Welcome to
The Unicorn Collection
Presented by Ballarat Evolve Creative Industries.
The Unicorn Collection Instagram
A new Ballarat Evolve gallery project, showcasing a curated collection of artworks produced in regional Victoria.
The Unicorn Collection serves as a tribute to artisans dedicated to the creation of exquisite high-end products. Functioning as both a retail space and an exhibition venue, the Collection takes pride in its unwavering commitment to championing Victorian regional creative makers who excel in their pursuit of knowledge, skill, and artistry.
This curated collection invites you to explore collectible works crafted by seasoned artisans and artists, showcasing their exceptional talents and craftsmanship.
The Unicorn Collection provides a unique opportunity to engage with a thoughtfully curated selection of collectible pieces, while also gaining insight into the creative minds behind them.
The Unicorn Collection
The Unicorn Collection is an initiative of Ballarat Evolve Creative Industries Inc., a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to fostering connections among creative micro-enterprises, sole practitioners, artists, and the broader creative sector in Ballarat.
Ballarat Evolve is committed to empowering creative individuals, enabling them to thrive within their fields.
Discover The Unicorn Collection at
129-131 Sturt Street in the heart of Ballarat on Wadawurrung Country.
Viewing Hours for December 2024 are
Friday evenings from 5pm to 8pm
Saturdays 10am until 3pm
Sundays 11am until 2pm
or by appointment
Come and join us for a glass of bubbly amongst the art during viewing hours, meet the artists, meet the board of Ballarat Evolve, purchase meaningful art and support the creative community.
To find out more about the artists we’re presenting in the space read on below and discover the rich creativity found in regional Victoria.
Follow us on Instagram for more news.
Bryan Cush -
Sawdust Bureau
Sawdust Bureau was founded in 2012 by Irish-born, designer/maker, Bryan Cush.
The studio fuses his 15 years of studying and practising Architecture around the globe with his passion for sculptural craft and local indigenous timbers.
Located 10 minutes from the historic gold-mining city of Ballarat; our workshop is nestled amongst the Stringybark’s of the Woowookarung Forest.
With influences from Scandinavian and Japanese craft through to modernist and brutalist architecture, we strive for unique design with a distinctly Australian accent.
We have collaborated on pieces with Sarrita King (Gurindji Waanyi artist) and John Wardle (AIA Gold Medal winning Architect) with our work widely published and exhibited across Australia.
Marian Fox Ceramics
Marian Fox creates one-off, bold, large scale hand built ceramics, inspired by the shapes in nature, colour and pattern.
Fox’s work is an interplay between the form and surface treatment, blending contemporary aesthetics with deep-rooted influences from primitive art, nature, abstract expressionism, and street art to create work that has a distinctly unconventional feel Fox aims to unite these elements creating pieces where the colour expressive mark-making and patterns work to highlight and accentuate the vessel form, Fox considers everything an experiment.
Fox has work in Federation University collection and private collections in Australia and Europe. She has exhibited internationally in France and Korea.
Jordyn Smith
Jordyn Smith is a Wadawurrung (Ballarat) -based fashion and footwear designer who has a strong commitment to local manufacturing and collaborative ‘community’ practicing.
She currently works in the Art Gallery of Ballarat retail space as a buyer and product developer, and has previously worked for footwear brand Radical Yes.
Jordyn’s work has been featured in print and online for Vogue Australia, and most recently her garments have been worn by musicians Montaigne, Courtney Barnett & Athina of Gut Health.
Jess Wootten - Wootten Workshop
Wootten was founded in Adelaide's iconic Jam Factory arts collective in the mid 1970s surrounded by Australia’s leading craft practitioners.
The generational tradition of handcrafting boots and leather goods continues from their repurposed WW2 munitions workshop in the historic city of Ballarat - Victoria.
