BLUE - Upcoming Exhibition in Red Hill

I’m delighted to share BLUE, a trio exhibition presented by Lander–Se and Amy Voterakis, celebrating the poetic, emotional and material depths of this time-honoured hue.

Curated by Lander_se director Hannah Nowlan and myself, BLUE brings together the work of three female artists: painter Caitlin Rigby and ceramicists Yen Qin and Amy Leeworthy. The exhibition considers blue not only as a colour, but as a carrier of history, mood and meaning.

Blue holds a rich and layered place in art history — from the precious lapis lazuli pigment to Picasso’s Blue Period and International Klein Blue. Blue-and-white pottery, perfected in China, was later imitated in European Chinoiserie styles and Dutch Delftware. Beyond its visual legacy, blue also embodies feeling: melancholy and longing on one hand, calm and contemplation on the other.

Beyond colour theory, BLUE is grounded in a longer creative relationship. Hannah and I first worked together in 2016, when I was Creative Director of Modern Times and encountered her work at her VCA graduate exhibition. We went on to collaborate on multiple sell-out exhibitions. Almost a decade on, we reunite as curators — each now championing emerging artists through our own platforms. Hannah founded Lander_se, a rural artist-run gallery on the Mornington Peninsula in 2024.

Set against this shared history, BLUE becomes a considered dialogue between painting and ceramics, tradition and contemporary practice — tracing blue as pigment, vessel, mood and memory.

Caitlin Rigby’s paintings unfold in soft grey-blues, built through lightly layered washes and intuitive, reflective gestures. Drawing on horizons, rain-heavy skies, wings in motion and shifting landscapes, her work explores liminal states — those in-between moments shaped by memory, transition and introspection.

Yen Qin combines wheel-thrown and hand-manipulated ceramic forms with complex, layered surfaces. Classical silhouettes are twisted and pierced. Blue is a colour she returns to repeatedly, referencing Chinese blue-and-white pottery as she explores identity and navigates the ‘third cultural space’ she occupies as an Asian woman in Australia.

Amy Leeworthy presents a body of sculptural ceramic works that move between ritual and domestic function. Among these are urns — vessels intended to live within the home long before they are ever needed. By encouraging a relationship with these objects over time, Leeworthy gently reframes ideas of mortality and remembrance, allowing beauty, utility and meaning to coexist.

Together, BLUE forms a dialogue that honours blue’s long visual and cultural history, while revealing its enduring capacity to convey emotion, materiality and meaning.

BLUE is presented at (Being of the land), Red Hill, and is on view from January 31.

Opening Event:
11-4pm Saturday 31st January

Exhibition Runs: 
31st Jan – 22nd February 

Lander—Se: 585 Dunns Creek Rd, Red Hill