All Categories - WANDA GILLESPIE

Looking up // Scott Lawrie Gallery //Edinburgh Fringe Festival

11/8/2025

The Sage in Looking Up Edinburgh,
Scott Lawrie Gallery

It’s been a busy time in the studio, and I’m delighted to finally share that my work The Sage is part of Looking Up, a curated group exhibition at Scott Lawrie Gallery in Edinburgh. The show is presented as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
“What does it mean to look up? Toward the stars, the divine or the drones? Looking Up brings together two parallel yet overlapping narratives: fascinating work from artists across the Pacific region, exploring ancestral knowledge, inherent traditions and sacred cosmologies; and darker meditations on military technology, surveillance and the machinery of modern conflict. At its heart, this exhibition asks whether reverence and violence can coexist in the same sky – and what happens when they do. By holding space for both spirituality and spectacle, Looking Up becomes a quiet reflection on power, legacy and endurance.” — Edinburgh Fringe

Scott Lawrie has also written a compelling essay on the exhibition’s themes, which you can read here.

Looking Up
Scott Lawrie Gallery, 2 Chuckie Pend (lane behind the Filmhouse), Edinburgh
1–25 August | Mon–Sat, 11am–6pm

The Shape of Being and Becoming

16/7/2025

The Shape of Being and Becoming - Waiheke Art Gallery - Aotearoa

This Friday my solo exhibition, The Shape of Being and Becoming, will open at the Waiheke Art Gallery, alongside an exhibition of Fiona Pardington photography.

The Shape of Being and Becoming traces eleven years of sculptural practice, circling back to its origin — a mother carrying a child on her shoulders. This gesture, revisited in a new work, becomes both anchor and compass: a symbol of enduring weight, care, and transformation.

The Shape of Being and Becoming, Waiheke Art Gallery, 2 Korora Road, Waiheke Island, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Open 10am - 4pm everyday

The exhibition runs from July 18th to August 17th

May 22nd, 2025

22/5/2025

The Kinetics of Thought - NGV Melbourne Design Week 2025 - Abbotsford Convent

This weekend I will be presenting a solo exhibition of my abacus pieces and a new Newtons Cradle Sculpture as part of the National Gallery of Victoria's Melbourne Design Week. The exhibition is a pop up and open Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th from 10 - 5 at in the Mural Hall at the Abbotsford Convent. I'll be there gallery sitting and would love to chat.
More information about the exhibition https://designweek.melbourne/event/the-kinetics-of-thought-tactile-sculpture-and-contemporary-wood-design/

Of Counting and Devotion at Craft Victoria

5/3/2025

Of Counting and Devotion at Craft Victoria
On Monday I installed new work at Craft Victoria in the vitrine space. The exhibition is now open to the public and an official opening event will take place on Thursday March 20th at 6pm alongside the opening of exhibitions in the main gallery space.

The beads, once simple markers of value, retain their dual function as tools of devotion, recalling the prayer beads of various spiritual traditions. At the heart of the exhibition, The Sage emerges - a hand carved face formed from a local burl. He is the orchestrator, weaving meaning from numbers and symbols, a master of hidden knowledge and sacred patterns.

The exhibition runs until April 28th

December 06th, 2024

6/12/2024

Victorian Woodworkers Association artist in residence.
I am incredibly excited to announce that I have been awarded a place in the Victorian Woodworkers Association Artist Residency Program. This prestigious three-year residency offers a unique opportunity to access state-of-the-art woodworking machinery, a fully equipped workshop, and a vibrant community of fellow woodworkers. Alongside five other talented artists in residence, I will have the chance to immerse myself in a collaborative environment, where we can inspire and learn from one another. During this residency, I look forward to refining my craft and working towards upcoming exhibitions.

August 09th, 2024

9/8/2024

Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize

I am honoured to be a finalist again this year in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize with my piece 'An Abacus for Mystical Reckoning'

@woollahragallery

We are pleased to announce our 2024 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize finalists.

From a pool of 751 extraordinary entries, 59 works have been selected by a distinguished judging panel comprising Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Museum of Old and New Art, Jarrod Rawlins, Executive Director of Arts Project Australia, Liz Nowell, and Art Gallery of NSW Curator, First Nations Art, Erin Vink.

Congratulations to Ingmar Apinis, Sean Bacon, Nathan Beard, Stephen Benwell, Lucie Billingsley, Stephen Bird, Karen Black, Jeremy Blincoe, Christian Bonett, Jasmine Bruce, Emma Bugg, Madeline Cardone, Kirsty Collins, Mitchell Davis, Lorraine Dean, Lynda Draper, Mark Eliott, Nic Fern, Chantal Fraser, Angus Gardner, Hannah Gartside, Wanda Gillespie, Minka Gillian, Nani Graddon, Grace Hasu Dlabik, Marcel Hoogstad Hay, Penny Howard, Freya Jobbins, Paul Kaptein, Virginia Keft, Simone Kennedy, Andrew Lavery, Wona Bae and Charlie Lawler, Grace Lee, Jane Lennon, Simon Lownsborough, Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello OAM, Ben Mazey, Sara Morawetz, Erica Muriata, James Nguyen, Fiona Omeenyo, Yoko Ozawa, Amanda Page, Liliana Pasalic, Eleonora Pasti, Jane Price, Nani Puspasari, Augusta Vinall Richardson, Marlene Connolly & Hazel Roy, Nuha Saad, Astrid Salomon, Kien Situ, Jane Theau, Kate Tucker, Tahlia Undarlegt, William Versace, Ken and Julia Yonetani, and Ben Young.

This year’s finalists, representing a rich tapestry of artistic innovation and hailing from every Australian state and territory as well as overseas, will be on display at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf in a free exhibition running from 13 September to 20 October.

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An Abacus for Mystical Reckoning (Warratah)
Date: 2023
Materials: Totara, Brass, wooden bead, brass bead, wax, chip carved stand
Dimensions: 575 x 575 x 120mm

Fibre Arts Take Two

14/3/2024

Fibre Arts Take Two - Youtube Interview

Learn more about mystical archaeology, the power of objects and the combination of energy and wood in my youtube interview with Tara Axford tomorrow evening.

Friday 15 March 2024 @ 7pm AEDT

Opening tomorrow evening at Sanderson Contemporary

20/2/2024

Crossing the Rubicon

Opening Wednesday February 21st at Sanderson Contemporary

Solo Exhibition - The Reckoning

20/2/2024

The Reckoning

My solo exhibition The Reckoning opened last Friday evening at Te Whare Taonga o Waiheke - Waiheke Art Gallery.

Presenting a contemplative journey where a series of captivating sculptures delve into the essence of our epoch as one of reckoning. Breathing life into the traditional abacus, Wanda transforms it into a vehicle that traverses the realms of value, systems, economics and spirituality. Finely carved figures and portraits observe the accounting at hand.

The exhibition runs alongside the Perpetual Guardian Sculpture on teh Gulf and the Te Tiriti o Waitangi exhibition until April 1st.

Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Prize 2024

20/2/2024

Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Prize 2024

My piece Counting Frames for a Transient Era was a finalist in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards in Whakatane over the weekend. The exhibition is held at Te Koputu a te Whanga a Toi, 49 Kakahoroa Drive Whakatane and features some of Aotearoas leading contemporary artists. The exhibition runs until the 6th of April.