Jacky Winter is pleased to present What I Am (What I’m Not). Featuring Olivia Grbac, Tim Sta-Ana, Sarah Nguyen, and Niqui Toldi.

For the month of April, the artists have been part of a makeshift studio program in the gallery. The resulting works explore themes of vulnerability and obsolescence, chronic pain, fantasy and longing through paintings and drawings. Viewers are invited to leave their trace in an interactive digital installation and navigate a sitespecific built structure.

Niqui Toldi (she/her) is an illustrator, artist and muralist. In her personal practice she explores themes of identity, expressions of femininity, emotions, connectedness and nature.

In this series of works, I explore the theme of “taking up space” through large, imposing femme figures that embody confidence and self-assurance. I use dandelions as a recurring motif to symbolise the complex experience of immigration.

Inspired by Antonia Hayes’ essay on Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own,” I imagine a room of my own — a safe space where I can freely express myself without fear of judgement or rejection. The room is small, but its mirrored walls create an infinite reflection of my power and creativity. Through this imagery, I aim to convey the idea that we can create our own universes, even in the face of adversity and challenges.

By taking up space and asserting ourselves confidently, we can inspire others to do the same and create a more inclusive and empowering world.

Olivia Grbac is an illustrator working digitally and with traditional mediums such as ink and watercolour. Her practice centres around the illustration of exaggerated caricatures inspired by people, society and breathing personality into everyday inanimate objects.

My works explore themes of chronic pain, shame, comfort and existing in a larger body. Over the last few months living in chronic pain and spending more time in bed, I have found myself returning to themes of food as comfort, intuitive eating and the rejection of diet culture. The use of food as a salve for pain and stress has become a recurring motif throughout this period.

Chip packets become blankets, the tens machine a trusted companion and my heat pack is exhausted from being put in the microwave so often. These colourful characters stem from my imagination as an escape from this world and my body, both of which I have felt defeated by.

Using the bright and eye-catching colours of these products and imbuing them with character and expression, displays how humour can be used to combat hardship. By reframing what could be considered shameful in cartoonish charm, I hope to show that safety and comfort looks different to everyone.

Sarah Nguyen (aka Minh Myler) is an illustrator and designer based in Sydney/Gadigal Land. Working in both digital and traditional mediums, her works explore relationships, technology, anxiety and subconscious thoughts.

In my works, I explore the experience of longing for someone or something and the impulse to escape that feeling through fantasy and digital worlds. My art merges elements of medieval fantasy and technology, contrasting sharp shapes such as maces and swords with more organic forms like wires and buttons.

I have used acrylic paint on laser cut board to express each of these different worlds. Each shape contains a different story of longing.

Tim Sta-Ana is an animator, visual artist and creative technologist at a small studio space in Collingwood/Caroline Springs. He/they have a BD in Animation and Interactive Media from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

My artwork explores the idea of loneliness in neglected objects and imagining the dust that collects forming into dust bunnies. I think that those objects might not be as lonely as we think - that in some way, dust bunnies keep our forgotten technology some company.

My pieces explore this theme in a VR drawing presented in stereoscopic 3D on a Nintendo 3DS, an acrylic painting, and an interactive “guest book” to send off a memoir to our old things displayed on an Apple iMac G4 from 2002. I hope people have fun imagining dust bunnies in the things that we have neglected over time.