RMIT Galleries

Artist Sol LeWitt believed it was the instruction—or idea—that formed an artwork. He said, “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art”. To complement our current exhibition, ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’ we have a fun, follow along at home activity called ‘Folds Rips Cuts’.

Exhibition curator Irene Barberis has written a set of directions for you to follow to create your own paper sculpture.
All you need are a few easy-to-access materials to make a wonderful artwork influenced by the principles of conceptual art, as showcased in the exhibition.

Once completed, please email us an image of your fabulous creation to [email protected] for the chance to win some great prizes including RMIT Gallery books and double passes to events and film screenings such as ‘Stan Grant: When Words Fail Us’ at The Capitol theatre; and ‘Winhanganha’ by award-winning Wiradjuri artist and poet Jazz Money.

For the art at home activity instructions and for more information, please visit the link our linktree.

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Image: Folds Rips and Cuts artwork by Jodi Karshani.
The Farsi text included in the artwork is a quote from a poem by Houshang Ebtehaj. In English this translates to: "I didn't know the meaning of never, why didn't you ever come back?!"

📣 Open Call — Fashion Refusal

What does it mean to refuse fashion — not walk away from it, but resist and reimagine it?

Curated by Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran and Tassia Joannides (RMIT Fashion and Textiles), Fashion Refusal is a new exhibition coming to RMIT Design Hub Gallery as part of the 2027 PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival Independent Program, and we're calling for contributions from the RMIT F&T community, including staff (ongoing, contract, casual, sessional, academic, technical, special guests!), students, alumni and partners.

Drawing on research into Regenerative and Sustainable Fashion Systems, the exhibition brings together work across five curatorial lenses: refusal as resistance, refusal as aesthetics, refusal to conform, refusal as restraint, and refusal to disappear. We're looking for practice that refuses the hierarchies, systems and norms of dominant fast fashion and makes space for alternative ways of doing, thinking, dressing and making.

Individual or collaborative contributions are welcome across creative practice, panel discussions and public workshops.

Applicants must have a current or past association with the School of Fashion and Textiles — whether as academic or professional staff (casual or ongoing), current student/s or alumni, or as a partner, collaborator, or guest lecturer/artist/ designer. Both individual and collaborative applications are welcome.

Contributions are welcome across various formats, including creative practice works, curated panel discussions and public workshops. We would love to see your work and welcome you to share this call with others eligible in your networks. We also strongly encourage collaborative submissions.

Deadline for submissions: Friday 26 June 2026

Exhibition open to public: 26 Feb – 25 Apr 2027

Get in touch with Daphne if you have questions

Key dates:
Deadline for submissions: Friday 26th June 2026

Please find additional information including eligibility and the full EOI form in Linktree

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Join us on opening night for the RMIT Architecture End of Semester Exhibition at the RMIT Design Hub!

The exhibition features work from RMIT Architecture and Master of Urban Design students (Masters Major Project, Bachelor and Masters Design Studios, Foundation Studio and Architecture Design Electives).

Opening speeches and the Design Studio and Graduating Project ‘Awards for Design Excellence’ will commence at 6:30PM in the Design Hub Gallery.

Opening Night: Friday 26 June 2026, 6:00—7:00PM
RMIT Design Hub, Levels 2, 3 & 7

Exhibition dates: Saturday 27 June - Friday 3 July from 12PM to 5PM




Image: Poster background image, Amanda Zhuoran Chen, ‘Enough is Never Enough’, a Major Project Semester 2 2025, Awarded the Anne Butler Memorial Medal and Leon van Schaik Peer Assessed Award. Supervisor: Anna Johnson.

‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt’ project, in partnership with RMIT Gallery, would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who attended the opening celebration of ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place.’

Despite the torrential downpour of rain as the event began, a huge crowd gathered for the opening of the exhibition; and to view Sol LeWitt’s ‘Wall Drawing ’, at over 10 metres long on the gallery wall.

