Top Arts 2026
Artwork Labels & Didactics
Artwork Labels & Didactics
Ways of seeing
Goldman Xu
Fragments of becoming
2025
synthetic polymer paint and impasto on canvas
Camberwell Grammar School, Camberwell
Wurundjeri Country
© Goldman Xu
Fragments of becoming reflects Goldman Xu’s own turbulent transition into adulthood during Year 12. Using impasto (a technique where paint is thickly applied so it stands out from the surface), Xu creates expressive lines, rough textures and fragmented shapes that convey the chaos, pressure and self-discovery of this period. A repeated eye motif suggests self-awareness or perhaps the feeling of being watched.
Milla Menegazzo
Through cerulean screens
2025
oil on canvas
Wesley College, Melbourne
Wurundjeri Country
© Milla Menegazzo
In this highly detailed and tonally rich portrait, Milla Menegazzo depicts female emotion as being both fragile and powerful, using contrasting colours and dramatic lighting to portray its depth and complexity.
Clover Marnika
Repose
2025
graphite and charcoal on paper
Wesley College, Melbourne
Wurundjeri Country
© Clover Marnika
Repose is a meticulously detailed portrait of the artist’s mother. Using a bird’s-eye perspective, Clover Marnika reimagines the motif of the reclining woman – a subject in art history that traditionally renders women as passive – creating an image of emotional complexity that encapsulates both intimacy and agency.
Audrey Strickland-Wilkinson
Follow
2025
oil on canvas
Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, Southbank
Wurundjeri Country
© Audrey Strickland-Wilkinson
Follow is inspired by a dream in which the artist was guided on a journey by two clones of herself. The figures represent opposing ideas of fate and control. On the left, fate appears quirky and unpredictable while control, in response, stands tall and stern. Though contrasting in spirit, the two remain inseparable, reflecting the ongoing tension between destiny and self-determination.
Lex Blockey
Transformations: a reflection of identity
2025
cotton-backed satin, recycled calico, quilting padding, metal boning, tule, polyester (satin), plastic (beads), denim, seatbelt, synthetic leather, metal (buckles, eyelets)
The Geelong College, Geelong
Wadawurrung Country
© Lex Blockey
Referencing historical fashion to illuminate contemporary perspectives on gender identity, in this garment Lex Blockley has referenced silhouettes from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries and incorporated both masculine and feminine elements. The outfit challenges rigid gender expectations and celebrates the value of handcrafted techniques in a digital age.
Fyonn Munro
Unravelled
2025
dark stoneware
Padua College, Mornington
Bunurong Country
© Fyonn Munro
In this ceramic figure, Fyonn Munro explores the physical pain and mental anguish associated with unseen chronic illnesses. The rough textures, hunched form and hollowed abdomen of the ceramic figure evoke the weight of endometrial pain, while the unravelling coils thread together mind and body, revealing how physical suffering and mental strain intertwine.
For students: How would you describe the texture in this sculpture? What textures do you use in your own artwork and why?
Poppy Nivarovich
Birds and People series
2025
synthetic polymer paint, oil stick and oil pastel on cardboard
Belmont High School, Geelong
Wadawurrung Country
© Poppy Nivarovich
While watching birds one day, Poppy Nivarovich noted their unapologetically aggressive and direct behaviour. Finding it a compelling echo of human traits, she was inspired to create her Birds and People series. Bold colour and energetic linework are used to pair human figures with anthropomorphic birds, drawing parallels between human behaviour and the often brutal and chaotic natural world.
Jasmine Sargood
Residual
2025
scanned film inkjet prints on Torchon fine artpaper 285gsm
Swinburne Senior Secondary College, Hawthorn
Wurundjeri Country
© Jasmine Sargood
Jasmine Sargood’s Residual explores the physical and emotional impacts humans leave on each other. Focusing on skin as both a barrier and a point of connection, the work considers what lingers after moments of touch, presence or absence. For Sargood, each frame becomes a quiet study of intimacy and memory, inviting viewers to reflect on the subtle residues left by the human connections in their own lives.
Sandra Abeywardena
BRAT
2025
air-dried modelling clay, wire, aluminium foil, doll’s hair, synthetic polymer paint
Sunbury Downs College, Sunbury
Wurundjeri Country
© Sandra Abeywardena
In this small mixed-media sculpture, Sandra Abeywardena explores insecurity, social pressure and accepting one’s identity. The sculpture’s raw and ‘grimy’ form favours honesty over perfection. Abeywardena rejects any expectations of the work to appear polished or beautiful, reframing the grotesque as emotional, vulnerable and human.
