RMIT Galleries

Join us next week for ‘Pinacotheca 1970s: Identifying The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt’ to hear from speakers who have been involved with one of Melbourne's most iconic galleries.

This panel discussion will feature: artists who worked and exhibited at Pinacotheca; an historian and critic; as well as the custodian and convenor of the Pinacotheca archive. With a focus on the early- to mid-1970s Richmond era. Chaired by Irene Barberis, the discussion will centre around personal viewpoints, perceptions and reflections on this important historical gallery and community.

Speakers: Christopher Heathcote, Simon Klose and Trevor Fuller

Chair: Irene Barberis

5:30 – 6:30pm
Thursday 18 June
RMIT Gallery

This is a FREE event, register your attendance via the link in our bio! ⁠

Presented by ‘The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt’ project in partnership with RMIT Gallery and Metasenta.



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Image: Bruce Pollard and artists at Pinacotheca’s closure November 1999. Photograph by Graham Baring, 1999. Collection of Trevor Fuller.

“Quiet, intimate, mobile”

Ko Jou Chen’s First Site exhibition ‘Portable Stillness’ embodies these three qualities, exploring how the making of miniature objects and floating altar-like displays can express memory, collection and the domestic in transition. Shaped by diasporic living and continual relocation, Chen’s practice uses miniature objects to give form to a desire for stability within changing environments. These objects are placed on handmade structures which hang in the air, as if unmoored, creating a delicate balance between the space, object and visitor. Bringing together humble support materials such as balsa wood and cardboard with more precious metals, Chen creates a portable, dioramic exhibition that opens up to reveal sculptural carriers of memory.

This is your LAST week to visit ‘Portable Stillness’, closing this Friday 12 June.







Image 1: Photo of Ko Jou Chen by Claire Armstrong.

Image 2-3: Ko Jou Chen, ‘Portable Stillness’, 2025 (detail) in ‘Portable Stillness’, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Christian Capurro.

Image 4: Ko Jou Chen, ‘Portable Altar’, 2025 in ‘Portable Stillness’, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2026. Photo by Christian Capurro.