What the Melbourne Design Show Taught Me as an Artist

I showed selected works at the Melbourne Design Show June 12-14, and it was a strangely rich, exhausting, and clarifying experience. These kinds of events can feel like a blur, but looking back, I see how much they revealed, not just about my work, but about myself. Here are a few reflections I want to hold onto.

1. Context Is Everything

Choosing which works to exhibit and curating became a creative act in itself. I focused on pieces that felt aligned with the design-focused atmosphere of the show, rather than simply showcasing what I loved most. Curating this way felt like a conversation, listening to the context and then responding through material and form. I learned a lot on how to do this from participating in the Melbourne Design Week NGV in may with an Exhibition and Talk on the Art of Surface and workshop. It led to many discussions with interior designers, architects and property developers that expanded the way I perceive the various meaningful roles art can play in how we experience space.

2. Having a Home Base Changes the Game

While some works (like the large shipping pallets) stayed behind at Romulus Folio, the gallery gave me something incredibly valuable: a place to bring people into the full story. Being able to say, “Come my the gallery a couple of streets from here anytime” created continuity between spaces and some truly meaningful exchanges.

3. Connection Happens in Layers

We held the Tides and Transformations – Fishermans Bend opening on the second night of the Design Show, alongside The Gladstone’s monthly social night. That moment of shared food, laughter, music, and art gave people something the show itself couldn’t. It reminded me how much I love creating in community, and how important warmth is in my work. Many people from the show attended and it was special to get to know them more in this space that was not focused on trade but human connection in a space energised by art.

4. You Don’t Know What You’ll Need Until You’re There

We were unexpectedly given an extra bit of space across from our stand, so we put up a sample of a textured impact wall. It completely changed how people engaged with the work. If I’d had the time and foresight, I would have brought a whole impact wall and based the stand around it. That small surprise reminded me how much people respond to scale, surface, and tactility, sometimes more than explanation.

5. Collaboration Keeps Me Grounded

I couldn’t have done this show alone. Scott’s support—and the presence of friends and fellow artists—carried me through the long hours and lifted the mood when I needed it. Being around other creatives helped spark future ideas too. I left with new connections and a stronger sense of what collaboration could look like moving forward.

6. Knowing What’s Not For You Can Be Clarifying

Trade shows are strange creatures. Fast-paced, transactional, and not always gentle. But being in that space helped me feel the edges of where my work fits—and where it doesn’t. I’ve come away with more clarity about what I value in exhibition spaces and where I want to go next.

7. Let the Work Speak (But Have mindful contact with its Story Ready)

Not everyone wants to know the backstory. Some people prefer to find themselves in a piece, quietly, without being told how to feel. Others want the full narrative to carry home with them—like placing a story between the pages of their own book. I’m learning to offer both. The work holds the story, but it also opens space.

8. Every Show Is a Step Forward

Even when it’s tiring. Even when things go wrong. Even when I feel like I’m halfway between clarity and chaos. Each experience feeds the next. This show offered me not just visibility, but insight—and that’s something I’ll carry into every piece I make from here.

What’s Next

This month, I’m back at the Melbourne Convention Centre for the Décor + Design Show (Stand AA1), and preparing a very different kind of exhibition back at the gallery.

My Winter Exhibition will run from 9 July to 3 August at Romulus Folio, with an Opening Night on Thursday 18 July, 5:00–7:00pm.

If you’re in Melbourne, I’d love for you to come and experience this next chapter in a slower, deeper space.

As part of the show, Scott Ross will present a new video work titled Winter Moments — a quiet, visual meditation shaped by reflective experiences in Fishermans Bend, Emerald, and the places between. Poetic and atmospheric, the work carries the same layered stillness we often seek in painting. I’m so glad to be showing this alongside my own practice.

Art, for me, is about transformation—and I’m still in it.

Still listening. Still learning. Still becoming.