Milo Friedman
Obduktion
2025
oil pastel and synthetic polymer paint on canvas
The King David School, Armadale
Bunurong Country
© Milo Friedman
‘Obduktion’ is the German word for ‘autopsy’, a process of exposing and revealing what lies beneath the surface. Drawing on this idea, Milo Friedman reflects on society’s impulse to shape and correct the body. Through a fractured arrangement of canvases, Friedman distorts, dissects and reassembles the human form to challenge twenty-first -century body-image pressures.
Verity Ladiges
Ribbons
2025
inkjet print
Gladstone Park Secondary College, Gladstone Park
Wurundjeri Country
© Verity Ladiges
Inspired by the illusionary artworks of Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher (1898–1972), Verity Ladiges breaks the human form apart into flowing ribbons that drift through a deep, open space. The fragmented portrait explores ideas of memory, dissociation and changing identity. The spiralling bands and floating orbs suggest a self that is constantly shifting and coming apart, then coming together again.
For students: Who are some artists that inspire you? How does their work inform your own artmaking?
Zindzi Clayford
Fallacies of perception (autoscopy)
2025
oil on canvas
Fintona Girls’ School, Balwyn
Wurundjeri Country
© Zindzi Clayford
‘Autoscopy’ is the imagined experience of seeing oneself from outside the body. Zindzi Clayford draws on this idea to visualise her emotions from a different perspective. For Clayford, the colossal, distorted face peering out from this painting represents how self-perception can shift when reconsidering and understanding our experience from a distance.
Living landscapes
Oscar Cooke
Mountains to oceans
2025
inkjet print on cotton rag
Emmanuel College, Warrnambool
Gunditjmara Country
© Oscar Cooke
Created with a softened colour palette to evoke the aesthetic and nostalgia of vintage photos or film, Mountains to oceans captures the cultural identity of surf communities like Torquay and Jan Juc and highlights the emotional pull the ocean holds for those who live alongside it.
For students: Think about the role of colour in your own artwork. What colours do you use and why?
Tim Yarrow
Breeding burdens
2025
oil on canvas
Billanook College, Mooroolbark
Wurundjeri Country
© Tim Yarrow
In this painting, Tim Yarrow portrays the human psyche as a surreal landscape. Tumultuous waves and eroded rock textures suggest emotional turmoil while submerged yet dominant forms, reminiscent of deep-sea creatures, have a parasitic presence within this world of the mind. Together, these ambiguous elements evoke the experience of mental struggle and the powerful emotions that can cloud perception and reshape one’s inner world over time.
Rome Jowett-Crociani
BOODJURA (fire sticks)
2025
synthetic polymer paint and coloured fibre-tipped pen on canvas, eucalyptus leaves, eucalyptus branches, string
Peninsula Grammar, Mount Eliza
Bunurong Country
© Rome Jowett-Crociani
BOODJURA (fire sticks) explores fire as a force of destruction, healing and renewal. Drawing on Indigenous cultural burning practices and teachings passed down through family, Rome Jowett-Crociani presents fire not as something to fear but as a vital tool for caring for Country. Layered surfaces, earthy colours and the considered use of wood and leaves from gum trees suggest the cycles of damage and regrowth shaped by fire.
Keira Williams
Arboreal reverie
2025
cotton yarn and gold thread
Academy of Mary Immaculate, Fitzroy
Wurundjeri Country
© Keira Williams
In Arboreal reverie, fashion, sculpture and crochet come together to invite viewers to reflect on the beauty of the slow and handmade, connecting these processes to the intricacy and harmony of the natural world.
For students: Look closely at this artwork and others close by. Why do you think they have been displayed together in this way? Look around the exhibition for other works that could be grouped together. What reasons support your choices?
Ben Burton
Stairway to Heaven
2025
synthetic polymer paint, spray paint, enamel, ink and newspaper on composition board
Wurun Senior Campus, Fitzroy North
Wurundjeri Country
© Ben Burton
In this work, Ben Burton shows how quickly someone can shift from having a stable life into homelessness. Two figures are depicted in a moment of despair and desperation, bound together by a symbolic yellow barrier separating them from the world unfolding behind them. In the background, the city continues unaffected, underscoring the disconnect between everyday urban life and the harsh realities faced by those struggling in the foreground.
