Playful ceramics set the table for a strong showing of emerging talent
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition continues to play a vital role in supporting the next generation of South Australian visual artists.
2025 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition
SASA Gallery
Each year, this exhibition showcases some of our state’s most promising emerging talents and highlights the interests of the next generation of creatives. This year’s participants from Flinders University and the University of South Australia present a high standard of work across a variety of media, including painting, photography, ceramics, and video.
While it can be challenging to highlight specific works, several presentations stand out. The ceramics offering is particularly impressive, featuring compelling installations by Chin Ton (Naomi) Tang and Tieyuan Zhou. Tang’s piece, A Table of Her Own showcases multiple earthenware items arranged to create a playful dinner party setting that captures an aesthetic of excess and abundance. The quality of the work has been recognised with the artist receiving The South Australian Industry Award supported by JamFactory, SALA Festival and Guildhouse.
Zhou’s Echo of Fragments is another highlight that instantly draws the viewer in. This installation consists of delicate, well-crafted porcelain pieces suspended from the ceiling, creating a dialogue across generations and distances about nature’s resilience. Having migrated from China, Zhou’s work delves into themes of language and identity and how these can be expressed through nature and gardening. The forms are created from plants in Zhou’s garden that were planted by her father when he visited.
Charlotte Treloar, Echoes. Photo: James Field / Supplied
“The plants, embedded into porcelain, are more than imprints of nature; they are imprints of memory, of distance, of the love we inherit and preserve in the landscapes around us,” explains Zhou. Space and suspension also play into the artist’s work reflecting the precarious nature of belonging and displacement experienced as a result of migration. Zhou’s work was well recognised with the artist being granted the Helpmann Academy Major Exhibition Award and the Jaquillard Exhibition Award.
Printmaker Pippini Niamh presents a unique approach to woodcut printing. She has carved into a circular wooden table, using it as the printing block to create the work displayed on the wall. Niamh aims to showcase the printmaking process and highlight the often-overlooked surfaces she spends significant time carving. The work is influenced by the relationship between social justice and her faith. She believes that collectively we can address significant issues such as the disparity between food wastage and world hunger. By using a round table, Niamh invites the audience into the conversation, emphasising that there is no hierarchy and that there is room for everyone. Niamh received the City of Adelaide Award, valued at $5,000 which is presented to an artist whose work reflects and celebrates the City of Adelaide’s creative culture.
Leanne Rowett, Equilibrium. Photo: James Field / Supplied
Charlotte Treloar has also received recognition, earning The Mount Horrocks Wines Award and the People’s Choice Credit Union Innovation Award. Treloar is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is inspired by her personal ancestry, culture and First Nations heritage. In her digital piece Echoes, she reflects on the powerful connections between the body and culture, exploring themes of identity and belonging. Each screen plays an individual water video, overlaid with an inkjet print of a photograph capturing two magnified images of lines found in nature and on her body, such as insect tunnels or palm lines. The result is a fascinating image of unique markings that represent identity and the physical traces of growth within a landscape.
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Through her painting practice, Leanne Rowett explores themes of unification and balance. Her abstract painting stands out as it exudes ambiguity and encapsulates a sense of stillness and calm. There is something captivating about the forms, which seem suspended in time yet convey a sense of fragility. By focusing on the connection between humanity and the environment, Rowett merges hard-edge abstraction with soft-edge gradient techniques to reflect a sense of oneness.
Textile artist Silki Wong’s presentation Grip is also noteworthy. Her practice focuses on the everyday and mundane, bringing attention to what would otherwise go unnoticed. In Grip Wong explores wrinkles and creases, celebrating these unintentional markings. By focusing on these folds, the artist invites the audience to contemplate the idea that these markings, whether on our clothes or our skin, are part of our existence. Wong received the $7,500 Fetzer Award for Excellence.
This year’s Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition showcases an abundance of talent, featuring a diverse range of artwork that caters to all tastes. Visit the exhibition, experience the creativity on display, and support the visual arts industry and these emerging artists.
The 2025 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition is showing at SASA Gallery, UniSA Kaurna Building, City West, until March 22.