EDGEWORK
2025
Exhibition with Jo Isabel Klima
Field Trip Gallery
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'EDGEWORK brings together the work of Meanjin (Brisbane)-based artists Emily Devers and Jo Isabel Klima, whose individual practices investigate visual thresholds — the elusive spaces where boundaries dissolve and definition propagates in unexpected ways. Through their distinct yet complementary approaches, this exhibition of small works invites viewers to consider how we navigate the intersections of subject and space within an image, and the role of light and material in the definition of edges.
Emily Devers’ work examines the overlooked encounters that shape our experience of public and private spaces. As a commercial mural artist and brand designer, Emily possesses a nuanced understanding of how images influence perception. However, her art practice diverges from the distillation of graphics, instead opening her up to the freedom of the expansive picture plane. She’s particularly interested in using the backgrounds of found images, or the “non-image”, to divide and organise space in her painted compositions, and reappropriating public art materials into an institutional art setting.
Jo Isabel Klima’s practice reflects a fascination with the inherent qualities of light, and how this can be exploredthrough materials like plexiglass and glass — focusing on their ability to transform light, shift perception, and evoke emotional resonance. Jo’s works embrace transparency, colour, pattern, diffusion and reflection to navigate the thresholds between presence and absence. Her practice celebrates the quiet value of everyday observations, transforming them into luminous moments that straddle the line between natural and architectural forms.
Together, they’ve employed common graphic devices such as the grid, and shared material resources to create personal and collaborative artworks as an opportunity to define the edges of where their individual practices may coalesce. Each artwork in EDGEWORK presents slippages between various boundaries — where light, materials and images shift, overlap, and transform. Together, Emily and Jo have created a series of artworks as small moments of potential, sparking contemplation around how we interpret and experience the spaces we occupy.
OPEN STUDIO
2024
Vacant Assembly
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'EDGEWORK brings together the work of Meanjin (Brisbane)-based artists Emily Devers and Jo Isabel Klima, whose individual practices investigate visual thresholds — the elusive spaces where boundaries dissolve and definition propagates in unexpected ways. Through their distinct yet complementary approaches, this exhibition of small works invites viewers to consider how we navigate the intersections of subject and space within an image, and the role of light and material in the definition of edges.
Emily Devers’ work examines the overlooked encounters that shape our experience of public and private spaces. As a commercial mural artist and brand designer, Emily possesses a nuanced understanding of how images influence perception. However, her art practice diverges from the distillation of graphics, instead opening her up to the freedom of the expansive picture plane. She’s particularly interested in using the backgrounds of found images, or the “non-image”, to divide and organise space in her painted compositions, and reappropriating public art materials into an institutional art setting.
Jo Isabel Klima’s practice reflects a fascination with the inherent qualities of light, and how this can be exploredthrough materials like plexiglass and glass — focusing on their ability to transform light, shift perception, and evoke emotional resonance. Jo’s works embrace transparency, colour, pattern, diffusion and reflection to navigate the thresholds between presence and absence. Her practice celebrates the quiet value of everyday observations, transforming them into luminous moments that straddle the line between natural and architectural forms.
Together, they’ve employed common graphic devices such as the grid, and shared material resources to create personal and collaborative artworks as an opportunity to define the edges of where their individual practices may coalesce. Each artwork in EDGEWORK presents slippages between various boundaries — where light, materials and images shift, overlap, and transform. Together, Emily and Jo have created a series of artworks as small moments of potential, sparking contemplation around how we interpret and experience the spaces we occupy.
FORM/FROM
2024
Group Exhibition with
Cornerstone Pop-Up
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Studio Flek curated FORM FROM - a pop-up exhibition and showroom at the Gold Coast’s Cornerstone Stores.
A curated collection by Studio Flek’s Chris and Lisa, this two-week exhibition presented the work of makers, designers, and artists from Southeast Queensland and the Northern Rivers.
Located at Cornerstone Stores in Currumbin, each piece was carefully chosen because of its mindful construction and sensitivity to its material relationship with the environment.
This event proudly articulated the region’s art & design emergence on a national scale, and invited visitors to experience the thoughtful design and creative innovation that defines this part of the country.
Featured Artists, Makers and Designers -
Studio Flek
Five Mile Radius
Fearon
Tim Wilson
Fluxwood
Claudio Kirac
Lex Williams
Isaac Chatterton
Xander Atkinson
Emily Devers
Jordan Azcune
Ajar Studio
VA IN-HOUSE
2024
Resident Artist Group Exhibition
Vacant Assembly
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This series of works was exhibited as part of Vacant Assembly Gallery’s annual Artist In Residence Showcase - VA IN HOUSE.
Other participating artists were Laura Pascoe (Brush & Wheel Ceramics), Sarah Sumutin (furniture & installation), Tony White (painting), Sam Eyles (painting), Chloë Waddell (jewellery), and Julie Smeros (ceramics).
It’s a collection of material and process explorations that support my current research as a Master of Visual Art at Queensland College of Art & Design (QCAD). A number of the works are prototypes for larger pieces, or represent the departure point for artworks currently being created for a solo exhibition at Vacant Assembly in November, 2024.
Upper House
Permanent Collection
2024
ARIA
UPPER HOUSE
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This series is a reflection on the role of art institutions in the display of high-value art objects and the subsequent proliferation of their value mythology. Each piece features original found imagery, film photos and studio textures by the artist, and each reproduction is uniquely hand embellished with oil paint.
Upper House is an ARIA property residential development, designed by the renowned Koichi Takada Architects. Upper House is inspired by the organic forms of the Daintree Rainforest. Located only moments away from the heart of the Southbank cultural precinct, the building’s sculptural ‘ribbons’ wind their way up the facade in reference to the roots of the Moreton Bay fig tree native to Queensland.
The Upper House permanent art collection has been thoughtfully curated by Prudence McComish, and includes a diverse collection of Australian artists who pay particular attention to capturing their natural environment.
<play/ground>
2023
Still Living Arrangements
Howard Smith Wharves + Museum of Brisbane MoB
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Museum of Brisbane is excited partnered with Brisbane City Council on their Outdoor Gallery exhibition <play/ground> in 2023.
<play/ground> celebrates the existing playful charm of Brisbane’s concrete playground and reminds us of the importance of daily routines that ground and connect us to the planet that houses and nourishes.
The painted elements in this composition originate from my studio artworks, which were fed through an artificial intelligence (AI) Application Programming Interface (API). As we witness AI swallow up digital imagery and rebirth millions of new assets using intelligent and adaptive applications, artists everywhere navigate an unclear path through Web 3.0.
By using this technology to amplify my painted works, I use collage as a tactile, destructive means to take back control of the creative process. I also explored underspecification with the text inputs, and relished in the abstraction that comes from the lack of language definition. These artificially generated images became the painted textures in the final composition - a video loop of 8 digital paintings exhibited simultaneously on both the Howard Smith Wharves cliffs (projection) and in the foyer of the Museum of Brisbane (video).
Curated by: Rozelle Tan (MCRT Studio). Exhibition at Brisbane Museum + Howard Smith Wharves.
