IRREPRESSIBLE: Opening Event

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Featured here are selected highlights from yesterday afternoon’s opening of IRREPRESSIBLE at Whitehorse Artspace. That’s me directly above, alongside my hand-coloured linocut, Everything’s Coming Up Roses.* 

Among those also pictured, in no particular order, are IRREPRESSIBLE artist/curator Rona Green (images 2,3, 9 and 10) and the ever-irrepressible Press Gang, including lead singer and lyricist extraordinaire Jazmina Cininas, (images 5, 6 and 7) with Jim Pavlidis on guitar (images 5, 6 and 8).

Also pictured is Cr Kirsten Langford, Mayor, Whitehorse City Council, who launched the exhibition (image 2, right hand side).

No mere blog post can possibly do justice to an exhibition of this scope, and this one doesn’t even come close. It was great to see so many of the artists there, along with their works, including Clayton Tremlett (image 20) and Kate Gorringe-Smith (image 22; Kate’s work is in the upper left hand corner). Others (several of them old friends) can be spotted in the crowd scenes. 

A highlight, among so many, was seeing Richard Harding’s final work, superbly brought to realisation by Deborah Williams, in the flesh. (Image 21).

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to have been included in numerous Rona Green exhibitions/print exchanges. Invariably, however, it takes awhile to sink in that aside from contributing to the exhibition, I will be also be the proud possessor of a complete set of prints - which now includes all of those in this stunning exhibition. 

Aside from the IRREPRESSIBLE folios distributed to the 53 participating artists, Folio #56/56 will enter the permanent collection of City of Whitehorse.

IRREPRESSIBLE demonstrates the extraordinary range and sophistication of the relief print like no other exhibition I’ve seen. Thank you for having us, Whitehorse Artspace, and also for the impeccable hang. Last, but not least, enormous thanks to Rona Green for coordinating this massive project, and for inviting me to be part of it. 

IRREPRESSIBLE runs to 16 May, 2026.

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Directly below are a series of installation views.

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In addition, my two-colour linocut, Anon, 1998 (images 35 and 36 below) has been included in MIRROR IMAGE: PRINTS FROM WHITEHORSE ART COLLECTION, currently on view in the adjoining All Nations Foyer and running to 2 May. 

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*As previously noted, my IRREPRESSIBLE linocut takes its title from the song standard, Everything’s Coming Up Roses. Its lyric is by the late, great Stephen Sondheim. (Regular visitors to this blog will already be aware that I’m a Sondheim tragic). Coincidentally, today is the ninety-sixth anniversary of the great man’s birth.

MIRROR IMAGE: Prints from Whitehorse Art Collection

 In the lead-up to the opening of the relief printmaking exhibition, Irrepressible at Whitehorse Artspace, Mirror Image: Prints from Whitehorse Art Collection, is currently on view at Box Hill Town Hall in the All Nations Foyer, adjacent to Whitehorse Artspace. It will be exhibited in tandem with Irrepressible for the majority of its run. 

My two-colour linocut Anon, 1998, pictured here, is one of the featured works in Mirror Image. Anon was originally commissioned as a Member Print by the Print Council of Australia. Prints from the edition were subsequently acquired by several Australian public galleries. Across the years, Anon has been curated into a number of exhibitions, but this will be the first I’ve had the opportunity to visit. I look forward to reconnecting with the linocut, a key work from the Knots and Braids series, after so many years. 

Mirror Image opened on 7 March and runs to 2 May, 2026. 

Irrepressible opens on 21 March and runs to 16 May, 2026.