Courtesy: the artist and MARS Gallery, Melbourne.

MARS Gallery presents Lilli Stromland’s first commercial exhibition in Melbourne, Homely Gems. The exhibition brings together homemade ceramics and paintings harmoniously to reflect the warm nature of maternity against a backdrop of Onkaparinga textile patterns.

Stromland’s playful mix of suburban still-life painting and stoneware ceramics form a harmonious collection of warm, fresh oil on linen pieces. Created at her studio in Sydney’s Inner West, Stromland’s five ceramic frames and two smaller ceramic ‘sketches’ are handmade in her garden to produce a unique finish each time.

Each piece is low fire glazed and carefully structured to complement the luscious oil paintings they encase. Stromland’s bold use of colour nurtures the viewer into the calming focal points of vintage glasswork upon Australian wool Onkaparinga blanket backgrounds. These blankets come from the wool factory along the Onkaparinga river, the land of the Kaurna people, with their name for this area being Ngangkiparingga, translating to “place of the women’s river”.

Having graduated from the National Art School in 2015, Homely Gems is Stromland’s first commercial exhibition in metropolitan Melbourne and third solo show overall, promising to transport viewers into a world of lavish, vintage chic.

Opening Event: Thursday, 24 August, 6 – 8pm.

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