Native Deities: A Solo Exhibition by Bruce Slorach of Utopia Goods.

Kookaburra with snake hand, knotted wool and silk wall hanging from Native Deities. Photo by Katie Kaars.

A work in progress by Bruce, Stringybark original sketch. Photo courtesy of Utopia Goods.

Country Bunch, 2023 Gouache On Paper.

Bruce at work on a Waratah for the exhibition.

Sydney artist Bruce Slorach solo exhibition Native Deities, held at Woollahra Gallery in Double Bay, is a brilliant and bold love letter to our leafy city, and a homage to Australia’s unique natural landscape. While Australia’s flora and fauna have long been a source of inspiration for creatives, the multimedia artist and designer has garnered acclaim for drawing attention to its beauty in new ways, captured in his unique brightly coloured contemporary textiles, created with partner Sophie Tatlow under the banner of Utopia Goods Textiles.

“There’s something very special about looking into where you come from and what surrounds you,” Bruce explains. “It is incredibly easy to take for granted, but when you look at it and put a microscope on it, Australia’s flora and fauna would have to be the most beautiful nature in the world.”

In Native Deities, Bruce presents his latest series of drawings and paintings, alongside a newly developed series of petite tapestries, and three of his acclaimed hand-knotted silk and wool wall hangings.

The exhibition will feature new interpretations of the native icons that have become paramount to the Utopia Goods collection—blooms such as the Waratah, Flannel Flower, and multiple contemporary interpretations of the Eucalyptus, in addition to the Kookaburra and Lyrebird.

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The evolution of these new works has in some ways taken on the pace of nature, in keeping with Bruce and Sophie’s investment in quality and valuing of traditional processes, all hallmarks of the slow-textiles movement.

Informed by a myriad of textile and decorative arts traditions born from global trade from the 16th Century onwards, Bruce’s practice speaks of influences far and wide—east to west, and back again. From Indian Kalamkari (chintz), William Morris and the wider Arts and Crafts movement, Lucien Henry, Josef Frank, Stan Kelly, Ellis Rowan, and Margaret Preston.

Native Deities opens at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, 548 New South Head Rd, Double Bay, today and runs until Sunday, May 28, 2023. For more information head to woollahragallery.com.au.

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Waratah 2023 Hand Knotted Wool And Silk Wall Hanging from Native Deities. Photo by Katie Kaars.

Southern Blue Gum, 2023 Gouache On Paper.

Detail of Lyrebird wall hanging. Photo Katie Kaars.

[Images courtesy of Utopia Goods. Photography by Alanna Landsberry & Katie Kaars.]