Meet the Artists > Coral Futures
Join Curator Hamish Sawyer for an insightful conversation with artists Helga Groves and Rachel O'Reilly about their work in Coral Futures. Hear directly from Helga and Rachel about the ideas, materials, and processes behind their works on display at Linden New Art, and how they fit within their broader practice. Together, they will explore perspectives on the making of Coral Futures, including the artworks, life experiences, and research that shaped the exhibition.
| WHEN | > Saturday 29 November 2025 |
| TIME | > 1:30 to 2:30PM |
| VENUE | > Linden New Art, 26 Acland Street, St Kilda |
| COST |
> Free, All Welcome |
Sorry, you've missed the RSVP deadline for this event.
About the artists
Helga Groves
Helga Groves is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, weaving, sculptural forms, drawing and animation. Her artworks engage
with a range of mediums and materials such as monofilament fishing line, Perspex, oil paint, pigments, resinand acetate. Deep geological
time, ineffable natural phenomena andgeophysical processes are enmeshed in her meticulous practice-she rigorously investigatesthe defining
physical properties of ancient matter, fleeting environmental episodesand climateconditions. Her abstractions convey a uniquely layered
sense of place as first-hand observation of natural environments spanning multiple biomes remainsintrinsic to her art practice.
Groves is a first-generation Australian of Finnish and English heritage, born in Ayr, Queensland in 1961, now living and working in
Naarm/Melbourne. She has exhibited frequently throughout Australia and overseas for over thirty-five years. Groves completed a Bachelor of
Visual Arts, Graduate Diploma and a Master of Visual Artsat Sydney College of the Arts (between 1987and 2000 respectively). In 1997 she was
awarded the prestigious Moët & Chandon Australian Art Fellowship, resulting in a year-long residency and soloexhibition in France. In
1999, Groves was included in the acclaimed Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT3) at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. Her
work has been shown in important curated exhibitions at institutions including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Art
Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Artspace, Sydney; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra; UQ
ArtMuseum, Brisbane; Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne and Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.
Rachel O'Reilly
Rachel O’Reilly is a settler Australian artist/writer/researcher b. Gladstone, QLD. She was film, video, new media curator at
GoMA/Australian Cinematheque, has an MA (Cum Laude) in Media and Culture from the University of Amsterdam, was a writer/artist in residence
at Jan van Eyck Academie and inaugural Fellow in Ecology at Sandburg Institute. From 2014-21 Rachel taught ‘How to Do Things with
Theory’ at the Dutch Art Institute, NL and edited Theory on Demand for the Institute for Network Cultures. Her artistic work has been
presented at Haus der Kulturen de Welt, Berlin; E-Flux, New York; Tate Liverpool; Museum of Yugloslav History, Belgrade; Van
Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Jakarta Biennale; Qalandiya International, Jerusalem; and Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil. Curatorial/editorial
collaborations include The Leisure Class (GoMA), Moving Images of Speculation (NL), ‘Planetary Records’, Contour Biennale
(BE), EX-EMBASSY.com (DE) and Feminist Takes (Sternberg Press). She writes with Jelena Vesic on Non-Aligned Movement
legacies, with Danny Butt on artistic autonomy in settler colonial conditions, and edits with Aboriginal contemporary artist Richard
Bell. Her longterm project, The Gas Imaginary (2013-2021) used poetry, drawing, installation, essays and moving
image media to explore the difference of unconventional gas (fracking) from colonial modern mining regimes, in dialogue with Gooreng Gooreng
elders and frontline activists, culminating in www.infractionsdocumentary.net.
NORTHERN WATERS (2025) is her third major moving image commission.