Michaela Pegum— 'Vale II', 2025

Constructed from a unique ‘threshold’ material made by slowly growing copper and silver into organza through electroforming, the work expresses a state of transformation, held in material. 

—

Michaela Pegum is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist working across sculpture, wearable art and performance. Drawing from her background in dance and somatics, her practice explores the fluid and liminal zones of felt experience and the embodied connection to the phenomenal world. She works in highly exploratory ways to develop material languages that are nuanced and sensory, collaborating with substances, environmental entities, and energies, as well as chemical and electrical forces, where they find agency and authorship in her creative process. Pegum holds a PhD and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) Gold & Silversmithing, RMIT and a Bachelor of Design (Honours), UTS. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Contemporary Jewellery Award (2018) and the Victorian Craft Award - Lynne Kosky Jewellery Encouragement Award (2017). In 2019, she was selected for Schmuck in Munich, and in 2024 and 2025, she presented work at Collect in London. Her work is held in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria. 

—

In The Making

9 August – 20 September

The act of making is at the heart of conceptual exploration in contemporary craft practice. "Process" can be understood as more than a means to create form but also a space where thought is reconciled, and where creative encounters and new discoveries are found.

In The Making presents the work of four makers traversing this space and demonstrating how process and artistic intention are interdependent. The exhibitors have each honed a distinct material practice, from woodworking and stone-carving to electroplating and textiles, working with their chosen materials as autonomous collaborators, alive with history and spirit.

The exhibition speaks to the heart of what it means to be a maker. It highlights the reciprocal and responsive relationships between the practitioner, the application of craft-based skills and the creative expression that is articulated through materials. It’s all in the making.

Read more about the exhibition here:

Material: Copper, organza, silver

Dimensions: approx. 5.5 × 21 × 7 cm