Opening - Haven with Yoko Ozawa and Jessye Wdowin-McGregor

Together with Yoko and Jessye, we warmly invite you to join us for the opening of Haven.

Press the ‘JOIN THE GUEST LIST’ button to RSVP. Attendance is free. RSVP essential.

There are ticket options: 1) Free Admission (1 Adult), 2) Free admission (1 Adult) + a glass of sake, shochu OR umeshu & 3) Free admission (1 Adult) + a Red Duck Beer. 

Image credits:
1) Portraits Yoko Ozawa and Jessye Wdowin-McGregor
2) Yoko Ozawa, Practice ofよはくyohaku 2023 (detail), ink, sap, kofun (shell powder) on paper. #4 of 4 studies 42.0 x 59.5 cm (image & sheet)

Acknowledgements
We respectfully acknowledge the Sovereign Custodians of the land and waters upon which we live and work, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging. We extend this respect to all First Peoples.

Artist bios
Yoko Ozawa has been making ceramics since 2003, when her studies in design and Japanese painting led her into pottery. Today, her multidisciplinary practice encompasses sculpture, ceramics, installation and drawing. Her making is informed by a lifelong interest in natural phenomena – seasonal transitions, fog, breeze, rain, light and shadow – the atmosphere between objects and their surroundings (包まれる tsutsumareru) and the Japanese notion of よはくyohaku (blank space). Ozawa has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions and projects in Australia and abroad, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; MARS gallery, Melbourne; MPavllion, Melbourne; the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne; Jam Factory, Adelaide; Somerset House, London; and mina perhonen, Kyoto, Japan. In 2019, she was awarded the Recognition Award for the 2019 Clunes Ceramic Award. She has been shortlisted for the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2024) and Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize (2025). She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Japanese Painting) from Musashino Art University in Tokyo and a Diploma of Graphic Design from The Japan Design College in Tokyo. Ozawa was born in Japan. She lives and works in Naarm (Melbourne).

Jessye Wdowin-McGregor’s multidisciplinary practice engages place, nature, abstraction, and transformation as starting points, creating a variety of works that unfold in non-linear ways. She often draws upon and reimagines landscape, closely informed by the entanglements between the human body – particularly her own body – and the natural world. She is interested in edges, overlooked terrains and in-between spaces (and the encounters that take place there), granting attention to what otherwise might go unseen. Encompassing film, photography, textiles, drawing, and performance, her work is underpinned by experiential and material research, as well as mythological references, personal histories, and the slippages between things. Jessye was born in the United Kingdom and currently lives and works in Naarm (Melbourne). She holds Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia. Her work has been shown both locally and internationally. In addition to solo and curated group exhibitions, she has participated in artist residencies, been published online and in print, and screened her work at film festivals. Her work resides in both private and public collections.