INGALLERY.1
08 – 30 August 2026
JUDY TRICK | Full Circle – An Artist Who’s Been Everywhere and Landed Somewhere Beautiful.
If you’ve spent any time in Artsite’s galleries over the past decade, chances are you’ve stood in front of a Judy Trick painting and felt like you’d been somewhere — even if you couldn’t quite say where. That’s rather the point.
Judy’s been exhibiting since 1974 — half a century of shows fuelled by a National Art School education and a restless, sketchbook-in-hand curiosity that’s taken her across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas — pen and camera always close, capturing colour and movement wherever she landed. “Inveterate traveller” barely covers it.
Judy first exhibited with Artsite Contemporary in 2014 and has shown with the gallery every year since, including two solo exhibitions — Surface (2021) and Unearthed (2024). Full Circle is her third solo exhibition with the gallery.
Artist Statement — Judy Trick, 2026.
The latest suite of works takes inspiration from the Japanese concept of Sunyata: an emptying out of ideas and the meditative value of the Enso Circle. It is a metaphor of return to origins.
Time shifted, paused then accelerated as the trajectory of this latest body of work developed over the past two years. Events shaped changes within the internal and external dialogue — from quiet contemplation and meditation to a renewed energy of expression and future optimism.
This personal reflection saw me wrestle with metaphors to express a major event, the subsequent healing and recovery, push and pull, advance and retreat, sadness and joy. It symbolically references a memory of my late father Harold Woodward and his scientific exploration of the nature of atoms. It also pays homage to my mother Hilda’s fifty-year practice of creativity at the potter’s wheel.
I looked toward and immersed myself in nature, creating a sense of grounding, solidity and permanence in the local escarpment and sacred mountains. The ethereal nature and movements of shorebirds uplifted me, while in contrast the power and aftermath of early summer bushfires reminded us of the symbolic nature of force and regeneration.
These concepts permeated the new work. The connection of human and environment, as I recognised deep subconscious changes and emotional waves which brought restored vigour and a return to earlier material and conceptual practices. The passage of time found me revisiting ideas, philosophies, layering and subtracting, movement and stillness, void and gesture — and ultimately a refreshed return of energy.
The act of rejuvenating previous gestural mark-making, calligraphic sweeps and the exploration into lyrical abstraction and expression has brought about changes in direction and freedom within this latest work.
The arc has now formed into the full circle. There is a sense of arrival and acceptance. ~ Judy Trick, June 2026.
Featured Work
