Gallery 2
Marija Patterson and Bernadette Pilli - Departures
30 September - 11 October 2026
please note last day of exhibition ends on 11 October at 3pm
Opening night
2 October | 6 - 8 pm
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Sunday: 10 am – 5 pm
Marija Patterson
Artist Statement
Departure is the act of leaving. The coming and goings of life evoke a mixture of feelings. Leaving is a powerful transition arousing a mix of grief, anxiety, excitement and hope, representing both an ending and a beginning, rarely just one feeling.
The pain of leaving is the end.
Stress of transition is the in-between.
Anticipation of arrival is another beginning.
Trauma, resilience and hope are in the package of departure.
Patterson’s interest in women’s stories collected over time is expressed in these works.
Artist Bio
Patterson is a member of the Association of Sculptors of Victoria and Contemporary Art Society. Her work explores a range of topics, from her concerns about consumerism to women’s issues. Completing her BFA (Honours) at RMIT as a mature age student in 2003 (following a career in finance and research administration), Patterson taught children with special needs, runs workshops and gives individual tuition. She works from her studio in Clifton Hill. Her works using recycled materials were featured in the exhibition, “Re-Invent, Re- Interpret, Re-Make” in Melbourne. Her solo exhibitions exploring her observation of women and their journey were shown in “3 x 25”, “Voices” and “A Woman’s Journey” and “She Said- I’m Moving On” An award winner, Patterson exhibits several times a year in group shows and has been invited as a judge for several exhibitions. Her works can be found in collections in Australia and overseas.
Bernadette Pilli
Artist Statement
Bernadette is mostly interested in the idea of memory and how it shapes and maps life journeys, made through the familiar, not so familiar, forward into the unknown. Travelling to and from; returning and leaving, departing.
When people depart a place, a situation or a relationship do they take a map with them? Is it a chart, a page or committed to memory? A map can offer the implicit promise of a route into and out of the unknown. It can assist in returning to the site.
Will they know how to return? Is returning an option? To ask for a map is to say, “tell me a story.”
Bernadette Pilli
2026
Artist Bio
Born in Melbourne, Bernadette has worked in both the visual and performing arts, as an arts administrator, a teacher and as a visual artist, working in a range of media. More recently she has focussed solely on her art practice, in particular painting and drawing.
Bernadette has held 2 solo exhibitions and 2 joint exhibitions and has participated in a number of group shows.
Over the last 15 years landscape has been a reference point for Bernadette’s work. Her works have been a series of paintings and drawings, which interlock specific landscapes within maps. Her intention is to revisit the feeling of a place, to transform memory, to record something specifically recalled from that experience. The journey of leaving what we know and the unfolding of another map, another journey. At the same time, it is a way forward onto undiscovered possibilities.
More recently Bernadette’s work combines figurative with landscape and mapping. Exploring the experiences of women waiting for the return of their partners who are away working or fighting battles, physically or metaphorically. Arrivals and departures, especially in relation to Estonian cultural history and the journeys of refugees.
The media is pastel on film, surfaced with Colour Fix.