Join us for the launch of three compelling exhibitions ‘Matters of Time: Contemporary Metal Practices’, ‘Emma Fielden: The Sky Swallowed a Stone’, and ‘Mason Kimber: A Caressing Gaze’.
Together, these exhibitions explore themes of memory, materiality, and transformation through innovative approaches to metalwork, painting, sculpture, and installation. Enjoy light refreshments and experience the galleries after hours from 6–8pm on Friday 29 August 2025.
Matters of Time: Contemporary Metal Practices
Curated by Catherine Woolley, this major exhibition brings together eleven Australian artists and designers who explore the evolving role of metal in contemporary practice and its relationship with time. Bridging traditional smithing techniques and contemporary metalworking approaches, the exhibition encompasses sculpture, furniture, drawing, jewellery, and installation. Together, exhibiting practitioners provide timely perspectives on the use of metal in adornment and industry, its role in extractive economies, and its potential for reuse and reimagining.
Emma Fielden: The Sky Swallowed a Stone
Emma Fielden brings together silverpoint, stone, sound, and performance in a contemplative body of work grounded in repetition, gesture, and geological time. Crushed stone suspended in oil glaze, remnants from a durational hammering performance, and video documentation form an evocative archive of transformation—where every mark, breath, and impact registers as a quiet trace of memory and becoming.
Mason Kimber: A Caressing Gaze
In a suite of new textural paintings, wall reliefs, and a site-specific installation, Mason Kimber explores how architecture can act as a vessel for memory. Inspired by childhood experiences inside his father’s nightclub, Kimber reimagines the surfaces of built environments as living, mutable forms that carry the imprints of time, emotion, and place.
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UNSW Galleries is located at the entrance to the UNSW Art & Design campus, just 5 minutes from Sydney’s CBD. Wheelchair and pram access available. Service animals are warmly welcomed.
Image
Kensuke Todo, Two rocks sitting, 2018. Image courtesy of the artist, Kamberri/Canberra. Photo: Brenton McGeachie