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a & b. Rose Nolan, Big Words (Not Mine) Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically., 2015

Acrylic paint, hessian, steel, embroidery thread, Velcro.

Overall dimensions: 325 × 1510 × 358 cm.

Installation views: ASG (images 4 and 4a); NGA, Canberra (image 4c).

Rose Nolan, Flat Flower Work, 2021

Acrylic paint, cardboard, found packaging.

Dimensions variable: 109 individual panels.

Installation view Buxton Contemporary. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.

Rose Nolan, To Keep Going Breathing Helps (circle work), 2016–2017

Acrylic paint, hessian, embroidery thread, steel, Velcro.

Overall dimensions: 420 × 600 cm.

Installation view MCA, Sydney. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.

Rose Nolan, Big Words (Not Mine) Read the words “public space”…, 2013

Acrylic paint, hessian, haberdashery ribbon.

Dimensions variable (282 pennants).

Installation view ASG. Collection: National Gallery of Victoria.

a & b. Rose Nolan, Big Words (Not Mine) Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically., 2015 Acrylic paint, hessian, steel, embroidery thread, Velcro. Overall dimensions: 325 × 1510 × 358 cm. Installation views: ASG (images 4 and 4a); NGA, Canberra (image 4c). ·Photo: Courtesy National Gallery Of Australia

Rose Nolan: Breathing Helps at TarraWarra Museum of Art

Sat Aug 09, 2025 – Sun Nov 09, 2025

TarraWarra Museum of Art

313 Healesville-Yarra Glen Road, Healesville VIC 3777

Price: $12–$18

Book Now

A major solo exhibition of the acclaimed Australian artist’s work arrives in Yarra Valley this August – and it’s one of her most ambitious yet.

From August 9 to November 9, Breathing Helps brings together decades of work by celebrated Australian artist Rose Nolan, whose practice spans painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking. Navigating tensions between the intimate and monumental, Nolan – who is known for her radically reduced red-and-white palette and use of everyday materials – draws on codes from architecture and design to play with legacies of modernism.

Curated by museum director Dr Victoria Lynn, Breathing Helps presents Nolan’s large-scale sculptural forms – many in the same space for the first time – as well as photography, artist books and text-based works. The centrepiece installation, To Keep Going Breathing Helps (circle work) (2016–17), is a suspended spiral of hessian rings that invites visitors to step inside and around the work to uncover embedded messages.

Also featured are pieces from Nolan’s Immodest Gesture series, which cheekily enter into art history by placing the artist’s own image into archival photos of male artists at work. Nolan has also invited artist and choreographer Shelley Lasica to present a new series of performances, COLLOQUY, which navigate the exhibition space through movement and a specially designed performance map. You can see Lasica live in performance with Indiana Coole and Thomas Woodman at 1pm on Sunday August 10, September 14 and November 9; the map will be on view throughout the exhibition.

In conjunction with Breathing Helps, TarraWarra Museum of Art will host a forum on Saturday, 6 September 2025, 2–4pm, bringing together Rose Nolan, Augusta Vinall Richardson, Dr Victoria Lynn and Shelley Lasica, with an exhibition response by Peter Malatt (Six Degrees Architects).

At the museum, visitors can also pick up a major exhibition catalogue, co-published with Perimeter Books, featuring new texts by Victoria Lynn, Sue Cramer, Amelia Winata and Lisa Radford, as well as a conversation between Nolan and Augusta Vinall Richardson.

Book your tickets now.

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