If you had to make a collection of things that mattered to you, what would they be? Imagine you had to fill a room with some of those images and objects. Maybe some are from distant times and places. Maybe some were found yesterday. They become an archive of memory. Into that precious collection, you flippantly insert curiosities that have come your way randomly or by chance, even while you were flipping through the discards of another’s life.
This place would be your place and every time you entered it, a few of those items would spark a memory or cause you to idly follow some quiet daydream. You would look again more closely. You might notice the play of light tracing along an edge or even turn to enjoy the whispered fragrance from a hanging bouquet, spinning slowly in the morning air.
This is the world that the artist Suzanne Archer has built around her. This is her studio, her cabinet of curiosities, as Ralph Hobbs, her dealer and friend, calls it. Her world, inhabited by the memory and presence of many, many wonderful and often eclectic things. Each can spark her creatively and speak its mysteries to her.
The show, Manifestations, is her very personal and powerful response to this collection. Her epic paintings are large enough to engulf you. Deep and rich in colour and texture, the paint seems to have a life of its own, almost organically moving across the surface. It is carried along by a multitude of mysterious patterns interweaving and connecting her ideas and objects. Your eye is never still. You are drawn into her world before you can take a breath of rational thought. This is work to experience in the flesh, to see but not to dissect or overtly analyse, but to be moved by. This is a show of masterful works by an artist at the top of her game and in the maturity of her eighty-plus years.
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Suzanne Archer, Manifestations
Nanda Hobbs Gallery
12-14 Meagher St
Chippendale
12 March-2 April, 2026
