MELBOURNE.- Tolarno Galleries is presenting With Open Arms, a new exhibition of sculptures by Patricia Piccinini.

On display in Gallery 1, With Open Arms brings together six sculptures composed of silicone, resin and other materials.


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Encompassing human, animal and hybrid forms, the exhibition opens with an arresting series of figures in seductive colours that riff on the contemporary fetish for sneaker wear.

Arranged on freshly found 'yellow box' plinths, these diminutive creatures attest to Piccinini’s habit of bringing together unlikely bedfellows to create art objects that are new, distinctive and emblematic of the culture from which they are drawn.

“I am returning to a very personal hybridity that I have explored for many years, merging organic creatures and bodies with entirely artificial objects,” says Piccinini. “So … we find birds – representing freedom, optimism, resilience – intermingling with another long-held fascination of mine: shoes.”

The Cloudgazer 2024 is a curious creature with an albatross’s hooked beak. Decorated with the swirling hues and webbed textures of sports shoes, the serene figure has indeed thrown its head back to gaze at the clouds, albeit with eyes closed.

“Like birds, shoes are fascinating both aesthetically and symbolically,” says Piccinini. “Shoes, especially sneakers, are ubiquitous … yet we rarely stop to think of the extraordinary technologies behind them. They sit at the cutting edge … yet they are essentially disposable.”

The Sage 2025 also flaunts a novel hybrid form. Sturdy and barrel-chested, this wise old soul has the moulded structure of a trainer and the penetrating eyes of an owl. From hot pink to chartreuse, deep green to corn yellow and ice blue, the sculpture’s sophisticated palette references the colour pops of sneaker culture.

“Sneakers represent one of the last remaining clothing-design spaces with room for flamboyance,” says Piccinini. “On the whole, manufacturers and consumers have converged on a sort of comfortable minimalism. Few feel safe enough these days to want to take too many risks. Sneakers, however, are a safe space.”

Creche 2025 celebrates maternal devotion, as an animal that resembles a platypus – but with a stitched shoe sole for a bill – nurses several little ones. Shaped like a crescent, the mother is coloured white, baby blue, teal and corn yellow, while her tiny babies are pink and naked.

And adding a feline element to the mix, the Sphinx-like diva in La Virtuosa 2025 entices the viewer with blue-painted claws extended. Possibly in the midst of delivering an aria, this flame-haired vamp with serious bite morphs fluidly from beige hairless cat to baby blue, lavender and white running shoe without missing a note.

“Colour is a big part of this exhibition,” says Piccinini. “There is something very instinctual and emotional about putting colours together. I like to imagine that colour speaks to us on a cellular level.”

Joining the party are two larger sculptural works that point to Piccinini’s enduring interest in exploring “notions of welcome, care and acceptance in the contemporary world”.

In The Bond 2016, a life-sized woman in a blue dress and cowboy boots holds close a naked, pink-skinned and mostly hairless creature with a human face, porcine ears and protrusions running down its back. The standing woman, who resembles Piccinini, has the benevolent yet faraway expression of a sleep-deprived caregiver.

Piccinini describes the hybrid creature as “definitely an animal but with a back that reminds us of the sole of a running shoe”. “Perhaps this depicts a common evolutionary trait, where animals like stick insects disguise themselves as part of their environment,” she says.

“This highlights the strange and super-specific cleverness of evolution, which deeply connects species with their particular environments. In this case, the creature’s mimicry of a piece of consumer sportswear locates it unequivocally within our world.”

Yet for Piccinini at least, the work is not about difference but connection. “There is a love and care here that transcends difference or strangeness. These figures are unconcerned about their difference, even linked by it,” she says.

Care is also the key driver of The Rescuers 2021, a life-sized tableau of a boy and a girl caught in mid-stride. The girl holds a white laundry basket filled with towels, on top of which rests an injured koala with two bandaged limbs. The boy looks tenderly towards the bear while the girl’s head is raised expectantly towards the sky.

“The Rescuers was inspired by images of a woman rescuing a koala during the 2020 bushfires – literally wrapping the animal in the shirt from her back,” recalls Piccinini.

“To me, this was a potent image of active, positive care in the face of an overwhelming catastrophe. It reminds me that we can do something, even though we sometimes feel powerless,” she says.

“I wanted to make a sculpture that feels like a monument to an idea, like something that might go in a public square. However, this is a monument celebrating care rather than conquest.”



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