Felix Pigott
Architectural Forms (Cemented) series
2025
cement
Brighton Grammar School, Brighton
Bunurong Country
© Felix Pigott
In this series of small abstract concrete sculptures, Felix Pigott reduces structures to essential curves, angles and geometric shapes, highlighting the sculptural elements that guide how we move through built spaces. The use of raw concrete reflects the permanence of architecture while pointing to its enduring role in shaping identity, culture and everyday experience.
Amaia Mercer
Tea party
2025
ceramic teacup, ceramic teapot, polymer clay, synthetic polymer paint, plastic, nylon, faux suede, bracelet, earring
Balwyn High School, Balwyn North
Wurundjeri Country
© Amaia Mercer
At first glance, Amaia Mercer’s Tea party appears cute and playful, but look closer and details emerge that hint at some uneasy realities. A cosy, familiar tea set is transformed into a chariot powered and steered by animals. Mercer invites viewers to consider humanity’s relationship with animals, especially how animal labour is often used to serve human needs.
Willow Hines
Best before yesterday
2025
refrigerator, paper, masking tape, plaster bandage, diorama ground texture, glue, plastic figurines, metal, wood, polystyrene, wire, paint, LED lighting, ink, found objects, printable labels
Caulfield Grammar School, St Kilda East
Bunurong and Wurundjeri Country
© Willow Hines
In Best before yesterday, the humble domestic fridge becomes a metaphor for climate inaction. Tiny figures skating on thin ice, coupled with the presence of familiar perishable goods, symbolise the ignorance and denial that leads to ecological loss.
Amelia Bull
Lunch
2025
coloured pencil and watercolour on wood panel
Mentone Grammar, Mentone
Bunurong Country
© Amelia Bull
In Lunch, Amelia Bull examines the hidden impacts of commercial fishing, presenting a scene of delicate marine creatures arranged inside a sardine tin. The work is a lyrical yet unsettling glimpse into how non-target species are caught and killed through harmful fishing practices.
Self as story
Frankie-Belle Taylor
Cuddles?
2025
chenille yarn, polyester ribbon yarn, aluminium armature wire
Coburg High School, Coburg
Wurundjeri Country
© Frankie-Belle Taylor
Cuddles? reflects on how ongoing health anxieties and years of heightened vigilance around illness have reshaped the artist’s relationship to comfort and fear. Cute and cuddly yet monster-like and frightening, the crocheted form embodies the tension of having gratitude for life but fear of an unexpected and serious health crisis.
Shaun McKearney
Me Vs Me
2025
synthetic polymer paint on board
Belmont High School, Geelong
Wadawurrung Country
© Shaun McKearney
In Me Vs Me, Shaun McKearney stages a boxing match between two versions of himself dressed to represent his Irish and American heritage respectively. This confrontation symbolises inner conflict, questions of belonging and the pull between different cultural identities. The boxing ring also becomes a metaphor for Year 12, with the ‘Round 12’ sign marking a final stage before adulthood.
Cameron Ma
Seeing you, seeing me
2025
synthetic polymer clay, coloured fibre tipped pens, wood
Balwyn High School, Balwyn North
Wurundjeri Country
© Cameron Ma
In Seeing you, seeing me, Cameron Ma explores the enduring bonds that exist between people even when fully understanding each other is impossible. Two miniature figures, modelled on the artist and her mother, have heads formed from different marine species, a visual metaphor for small misunderstandings between people. Despite these differences, their closeness captures the resilience and intimacy of a lasting connection.
For students: How does the scale of this artwork affect the way it is viewed? How does this compare to the scale of your own art? Why do you choose to work at the scale you do?
Coco Sargent
Autoethnography
2025
inkjet print
hair, synthetic hair, embroidery thread, cotton thread, lace, cotton yarn, polyester
Balwyn High School, Balwyn North
Wurundjeri Country
© Coco Sargent
Autoethnography is a research method in which personal experience is examined to illuminate broader cultural, social and political issues. Coco Sargent uses this approach to explore her upbringing and the intersection of her Kenyan and Australian heritage. She began by meticulously weaving together materials drawn from both cultures to construct a dress. Intricate doilies evoke Australian domestic traditions, while synthetic hair interlaced with her mother’s own hair reflect her Kenyan lineage. To reflect the fluid and evolving nature of her relationship to her heritage, Sargent eventually cut the dress into pieces while wearing it, leaving behind only the fragments presented alongside the photos of the dress.
