Gallery 2
Jo Wheeler - Holding Light
16 - 27 September 2026
please note last day of exhibition ends on 30 August at 3pm
Opening night
18 September | 6 - 8 pm
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Sunday: 10 am – 5 pm
ARTIST STATEMENT
Jo Wheeler is a Surf Coast-based artist working primarily in oil on canvas and linen. Her practice explores the relationship between atmosphere, light, and landscape, drawing inspiration from both the Australian coastline in her seascapes and remote inland environments in her landscapes. Through layered tonal shifts and restrained compositions, her work balances realism and abstraction to evoke a sense of stillness, movement, and connection to place.
Jo has held solo exhibitions with Red Gallery, Kindred Galleries, and Brunswick Street Gallery, and was a finalist in the 2024 Paddington Art Prize. Her work has been recognised in internationally judged art prizes in 2026, receiving honourable mentions for her contemporary seascape paintings, and she has completed a number of private commissions for collectors across Australia. Her work has also been featured in publications including Art to Hearts Magazine and collected through exhibitions such as the Incognito Art Show.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Jo Wheeler is a contemporary Australian artist working primarily in oil on linen. Based on Victoria's Surf Coast, her practice explores the interplay of light, water and the Australian landscape, drawing inspiration from the coastlines of southern Australia and the vast, open country of the outback.
Her work has been recognised as a finalist in the 2024 Paddington Art Prize, and in 2026 she received the Art to Hearts Project Award for Night Swimming, with her work featured in Art to Hearts Magazine, Volume 11 (New York). Wheeler has held solo exhibitions at Kindred Galleries, Brunswick Street Gallery, and Red Gallery, and her paintings are held in private collections throughout Australia.
Recent commissions include artwork for Katie Noonan's album Over the Prison Camp and wine label commissions for Wombat Hill Estate and Nicols Paddock. Her work continues to investigate moments of stillness and movement, capturing the shifting light that defines Australia's coastal and inland environments.