Exhibitions and events

For further information on any of the exhibitions and events, please contact the Rockingham Arts Centre on 9527 0734 between 8am-4pm, Monday to Friday (please note these days are subject to change at times). Information on other exhibitions and events can also be found on our What's On Calendar.

Never Alone: Human, Animal, Artist Group ExhibitionSculpture of a small egg on a wire nest.

  • Exhibition dates: Wednesday 6 March to Sunday 24 March 2024  
  • Opening times: 10am - 4pm, Wednesday to Sunday
  • Location: Rockingham Arts Centre, 11 Kent Street, Rockingham  
  • Room: Main gallery
  • Cost: Free entry 
  • Opening Event: Saturday 9 March, 2pm - 4pm. Register for Opening Event
  • Artist Talks: Sunday 17 March, 2pm. Afternoon tea included. Register for Artist Talks

The artists in this exhibition explore the impacts of crises such as climate and the pandemic and how they have given cause to re-consider our position as the dominant species in the natural world. Looking close to home, to the animals that we share our urban and suburban spaces with the artists ponder whether or not our desire to re-connect with other animals is a means of feeling less alone? 

About the artists

  • Charmaine Ball is a visual artist in Boorloo/Perth. Her practice responds to structural elements encountered in the built environment. Architecture and materials – forms, angles, and shadows – provide impetus for response. Spanning painting and sculpture, an exploration of line, shape and colour characterises her work. Balls work is held in both private and public collections.   
  • Boorloo/Perth artist Jane Grierson studied at North Metropolitan TAFE before completing a degree in Fine Art at Curtin University. Working in oils, and sometimes sculpture, she documents the narrative of domestic and urban life with an eye for the peculiar and the overlooked.        
  • Marina Kailis is a mid-career artist whose usual art practice is in ceramics. However, every Thursday she joins a group of other artists to draw. Although, ceramics and drawing involve very different medium, there are some marked similarities. Both forms allow her to explore processes and materials. The core of her creative method is to restrict the range of materials that she uses and to deliberately confine the colour palette she employs.     
  • Karen Prakhoff Rickman completed a Master of Creative Arts (Art) at Curtin University in 2006. Her practice is driven by the exploration of the layered monoprint as evocation. She exhibits regularly both locally and interstate, with artwork in private and public collections.
  • Sarah Thornton-Smith’s art practice leans closely to the search for patterns found in nature, particularly in the way colour surfaces, interacts and make connections with one another and its surrounds to capture gifts of moments.
  • Marina van Leeuwen is a visual artist from Boorloo/Perth. Her practice explores experiences of time as felt and seen, whilst considering the misalliances of urban, suburban and natural environments. She is a graduate of Curtin University (Honours) and North Metropolitan TAFE.

Jane Grierson, Heavy Netal (detail), 2023, wood, metal, acrylic paint, 170 x 140 x 140 mm. Image credit: courtesy of the artist.

 


 

Dismantling the Land by Leonie Ngahuia Mansbridge  Two colourfully decorated tarpaulins hanging in a gallery.

  • Exhibition dates: Wednesday 27 March to Sunday 14 April 2024
  • Opening times: 10am - 4pm, Wednesday to Sunday
  • Location: Rockingham Arts Centre, 11 Kent Street, Rockingham  
  • Room: Main gallery
  • Cost: Free entry 
  • Closing Event: Sunday 14 April, 1pm - 2pm. Register for the Closing Event.
  • Artist Talk: Sunday 14 April, 2pm -3pm. Register for the Artist Talk.

Leonie Ngahuia Mansbridge is of Ngáti Maniapoto descent and her practice is centred on the indigenous experience of spiritual connections to the land, waters and mountains. Her work cleverly unpacks the effects of colonialism through the use of colour and materiality. Exploring themes of cultural identity and loss of culture, this new body of work utilises truck tarpaulins as a tool to discuss how land is travelled and experienced. In their usual use, truck tarpaulins cover and protect but when used in this context Mansbridge is highlighting the importance of preservation of culture and land.

About the artist

Born in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Leonie Ngahuia Mansbridge now resides on Walyalup country (Fremantle). Her creative arts practice is key to her storying. She engages with issues of culture and colonisation. Working to explore her cultural understanding Mansbridge paints the land as an extension of who she is, acting as a conduit through to her indigenous heritage. In 2018, Mansbridge completed a Creative Doctorate, “The Cross-Cultural Corridor: Performing Māori/Pākehā Identities” at Curtin University. She also holds a Masters of Arts (Visual Arts), with distinction, and a Bachelor of Arts (Art) (Honours) First Class, from Curtin University. In 2014, 2018 and 2022, Mansbridge presented papers at Indigenous conferences in New Zealand, Canada and Australia. She has exhibited consistently for 20 years in Australia and abroad. Mansbridge has gallery representations in New Zealand, Ireland and France and has been the recipient of numerous art awards.

Leonie Ngahuia Mansbridge, Folded into Two Worlds, 2024, synthetic polymer on truck tarpaulin, dimensions variable. Image credit: Aaron Claringbold.

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