Pictured above: Secret Garden ll, acrylic on canvas board, the second of my two paintings currently on view in the group exhibition, INTERIOR at One Star Gallery, Melbourne.
A woman is often compared to a set of rooms in a house where all doors open, where those who need access to her can freely do so. Yet deep in the house lies one room, the secret room where only she will enter. Deborah's work invites you to ponder on that idea of the secret part of that hidden room.
— Wendy Stavrianos
In recent years, the works of British Arts & Crafts designer and maker May Morris (1862-1938), younger daughter of William and Jane Morris, have infiltrated my own imagery, in particular, patterns and motifs adapted from her wallpaper and needlework designs.
My paintings are additionally informed by her friend Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s seminal short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ (1892). The story’s protagonist, a woman isolated in a barred room while undergoing an enforced “rest cure”, becomes fixated on freeing a woman who is apparently trapped behind the wallpaper, and subsequently (as her grip on reality becomes even more tenuous), other women who are trapped there.
- Deborah Klein, August 2026
INTERIOR officially opened on Friday, 14th August. The following views were snapped during the opening celebration.
Above, L-R: INTERIOR artists Shane Jones, Deborah Klein and Ann Holt in front of our works. Photographer: Victoria Hartcup, whose work hangs directly above Ann.
INTERIOR
One Star Gallery
301 - 303 Victoria Street
West Melbourne VIC 3002
EXHIBITION DATES: Thursday 13th - Sunday 30th August
Closing Drinks: Sunday August 30th, 3-5pm
Scroll down to my previous post for further information about INTERIOR, including a complete list of artists.