We had the great privilege of hearing from Wurundjeri Elder, Uncle Bill Nicholson; Irene Barberis, exhibition co-curator; Sophie Oxenbridge, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the NGV; and Naomi Stead, Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor, Engagement, in the College of Design and Social Context at RMIT.

This event was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the enduring influence of American conceptual artist, Sol LeWitt.

The exhibition is centred around the original Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing, and showcases the work of an established nucleus of five international artists who worked closely with LeWitt during his career, alongside a group of 13 contemporary Australian artists.

Curated by Irene Barberis with Helen Rayment.

On exhibition until 29 August.

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The Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing is generously loaned by the LeWitt Family and Estate. ⁠
‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt’ ⁠project is presented in partnership with RMIT Gallery and Metasenta.

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Images 1, 4 & 6: Opening celebration for ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’, RMIT Gallery, 2026.

Image 2: Helen Rayment and Irene Barberis in front of Sol LeWitt, ‘Wall Drawing ’, 2026, acrylic paint and crayon. Courtesy of the Estate of Sol LeWitt, Chester, Connecticut, USA, in ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’, 2026, RMIT Gallery.

Image 3: Opening celebration for ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’, RMIT Gallery, 2026 featuring (right) Jonas Balsaitis, ‘Yellow Pix’s’ 1996, (left, detail) ‘Horizon’s’, 1985.

Image 5: Opening celebration for ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’, RMIT Gallery, 2026 featuring Emma Coulter, ‘concentric slip’, 2023 (foreground) and Kerrie Poliness, ‘BBKO’, 2014-26 (background).

Image 7: Opening celebration for ‘The Influences of Sol Concentric LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’, RMIT Gallery, 2026 featuring Emma Coulter, ‘still life’, 2023 (right), ‘concentric slip’, 2023 (centre) and ‘rebellious forms’, 2023 (left).

Image 8: Opening celebration for ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’, RMIT Gallery, 2026 featuring Robert Hunter ‘Untitled No 4’, 1985

Image 9: Opening celebration for ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’, RMIT Gallery, 2026 featuring Irene Barberis, ‘Architectonics 18: Radiant Systems: The Black Grid’, 2026 (left) and Sol LeWitt, ‘Wall Drawing ’, 2026, acrylic paint and crayon. Courtesy of the Estate of Sol LeWitt, Chester, Connecticut, USA (right)

Image 10: Opening celebration for ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place’, RMIT Gallery, 2026 featuring Fransje Killaars, ‘The Intuition 1’, 2023 (left) and ‘The Intuition 2’, 2023 (right)

Photographs by Keelan O'Hehir

CLOSING TODAY

Don’t miss these four incredible shows at First Site Gallery!

'Slip' by Noah Bridger

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'Portable Stillness' by Ko Jou Chen

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'Can I Hold You?' by Chloe Rose Thomas

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'Boiling Matters' by Elisa Zorraquin

Catch them before they’re gone.

Free entry, open until 5pm.

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Image 1: Installation view of Ko Jou Chen, ‘Portable Stillness’, 2025, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Claire Armstrong.

Image 2: Installation view of ‘Can I Hold You?’ by Chloe Rose Thomas, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Christian Capurro.

Image 3: Installation view of ‘Boiling Matters’ by Elisa Zorraquin, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Christian Capurro.

Image 4: Installation view of Ko Jou Chen, ‘Portable Stillness’, 2025, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Christian Capurro.

Image 5: Installation view of ‘Slip’ by Noah Bridger, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Claire Armstrong.

Join us next week for ‘Pinacotheca 1970s: Identifying The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt’ to hear from speakers who have been involved with one of Melbourne's most iconic galleries.

This panel discussion will feature: artists who worked and exhibited at Pinacotheca; an historian and critic; as well as the custodian and convenor of the Pinacotheca archive. With a focus on the early- to mid-1970s Richmond era. Chaired by Irene Barberis, the discussion will centre around personal viewpoints, perceptions and reflections on this important historical gallery and community.

