29/10/2026
Montsalvat Arts & Events invite you to join them in three exhibition openings :
1. Holding The Line – Barbara Wheeler
WHEN | 11 November – 6 December 2026
WHERE | Residents Gallery
OPENING | Friday 13 November 6pm – 8pm
https://montsalvat.com.au/exhibitions/holding-the-line-barbara-wheeler/
Holding The Line – Barbara Wheeler
Holding The Line def Civil Resistance and Democratic Defence.
Holding The Line is a solo exhibition of textile and fibre works that engage with Australian history, environmental and social activism in playful forms. This series includes responses to the ecological pressures of climate change, the devastating failure of the 2023 Referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and the ongoing impacts of colonisation on Australian society.
The exhibition combines embroidery and basketry that entertain and unsettle, challenging assumptions about fibres and textiles by pushing them into unexpected sculptural forms. Holding The Line is about maintaining a political stance on matters of national and global importance while working locally to invite curiosity. This exhibition positions contemporary craft as a strategic, subversive language for activism.
Barbara Wheeler is a curator, visual artist, environmental activist, and feminist historian based in Naarm, Melbourne. Barbara’s art practice is deliberately provocative and gently subversive, addressing contentious issues with humour and grace. Qualifications in visual arts, communications and postgraduate studies in cultural heritage management inform her multidisciplinary practice.
Barbara has exhibited in Australia and New Zealand and curated several group exhibitions. She leads workshops and seminars that promote the use of end-of-life textiles.
Barbara’s works are held in the collection of Canberra Museum and Gallery.
2. Through The Drifting Time – Ula Lee
WHEN | 11 November – 6 December 2026
WHERE | Long Gallery
OPENING | Friday 13 November 6pm – 8pm https://montsalvat.com.au/exhibitions/through-the-drifting-time-ula-lee/
Through The Drifting Time – Ula Lee
This exhibition brings together three series: Still Shadows, Distant Apricot Trees and The Forgotten Years Blossom.
Recurring motifs of cello, sun and flowers speak to our longing for beauty and our quiet reckoning with the passage of time. The works hold serene moments between people, between people and animals, and between people and nature. Together they trace a journey of letting go, of outside limits and clinging thoughts, towards inner peace.
About the Artist
Ula Lee grew up with two contrasting family influences. Her father, a judge, brought a sense of discipline and rational thought, while her mother’s family, which included generations of musicians and medical scholars, nurtured a warm, creative spirit.
With her parents busy at work, Ula accompanied her older sister to school before she was old enough to enrol. On winter days, her sister carried her through the snow. At home, apricot trees filled the family courtyard. When they blossomed, her mother and relatives gathered beneath them to play instruments, sing, recite verses and compose poems. The memory of blossoms drifting down as music played has stayed with her ever since. Today, she and her siblings continue this tradition, making music and singing together, savouring their time with one another.
Ula began drawing independently as a young child, picking up pen and paper in quiet corners. One day, she drew a celestial maiden floating in the air, surrounded by falling petals. Her family recognised the image as Tian Nü San Hua (The Celestial Maiden Scatters Blossoms), a traditional tale exploring attachment and impermanence. Her older sister kept the drawing in a diary for many years, though it was later lost.
Without formal art school training, Ula has developed a practice grounded in memory and personal reflection. Her paintings combine tender vulnerability with an unconfined passion, shaped by a rich inner life. Memories of the apricot trees remain a lasting source of inspiration, influencing how she sees the world.
Through years of gatherings and partings, uncertainty and inner turmoil, she came to a simple realisation: holding on to what cannot last only deepens our longing. Even flowers in bloom must eventually fade. Her painting now explores the possibility of letting go and finding inner peace, freedom, joy and compassion, a search she recognises in the drawing she made as a child.
3. Shaped by Seasons – Madeleine Somers
WHEN | 11 November – 6 December 2026
WHERE | Wood Workshop
OPENING | Friday 13 November 6pm – 8pm
Shaped by Seasons is an immersive exhibition of reclaimed textile sculpture, found objects and natural materials, unfolding as a tactile artlandscape for rest and play.
Part dreamscape, part meadow, rockpool, cave, pond.
The work honours the slow shifting pace of the seasons and the continual change that shapes the natural world: erosion and accumulation, the laying down of sediment, the growth of shell forms, guided by the shifting pull of the moon.
Throughout the exhibition, sculptures emerge as hybrids; creature and coral, flora and fauna. They shimmer softly amongst reflected light and gentle sound, creating a space for curiosity.
Shaped by Seasons is best experienced slowly. Visitors are invited to sit on the ground, or wander through the installation at their own pace. Play forms part of the experience, with a collection of bijoux wearable accoutrement available from the exhibition wardrobe.
Wardrobe access is available on selected dates throughout the exhibition, from Friday to Sunday, during the exhibition period from 13 November to 6 December, inviting participants to adorn themselves and become momentarily part of the evolving art landscape.
ARTIST BIO:
Madeleine Somers is a maker, costumier and textile artist living and working on Dja Dja Wurrung Country.
Since graduating in 2006, she has worked in theatrical costuming across opera, musical theatre, contemporary and ballroom dance, circus, film and television, festivals, exhibitions, visual merchandising and couture for puppets.
Madeleine gravitates towards projects that involve surface decoration, fabric manipulation, and sculptural techniques.
This inclination led her to the meticulous art of ruff and whisk making where she honed her craft as a “Ruffian,” creating Elizabethan-style collars reimagined with modern materials to withstand the rigours of performance.
From the detailed and ephemeral world of costuming, Madeleine arts practice has grown—born from scraps and toiles, and a desire to make something lasting and belonging.
Using a layered approach—drawing from millinery, costuming, ruff-making, and textile construction—she stitches, gathers, embellishes, and supports materials into sculptural forms.
Madeleine is also an experienced arts educator, sharing her technical knowledge and creative approach with emerging makers and curious learners alike.
She teaches from her studio at Lot 19 in Castlemaine and through incursions to schools, theatre groups, festivals and galleries. She welcomes collaborative discussions and creative exchanges.
Imagery: Diana Domonkos & Leonie Van Eyk
Bohemian Rhapsody Art Magazine covers the open day (media: crew ) please stay tuned
