Featured Image: Amber Koroluk-Stephenson’s, Castles made of Sand, 2022, oil on linen, 91.5 x 112cm. Courtesy: the artist and Bett Gallery

Amber Koroluk-Stephenson’s paintings have always provoked the question of ‘where are we?’, with liquid boundaries between domestic and exterior domains, patchwork perspectives, and conspicuously constructed mises en scène. Throughout A Hopeful Mirage, however, a heightened emphasis on ‘where are we going?’ emerges. The exhibition is a tragicomic meditation on the psychic inertia of a world in flux. Responding to events both local and international, Amber’s landscapes incorporate a new dimension of turbulence. Plumes of bushfire smoke unfurl on the horizon and ghost trees loom on dammed lakes. Elsewhere, palm trees are whipped into a frenzy by gale-force winds and trails of blood-red fire-retardant spill from the skies.

Opening: 8 July, 5:30 – 7 pm