics, and organic materials – and how each evokes different emotional responses.
I also appreciate the contradiction between textile delicacy and strength, and enjoy exploring how these materials can be formed into both structured and also more fluid pieces that reflect modern simplicity and abstract sensations through concepts of interest.
Apart from growing up in Sydney, I have also been fortunate to live in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong and be inspired by these international arts communities.
adelaide butler
Adelaide Butler is an emerging artist currently studying at the Australian National University. She has had the privilege of exhibiting at major Australian institutions including the National Gallery of Victoria as well as in international exhibitions. Her work centres on women’s narratives, particularly in domestic spaces, expressed primarily through embroidered ‘slow animations’.
karryn argus
Karryn Argus is a queer feminist artist currently living and working in Melbourne.
Karryn’s practice revolves around themes of materiality and the body, placing particular importance on her personal experience of vulnerability and loss. Feminist methodologies of feeling and listening are central to her making process with form, texture, and touch integral to her textile and sculpture work.
Karryn has had solo and selected exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, and regional Victoria, and New South Wales. She has exhibited three collaborative projects with the BOOB team and is keen to work on collaborative projects with other artists. She has been a finalist in numerous art prizes and her work is held in private collections in Australia.
She holds a Master of Fine Art from RMIT, a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours from Monash University, A Diploma of Visual Art from Victoria University and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Social Sciences from La Trobe University. Craft-based skills are central to her practice, and these were taught to her by my mother Marion Waters, and her grandmothers Eileen Argus and Mary Dalton. She has worked in Adult Education for 20 years and currently teaches the Diploma of Visual Arts.
miranda brett
Miranda Brett is a Melbourne based texile artist. Her artworks arise from a collaboration with materials at hand and as an exploration of the inner and outer worlds. She enjoys the process of integrating diverse materials and revealing their intertwining story within through feltmaking, embroidery and collage.
Miranda has participated in various exhibitions in Geelong, Melbourne, NSW and the UK, culminating in a solo exhibition “Wool; in the Making” Hay NSW 2019.
katherine marmaras
Katherine Marmaras is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Djilong and Naarm, who graduated from RMIT with a Diploma of Visual Arts (Printmaking) in 2010.
Working intuitively, Katherine finds inspiration in the process itself and the materials she has at hand. As she transforms and adapts known techniques, materials and objects, her aim is to capture and reveal their hidden beauty and urge the viewer to take a closer look.
Katherine’s Greek heritage has a significant influence on her work, as she recalls childhood memories of visiting fabric stores with her tailor father and admiring the handcrafted tapestries, weavings, and lacework of her mother and grandmothers. These instilled a profound love and appreciation for pattern and colour, and making by hand.
Her work has been exhibited in numerous group exhibitions in Australia and overseas, and she has received recognition as a finalist for various prestigious awards and prizes.