Together, the twin towns of Albury Wodonga are one of the largest inland ‘towns’ in Australia, with a combined population of around 90,000 people. With plenty of period charm, acclaimed restaurants and museums, and beautiful scenic surroundings, there’s so much to love about these bustling regional cities.
So next time you’re stopping off along the Hume Highway, or are seeking a weekend away, we’ve got you covered with these top spots to eat, drink, shop, stay, and experience in Albury Wodonga!
Artist Liz Sofield moved to Brisbane 16 years ago and has lived in the coastal town of Scarborough, 30 kilometres north of the city, since. Before that, she and her young family did a brief stint living in a remote mining town. Devoid of a creative outlet, it was here that she reconnected with her childhood love for making art.
Drawing on training textile design and interior design, and with a lifelong love for craft, Liz began making simple sculptures from paper and thread. Now, her works consists of crochet and porcelain forms, which she makes from her sunny 1950s home in Queensland.
Tatsiana Shevarenkova studied finance and economics in Moscow before becoming interested in fashion imagery, working as a stylist in magazine editorial, and eventually moving to Australia.
It wasn’t until she shifted hemispheres that she discovered the gentle, slow-paced world of ceramics. This new discipline renewed Tatsiana’s creative focus, and her passion was further galvanised during last year’s lockdowns, which afforded her the time and space to hone her style. Now, Cosset Ceramics is her full-time practice, and she is one half of a duo show at Saint Cloche, where her fluid ceramic vessels sit beside Hannah Nowlan‘s titanic, earthy paintings.
Ukrainian-Australian artist Stanislava Pinchuk (formerly known as Miso) is known for her art spanning drawing, sculpture, and data mapping. Normally displayed separately, these artworks are being brought together for the artist’s first-ever career survey, open now at Heide Museum of Modern Art.
Titled Terra Data, the exhibition encompasses 40 works created between 2015 to 2020, including Stanislava’s renowned pinhole drawings and sculptures plotting war and conflict zones.
We spoke with Stanislava in the lead up to the exhibition to discuss this major career milestone, and the evolution of her art practice.
Every aspect of this Hunter Valley project by Dangar Barin Smith is ambitious. From the hillside location, to the dry, clay-like conditions of the soil, designing a garden here presented a host of challenges. But nothing was more daunting than its scale.
Luckily, a solid partnership between client and designer has resulted in an enviable garden, perfectly suited to the site’s sprawling proportions. Sometimes, it really is possible to create something out of nothing!
In a world where birthing people are expected to ‘snapback’ to their pre-baby selves, Jess Prescott, known for Mama Goodness + several vegan cookbooks, has dedicated her life to providing a slower, more considered approach to early parenthood.
It’s an important, too-often dismissed conversation, which Jess shares with warmth + candour.
Jess lives in Preston, Melbourne, with her husband Andy and their two boys Louie and Jude.
The streets of Collingwood in Melbourne are filled with old warehouse buildings, leftover from the suburb’s history as a busy industrial area. These days, you can find any number of creative businesses behind these innocuous facades – but perhaps none quite so unexpected as Sense of Self, a modern day spa and bathhouse that has recently opened its doors!
Anastasia Elias renovated her home in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs at the beginning of 2019, and began planting the garden in winter of the same year, just before her young family moved into their new house. In that short time, the garden has become an abundant wonderland – sprouting with vegetable patches and self-seeded flowers that scatter the meandering front grass of their own accord.
Anastasia is a self-taught gardener, and her passion for horticulture is guided by a concept called biophilia: the belief in an intense and symbiotic affinity between humans and the natural world. This approach permeates the entire garden, from the cubby house overgrown with jasmine and violets, to the lunar calendar that she uses to plot her planting cycles.
This is a deeply holistic family garden, one that is constantly informing and framing the human lives that tend it.
Flash Minky is a brand new textile brand on our radar, bringing the designs of eight Indigenous artists from the Eastern Kimberley region to limited-edition blankets.
Founded by non-Indigenous woman Emilia Galatis – an arts professional who has worked with Indigenous artists and arts centres in remote communities for the last 14 years – 100% of the net profits are redistributed to the artists.
The blankets create a new medium for these lauded artists’ practices to be shared and explored, as well as connecting them with a mainstream audience. We love them!
Hands up who, in the last 12 months, has dreamt of giving up their 9-5 to pursue their creative passions? What has remained a daydream for most of us has become a reality for ceramicist Jess Choi of Eun Ceramics. Although Jess is still taking on a few gigs as a production manager in TV here and there, she’s (wheel) throwing everything into her true passion – ceramics. And despite feeling ‘imposter syndrome’ when she first put herself out there, her little business is thriving.
Jess found a lot more than just a hobby when she first took up casual pottery classes in 2016. Five years later and she’s found a way to be her own boss, and unexpectedly, reconnect with a part of her Korean heritage.