Sophie Igbinovia
The Woods between the Worlds
2025
oil pastel and coloured pencil on paper
St Monica’s College, Epping
Wurundjeri Country
© Sophie Igbinovia
In this series of eight self-portraits, Sophie Igbinovia explores the fluid and multifaceted nature of identity. Reflecting on personal change and the shifting ‘worlds’ she has moved between over time, she draws on patterns from her Nigerian and Polish heritage to frame the work, highlighting the role of culture in shaping and complicating our sense of self.
For students: What type of pattern could you incorporate into your work to express a mood, idea or emotion?
Brooke Wheeler
Devil horns peeled away
2025
oil on canvas
Caulfield Grammar School, Wheelers Hill
Bunurong and Wurundjeri Country
© Brooke Wheeler
Devil horns peeled away explores how living with scaphocephaly, a condition affecting the formation of the skull, and undergoing craniofacial surgery have shaped the artist’s sense of identity, visibility and healing. This unflinching self-portrait reveals the physical traces of surgery, emphasising the ongoing process of understanding and reclaiming the self after medical intervention.
Mabel Fowler
Unique series
2025
inkjet print
Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak, Toorak
Wurundjeri Country
© Mabel Fowler
This series is a tribute to the quiet strength, resilience and individuality of people living with the rare autoimmune disease scleroderma. In three intimate portraits, Mabel Fowler highlights the distinct ways the condition affects each person and the courage and grace with which they navigate it. For Fowler, these images portray the uniqueness of lived experience and the dignity found in embracing visible and invisible differences.
Tess Simmons
May she grow to meet her
2025
cotton broderie anglaise, silk, thread, seed pearl beads, earthenware clay
Virtual School Victoria
Wurundjeri Country
© Tess Simmons
Making May she grow to meet her was both reflective and restorative for artist Tess Simmons. The work explores how inner struggles can create distance within close relationships, reflecting on the ways shifting self-image during adolescence can influence how women understand themselves and relate to those closest to them.
Tess Simmons
Fallow aviaries
2025
earthenware clay, earthenware glaze, wool rabbit hair, cotton (thread), metal wire
Virtual School Victoria
Wurundjeri Country
© Tess Simmons
In Fallow aviaries, the fragility of earthenware evokes a sense of delicacy. Inspired by the egg as a symbol of fertility, the rounded form depicts a female bird figure with uneven wings and wiry hands clasped over a knotted mass, suspended in a moment of quiet stillness.
Cassian Walker
15–18
2025
digital print
Mentone Grammar, Mentone
Bunurong Country
© Cassian Walker
This pair of self-portraits reflects Cassian Walker’s experience of personal transformation. The first image depicts the artist at fifteen, prior to accessing gender-affirming care and family support. The second image depicts the artist at eighteen and reflects a sense of assurance and comfort. Together, the works express the profound impact that intervention, help and care can have on self-understanding and wellbeing.
Audrey Jacques
The echo of someone else’s memory
2025
oil on canvas
Viewbank College, Viewbank
Wurundjeri Country
© Audrey Jacques
In this painting, Audrey Jacques investigates the hidden elements that form identity. Inspired by iconic portraits from art history such as Grant Wood’s American Gothic, 1930, this unusual group portrait reimagines Jacques’ family with a surreal twist: the head of each figure has been replaced with an object or form that alludes to the different identities we all carry.
Everyday moments
Sayuni Wickramasinghe
Burnout
2025
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Caulfield Grammar School, Wheelers Hill
Bunurong and Wurundjeri Country
© Sayuni Wickramasinghe
Sayuni Wickramasinghe’s painting shows an everyday scene in the bedroom of a hardworking but tired student. Objects scattered across an unmade bed hint at lapses in self-care while the bright, overexposed light conveys the strain of constant screen use. Through this work, Wickramasinghe explores the pressures of modern technology in everyday life and how it impacts our wellbeing.
For students: What is something in your immediate surroundings that inspires your own artmaking?
Yoona Liu
Tones of the everyday
2025
digital print
Balwyn High School, Balwyn North
Wurundjeri Country
© Yoona Liu
Can we infuse our lives with colour? This is a question Yoona Liu often pondered while creating these digital paintings. Each work depicts an everyday domestic space imbued with colours the artist associates with a different family member: her father, her mother, her sister and herself.
