Gallery 1
Red Stockroom
Crystal Wu, Jane Farnan, Sandra Espinoza, Savaad Felich, Steven Xiao, and Vittoria Cugno
2 - 13 September 2026
please note last day of exhibition ends on 13 September at 3pm
Opening night
4 September | 6 - 8 pm
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Sunday: 10 am – 5 pm
ARTIST STATEMENT
Red Stockroom presents a curated selection of works by artists who have worked with Red Gallery, bringing their distinct practices together within a shared space.
Conceived as both a presentation and an introduction, the exhibition offers a way to encounter the artists through a focused selection of their work. Across different materials, approaches and visual languages, the works reflect the vibrancy of practices that have developed through the gallery’s ongoing relationships with artists.
Unlike a fixed exhibition, Red Stockroom is designed to remain active and responsive throughout its duration. All works are available for purchase and can be taken home immediately once collected
Presented by Red Gallery
Crystal Wu
Artist Statement
Crystal Wu is a Melbourne-based abstract artist whose practice explores the tension between softness and strength, stillness and movement. Working primarily with mixed media on canvas, she builds layered surfaces through colour, texture and intuitive mark-making. Her work reflects an ongoing search for balance between control and spontaneity.
Artist Biography
Crystal Wu is a Melbourne-based abstract artist whose practice has developed across Melbourne and Shanghai. Her work draws on a cross-cultural sensibility shaped by her experience of living and working between East and West.
Since establishing her painting practice, Wu has presented solo exhibitions in Melbourne, including Pulse of My World at Red Gallery in 2025 and Soft Strength: Quiet Power in Silk & Steel in 2026. Her work has also been included in group exhibitions and international presentations in Melbourne, Paris and Berlin.
Working predominantly with mixed media on canvas, Wu continues to develop a visual language centred on colour, texture, movement and emotional restraint.
Jane farnan
Artist Statement
The works in the Red Gallery Stockroom show are images from a collection of ink and watercolour drawings Farnan did of places she visited in Japan in recent years.
Artist Biography
Jane Farnan works in oil and acrylic paint, charcoal, ink and watercolour.
She has exhibited in many solo and group shows in Victoria and interstate and in 2021 Farnan achieved first and second place in the People’s Choice Award in the Victorian Salon des Refusés.
Sandra Espinoza
Artist Statement
Espinoza’s practice involves painting abstracts using oils, as a preferred medium, due to its limitless possibility for creating textural differences. She appreciates the malleable qualities of oil paint as well as its luminosity.
Within the initial intuitive processes of painting, Espinoza will interplay certain limitations, such as tool selection, limited colour palettes and raw application techniques that, as self-imposed restrictions, seem to reflect the constraints and obstacles that can exist within human interactions and the limits to shared understanding.
Espinoza’s art explores themes related to harmony and conflict. She aims for a balanced resolution within each piece, whilst using colour and form to explore notions of relationship dynamics and communication. Her paintings seek to balance the desire to connect and meaningfully engage with others within the confines of subjectivity.
As representations of personal experiences through time, this collection aims to connect with the viewer by providing room for reflection amid form and colour. Incidental expressive marks meet with intentional design; stages of the creative process are purposefully exposed.
Artist Biography
Sandra Espinoza is a Melbourne-based artist currently working in the 23A Studios in Brunswick. Her abstract oil paintings have been showcased in numerous local exhibitions, including several group and solo shows between 2023 and 2026. During this time, Espinoza has participated in two artist residencies; with the Dunmoochin Foundation in North-East Melbourne and at Can Serrat in Barcelona.
Participation in residency opportunities has been invaluable in progressing Espinoza’s future direction as a painter. Each residency has provided the essential space for reflective introspection and has been pivotal places to create a collection of work relating specifically, to each local area. Espinoza’s colourful abstractions aim for balance and harmony within an intuitive, expressive practice.
Savaad Felich
Artist Statement
During the prolonged COVID lockdowns in Victoria, Savaad developed a strong fascination and experimentation with abstract collage. Interesting shapes emerged as slicing, matching and juxtaposing of images and colours occurred.
Initially, many of these new collage artworks were overcrowded and in a sense became sacrificial musings until a looser vertical & broader abstract style evolved, often utilizing tissue paper & cellophane to produce an ethereal transparency.
The other underlying aspect relating to this body of work is the examination of gender conditioning and non-conformity with the social conditioning that ensues from birth, to direct who we are. It is often unquestioned and accepted as status quo, of how things are.
The LGBTQIA community questions the structure of binary gender norms. I recognize myself as encompassing aspects of both genders and feel whole and enriched for it.
“When I think of my gender, I imagine a never-ending swirl of these two energy forces within me. Some days, yin dominates, other days, yang does, and sometimes, the two stand in equal measure. Though it’s not something I can control, it is something that I’m learning to articulate”. Mintzu Chen: New York-based multidisciplinary artist.
Artist Biography
Savaad Felich’s arts practice spans almost forty years predominantly in sculpture, employing a process of lamination, construction and assemblage while utilising an array of recycled and found objects, particularly furniture parts retrieved during hard rubbish collection.
Savaad was former curator for The Yering Stations arts program in the Yarra Valley which included the annual Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition & Awards established in 2001 and the Cellar Door gallery from 2008 – 2015.
Recently, during the COVID pandemic and associated lockdowns, Savaad developed an interest in Abstract Collage and began a period of play and experimentation around fashion and gender conditioning.
Steven Xiao
Artist Biography
Steven Xiao is a photographer specializing in staged and documentary photography. His work blends meticulously constructed scenes with evocative storytelling, exploring themes of identity, cultural symbolism, and social norms. Often centering the female form, he examines the intersections of desire, politics, and representation.
After studying photography in the U.S., Xiao refined his craft under the mentorship of Taiwanese photographer Juan I-Jong. Influenced by humanistic documentary traditions, he develops surreal, thought-provoking compositions that blur the boundaries between reality and fiction. Through dramatic lighting and carefully arranged elements, his images create an atmosphere of mystery and tension, inviting viewers into an immersive narrative.
Steven’s practice challenges conventional perspectives, using visual storytelling to provoke deeper reflections on contemporary life. His photographs have been featured in exhibitions and publications, gaining recognition for their striking interplay of meaning and form
Vittoria Cugno
Artist Statement
Vittoria Cugno specialises in figurative and representational oil paintings. Her snapshot based paintings depict fleeting, candid and everyday interactions of human connection, expressing a sense of momentariness. Vittoria uses vivid colours and experimental painting techniques to express emotion and the sensations experienced in the captured moment, finding reverence for these brief moments amidst the chaotic noise of our capitalist world.
Artist Biography
Vittoria Cugno (b. 2001) is an emerging Italian-Australian artist living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. In 2024, she completed a Bachelor of Art (Fine Art) (Honours) Degree at RMIT University, and has since appeared in many art prizes and group shows. Notably, she was a finalist in the 2024 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, partook in an artist residency at La Maison de Beaumont in Provincial France, exhibited in the Discover: Young Talent Platform at the Affordable Art Fair Melbourne in 2025, and most recently exhibited in Australian Galleries for their 2026 emerging artist group show titled “Prelude”. Vittoria continues to be inspired by the bright colours of contemporary life and honours these fleeting moments in her paintings.