Where arts emerge
UPSURGE was a three-day arts feast held from 15 - 17 July 2022, celebrating creative talent in our city.
Curated by Virginia Settre, UPSURGE showcased award-winning visual artists, gifted artisans and emerging talent. Our featured creators offered a mixed bag of creative diversity, while celebrating culture from around the world.
You can download the catalogue below to learn more.
UPSURGE curator
Virginia is a curator, artist, costume-maker and designer. She has a focus on fostering the talents of emerging artists and creatives from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
UPSURGE artists
Gina is a fashion designer and founder of Gina Barjeel fashion label. She works to support and empower women from diverse backgrounds.
Joe is a production potter who gathers inspiration from rugged and beautiful coastal land and sea scapes.
Britta’s work integrates Fine Art and a lifelong passion for salvaging old furniture to explore connections between materials, humanity and decay.
Katja is a theatre designer, maker and artist working in leather craft, inspired by the colours and textures of the Illawarra landscape.
Greer is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work investigates the relationship between humans and their surrounds.
John Kennedy, (aka Jedika), is an awarding-winning artist and art teacher whose intricate miniatures examine the art of storytelling and imagination.
Wanita is a proud Dunghutti and Biripi woman whose artwork provides a feminine perspective, influenced by land, stories and the Dreamtime.
Erin is a contemporary textile and fibre artist who draws inspiration from surrealism and traditional portraiture.
Andy is a Wollongong-based musician who started painting large fluoro banners to decorate gigs, inspired by the great screen printers of the 70s and 80s.
Therese (Peachy) is a ceramicist working with porcelain and stoneware clay to create pieces that show both her personality and humour.
Saxon Reynolds is an illustrator, sculptor, and assemblage artist, working primarily with found objects and imbuing them with new life and function.
Megan is a multi-award-winning artist who is fascinated by the human condition, our spiritual-nature-society relations, and the passage of time.
Kate Stehr is a sculptor working with timber, reclaimed and repurposed elements, to celebrate the history and memory found in objects that would otherwise be discarded or become trash.