Returning to the River – Re-mapping Melbourne
Montsalvat – Barn Gallery
Opening Night: Friday 29th August 6-8pm
Exhibition Runs: 29th August - 28th September
Exhibition Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 10-4pm
Montsalvat - 7 Hillcrest Ave Eltham, Melbourne/Naarm

This exhibition showcases the culmination of nearly twenty years work to re-map the Yarra/Birrarung River and history of Melbourne/Naarm by artist Katie Roberts.
Returning to the River – Re-mapping Melbourne, presents a selection of paintings and drawings from the vast body of work by artist Katie Roberts. Since 2006 she has embarked of a long-term project to document this city, which addresses the relationship we have to the land and it's history. These artworks incorporate multiple perspectives, capturing layers of history and conveying a complex and powerful sense of place. Through this approach the artist seeks to question the landscape art-making tradition and it’s role in our society.
These multi-layered artworks reveal some of the secret stories that are embedded in the land; the hidden layers, the trauma, violence and beauty that lies beneath the surface. Through this work the artist confronts the truth of our history and our role in ongoing colonialism, to seek to understand our place in this history.
Through a range of original imagery the artist presents us with a new way to view Melbourne, a way to face our collective history, as well as challenge the conventions of traditional landscape art.
Through this process she has investigated how the ways we represent the land reflect our cultural relationship with it; from aerial to linear perspective, title deeds to survey maps that divide and commodify the land itself.

Yarra / Birrarung – Spirit in the City of Melbourne
Katie Roberts & Aunty Janet Turpie-Johnstone
June 24 - July 23 | Burrinja Gallery
This is the latest chapter in Katie Roberts' ongoing body of work exploring the Yarra / Birrarung and the history of Melbourne / Narrm.
This timer she exhibits alongside Aunty Janet Turpie-Johnstone, a salt-water who has been investigating much of the same subject matter through her PhD research.
This exhibition presents their two parallel artistic endeavours to listen to the land and the river. These paintings and works on paper convey the layered historical and contemporary stories of on Wurundjeri land and Melbourne/Narrm. Both artists work to acknowledge and expose the impacts THAT colonisation imposed. This cross-cultural conversation IS about place and is centred on EXPOSING the ongoing environmental trauma. This is the colonial legacy that we are all participating in. But, and above, all we acknowledge the enduring and powerful spirit of place.
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Exhibition runs 23 June - 23 July 2022.
Opening hours: Wednesday 0 Saturday 10-4pm
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Burrinja Cultural Centre, Glenfern Rd, Upwey, Wurundjeri Land
Drawing Breath – An Exhibition of Life Drawings at Montsalvat
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August 29th – 22nd September 2019
Dear friends,
I am very excited to invite you to my latest exhibition Drawing Breath, opening on Thursday 29th August 6.40-8.30pm at Monsalvat Arts Centre in the Long Gallery. I would be delighted if you could join me for the opening. (Or if you prefer or can not make the opening I will be hosting some picnic gatherings too, please let me know if you can come to the opening to assist with catering or if you'd rather a picnic invite.) The exhibition runs 29th Aug-22nd September, Monday - Sunday 9-5pm at Montsalvat Arts Centre, 7 Hillcrest Ave. Eltham. It is an exhibition of the life drawings I made at Montsalvat when I was running life drawing classes last year. There will be large original drawings, iterations as well as prints available.
These works celebrate life drawing, the wonderful models, the discipline itself in which we meet out own humanity, life and mortality.
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Drawing Breath - Katie Roberts
Opening 29th Aug 6.30-8.30pm
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An exhibition of life drawings created in sessions led by the artist at Montsalvat in 2018. This exhibition celebrates the practice of life drawing; the process of discovery, the rhythmic discipline and deep searching. For this artist the process of drawing is akin to breathing. These works explore what it is to be human, and greater questions of mortality itself.
This is an exhibition of the original drawings, iterations and more developed works.
Montsalvat Long Gallery
7 Hillcrest Ave Eltham
29th Aug - 22nd Sept