Speakers: Christopher Heathcote, Simon Klose and Trevor Fuller

Chair: Irene Barberis

5:30 – 6:30pm
Thursday 18 June
RMIT Gallery

This is a FREE event, register your attendance via the link in our bio! ⁠

Presented by ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt’ project in partnership with RMIT Gallery and Metasenta.



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Image: Bruce Pollard and artists at Pinacotheca’s closure November 1999. Photograph by Graham Baring, 1999. Collection of Trevor Fuller.

“Quiet, intimate, mobile”

Ko Jou Chen’s First Site exhibition ‘Portable Stillness’ embodies these three qualities, exploring how the making of miniature objects and floating altar-like displays can express memory, collection and the domestic in transition. Shaped by diasporic living and continual relocation, Chen’s practice uses miniature objects to give form to a desire for stability within changing environments. These objects are placed on handmade structures which hang in the air, as if unmoored, creating a delicate balance between the space, object and visitor. Bringing together humble support materials such as balsa wood and cardboard with more precious metals, Chen creates a portable, dioramic exhibition that opens up to reveal sculptural carriers of memory.

This is your LAST week to visit ‘Portable Stillness’, closing this Friday 12 June.







Image 1: Photo of Ko Jou Chen by Claire Armstrong.

Image 2-3: Ko Jou Chen, ‘Portable Stillness’, 2025 (detail) in ‘Portable Stillness’, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Christian Capurro.

Image 4: Ko Jou Chen, ‘Portable Altar’, 2025 in ‘Portable Stillness’, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Christian Capurro.

This week is your LAST chance to view our current exhibitions at First Site Gallery!

Discover how these four shows explore identity, memory, exchange and place, through considered materiality and artistic process.

'Slip' by Noah Bridger

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'Portable Stillness' by Ko Jou Chen

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'Can I Hold You?' by Chloe Rose Thomas

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'Boiling Matters' by Elisa Zorraquin

Until 12 June

Free entry, open Tuesday to Friday, 11am – 5pm

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Image 1, 6: Installation views of ‘Slip’ by Noah Bridger, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photos by Claire Armstrong.

Image 2: Elisa Zorraquin, ‘Boiling Matters (necklace)’, 2026 (foreground) and ‘Boiling Matters (film)’, 2026 (background) in ‘Boiling Matters’, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Christian Capurro.
Image 3: Installation view of ‘Can I Hold You?’ by Chloe Rose Thomas, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Claire Armstrong.

Image 4: Elisa Zorraquin, ‘Boiling Matters’ (detail), 2026, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Claire Armstrong.
Image 5: Installation view of Ko Jou Chen, ‘Portable Stillness’, 2025, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Claire Armstrong.

Image 7: Ko Jou Chen, ‘Portable Stillness’ (detail), 2025 in ‘Portable Stillness’, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Christian Capurro.

Our public program for ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt’ project kicks off with a collaboration between Irene Barberis, Anne Scott Wilson and Sarah Duyshart.

RMIT Gallery is delighted to invite you to a special performance of ‘Dance: Vertical View’, a collaboration conceived by Irene Barberis as a response to ‘DANCE’ (1979), the landmark work by choreographer Lucinda Childs, composer Philip Glass and artist Sol LeWitt.

Performed by Arianna Marchiori and Chimene Steele-Prior (M Collective), the dancers operate within a rule-based logic. This live work activates Barberis’ taped grid, Sarah Duyshart’s score and Anne Scott Wilson’s choreography and direction; three practices in constant conversation, each shaping the others as the work develops.

Friday June 12
4:00 – 5:00pm
RMIT Gallery

Tickets are extremely limited, reserve your place now via the link in our bio.

TICKETS $5

Metasenta Projects partners with RMIT Gallery for ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt’.

Supported by Deakin University, Faculty of Arts and Education publication funding.

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Images: ‘Dance: Vertical View Collaboration’ in response to ‘Dance’, 1979 © I. Barberis, S. Duyshart, A. Scott Wilson.