Contemporary Australian Textile Design
Artists: Bábbarra Women’s Centre, Frida Las Vegas, Grace Lillian Lee, Hannah Gartside, Ikuntji Artists, Iordanes Spyridon Gogos, Jemima Wyman, Kate Just, Lisa Waup X Verner, Nina Walton, Nixi Killick, Paul Mccann, Romance Was Born, The Social Studio X Among Atem X Romance Was Born, Tiwi Design, Vita Cochran, Wah-Wah Australia.
13 March – 10 May 2026
Wednesday to Sunday 11am-4pm
FABRIK is proud to be the final venue for this JamFactory touring exhibition bringing together contemporary design, art and fashion through textiles.
Textile design today is a vibrant boundary-blurring creative field. By its very nature, it cross-pollinates. Moving through disciplines – graphic, furniture and product design, fashion and the visual arts – it manifests as surface patterning, material experimentation and transfiguration, storytelling and conceptual ideas.
Despite the hardships of recent years, Australian textile-based practices are flourishing. Makers are finding renewed confidence in community-driven interest, co-creation, and inclusivity. Collaborations in the fashion industry are on the increase, forged by creatives such as Romance Was Born, Iordanes Spyridon Gogos, Grace Lillian Lee and initiatives such as First Nations Fashion + Design. The skyrocketing visibility within First Nations practices is partly due to the passionate vision of new enterprises and reinforced by the meaningful and covetable textile designs being produced by artists in Top End and remote art centres and collectives. In line with these developments, and urgent sustainability concerns, the artisanal ethos is gaining agency.
New Exuberance celebrates the work of more than 30 textile creatives and includes commissioned furniture pieces produced by designers associated with JamFactory to acknowledge the rich diversity of textile-based practices in contemporary art, design and fashion in this country now.
Contemporary textile design is a vibrant boundary-blurring creative field. By nature, it cross-pollinates. Moving through disciplines – graphic, furniture and product design, fashion and the visual arts – it manifests as surface patterning, material experimentation and transfiguration, storytelling and conceptual ideas.
In the context of our times and years marked by many competing crises, creative work concerned with connection, authenticity and the trace of the hand, has become all the more important. Australian textile-based practices are thriving. Collaborations in the fashion industry are on the increase. The visibility of First Nations creatives is also skyrocketing, partly due to the passionate vision of new enterprises and reinforced by the covetable designs being produced by Top End artists, remote art centres and collectives.
Eclectic and multidisciplinary, the creatives in this exhibition bring resourcefulness, reflection and spirited invention to the fore. New Exuberance celebrates them and acknowledges the rich diversity of textile-based practices in art, design and fashion in this country today.
Meryl Ryan Curator
Image Credit: North Bondi Dream Apartment Glamour Sack. Creative Direction Stavroula Adameitis. Photo Charles Grant.
New Exuberance: contemporary Australian textile design is a JamFactory touring exhibition supported by the Visions of Australia touring program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to cultural material for all Australians.
Wine Sponsor