Shiya Tang
Reflection in practice
2025
oil on canvas
Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak, Toorak
Wurundjeri Country
© Shiya Tang
Through close observation of her subject and carefully layered brushwork, Shiya Tang’s Reflection in practice invites viewers to reconsider the familiar, bringing attention to overlooked objects and materials and revealing their subtle beauty.
Wilby Fredericks
Workshop 5
2025
oil on recycled promotional board and drop sheet, recycled timber frame
Woodmans Hill Secondary College, Ballarat East
Wadawurrung Country
© Wilby Fredericks
Inspired by the productivity and creativity that often happens in sheds, studios, and workspaces, Wilby Fredericks examines the unlikely beauty of these environments and our instinct to store, collect and repurpose objects within them. Built from family items including a bed base, drop sheet and inherited oil paints, Workshop 5 honours the personal stories embedded in things that are saved and used again and again.
For students: What are the key characteristics of the materials used in this work and how do they convey the artist’s ideas? What materials are you interested in working with and why?
Here, now
Meaghan Horner
Not for very much longer
2025
oil on canvas
Billanook College, Mooroolbark
Wurundjeri Country
© Meaghan Horner
Meaghan Horner’s work explores the impermanence of life and humanity. Not for very much longer is a series of oil paintings depicting decaying buildings, rusted metal and worn landscapes, all echoing the relentless march of time. For Horner, in a culture of instant gratification, the slow act of painting creates time to pause for observation and reflection.
Marleah Wilkie
Innocence is a bitch
2025
oil on canvas
Melbourne Rudolf Steiner School, Warranwood
Wurundjeri Country
© Marleah Wilkie
Innocence is a bitch explores the turbulent shift from childhood to adolescence. The contrasts between these two life stages are highlighted in the portraits of Wilkie’s twelve-year-old sister, Eloise, and seventeen-year-old friend, Tesla. The vehicles in the painting symbolise both freedom and confinement and reflect the isolation and longing for independence Wilkie experienced as a teenager.
Alexandra Lawry
Mondo
2025
oil on canvas paper
Leongatha Secondary College, Leongatha
Bunurong Country
© Alexandra Lawry
One of Alexandra Lawry’s key inspirations is her fifteen-year-old cat, Mondo, whose name means ‘world’. In this self-portrait, Lawry captures a quiet moment with the companion who has shaped her daily life and personal world for many years.
Emi Wong
Week 7, 10, 12
2025
oil on canvas
Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School, Keilor East
Wurundjeri Country
© Emi Wong
Week 7, 10, 12 forms part of a disciplined practice in which Emi Wong produced twelve self-portraits over twelve weeks. These three works chart a process of technical refinement and personal introspection.
Amelia Pezzimenti
The story between us
2025
charcoal, colour pencil and ink on paper
St Monica’s College, Epping
Wurundjeri Country
© Amelia Pezzimenti
The story between us explores the enduring bond between Amelia Pezzimenti’s grandparents, a connection shaped by love, faith, resilience and a deep shared history. They are pictured viewing their wedding photographs, blurred and softened with the passing of time and aging memories.
Geordie Williamson
Allegory of a blanket
2025
oil on canvas
Bendigo Senior Secondary College, Bendigo Dja Dja
Wurrung Country
© Geordie Williamson
Geordie Williamson’s blanket has been around every year of his life. As Williamson has aged so have the fibres that weave the blanket together. This artwork explores the continuity of time, attachment and degradation. The more Williamson wraps himself in his blanket, the less of the blanket there will be as they both slowly surrender to the inevitable progression of time.
Dylan Hopkins
flow
2025
interactive colour digital animation, silent
Sandringham College, Sandringham
Bunurong Country
© Dylan Hopkins
Dylan Hopkins is interested in the intersection of art and computer science, using algorithms to transform simple rules into dynamic works of art. In flow, real-time physics and audience interaction generate ever-shifting patterns inspired by natural systems. Soft blue tones create a calm, playful space that invites viewers to experiment and watch the simulation continually reinvent itself.
Carina Tang
Silence and the Khronos Wonderland
2025
digital video animation, sound
8 min 5 sec
Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School, Ivanhoe
Wurundjeri Country
© Carina Tang
Silence and the Khronos Wonderland is a digital animation that philosophically explores the symbolic qualities of time. The work follows the main character, Silence, into a dreamlike realm where they travel across eras, from the age of dinosaurs to the end of the universe, reflecting on existence as it unfolds and dissolves before them.