Lead by Master Cordwainer, Jess Wootten, Wootten’s small team of highly skilled leather craftspeople are renowned for their timeless and considered approach to design, craft and construction. This has borne an uncompromising pursuit of quality over quantity, making Wootten unique in the Australian footwear industry for the best part of 50 years. Quality, durability and craftsmanship are the cornerstone of Wootten's ethos.
By only sourcing the best possible materials and partnering with industry leading producers, Wootten Goods are crafted to out last. With a focus on ethically, socially and environmentally sustainable practices, Wootten produces products with longevity that leave a positive mark and a lasting legacy.
Kathy Landvogt
Kathy Landvogt lives and works in Castlemaine on Djadja Wurrung land, where she knits and weaves wire, manipulates fabric, and re-purposes found and personal materials.
Having developed her visual art practice alongside a career in social policy, Kathy now devotes herself to making sculpture and fibre art, and more recently works on or with paper that utilise these creations. Kathy’s art springs from her desire to honour previously silenced experience by searching for its emotional truth.
Informed by feminist understandings and histories Kathy allows the materials, and often the stitching process itself, to guide that search. Repetitive stitching connects her with the largely female heritage of manual textile work, including her own matrilineal legacy. It also allows time for the work’s conceptual content and its form to evolve together and inform each other.
Within Kathy’s practice there is always an intuitive, haptic dialogue with the chosen material. In recent years she has often worked with fine-gauged coloured copper wire, utilising its memory, strength and malleability. Kathy actively takes on new challenges in her practice through collaborating with other artists, utilising traditional textile techniques in novel ways, and participating in The Art Room learning community.
Fundamentally, Kathy’s practice is grounded in simultaneously stretching her material knowledge and peeling back her own historically situated experience.
Spencer Harrison
Spencer Harrison is an Australian visual artist, whose practice explores a dialogue between formal abstraction and the modern world.
His visual language draws on the world around us, referencing design, architecture, technology and the built environment. Within his works, Harrison explores tensions between minimalism and maximalism, order and disorder, contemplating the role these forces play in the modern world.
Central to Harrison’s practice is the exploration of colour, including its phenomenology, emotive qualities, symbolism and socio-political meaning. Harrison works across a range of disciplines in his practice, including painting, drawing, digital video, sculpture and installation.
Throughout the past 12 years, Harrison has exhibited regularly in solo and group exhibition. Alongside his exhibitions he also undertakes public artworks and commissions working with clients including the Melbourne Immigration Museum, White Night, Miami Horror, David Jones, Victorian Metro Tunnel and the City of Melbourne.
Harrison has a Masters of Contemporary Art from Victorian Collage of the Arts and his work is in private collections in Australia, UK and the USA including the Justin Art House Museum.
Neville French
Neville French is one of Australia’s most revered classical ceramicists. French’s vessels are held in regional, state and national collecting institutions including the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. His works have been exhibited in major exhibitions here and abroad including at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the prestigious Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art (SOFA) expositions in Chicago and New York, and Galerie Rosenauer in Germany. French’s mud-brick studio complete with gas and wood-fired kilns, in located in Buninyong, Victoria.
Lori Hakim
Lori Hakim is a contemporary jeweller based on the Mornington Peninsula, Boon Wurrung/Bunurong Country. She creates jewellery with a distinctive personality and tactile quality. Her practice centres around the exploration of colour, humour, and repetition, resulting in playful jewellery, that is bold, curious and engaging.
Her unique approach to making embraces spontaneity and experimentation. Strong silhouettes, fine details and movement all inform her wearable works. Fusing traditional and contemporary techniques in her practice, her pieces incorporate enamelling, casting, painting and 3D printing. Currently, she has a focus on transforming coastal waste into dramatic wearables, reflecting her commitment to sustainability and artistic innovation.
Lori has a diverse educational background. She holds a fashion design diploma from RMIT, a Bachelor of Business and Visual Arts ( Marketing /Jewellery) from Monash University, and an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery and Object Design from Melbourne Polytechnic. She has participated in group exhibitions, including Radiant Pavilion, FRESH! M/FW, and Here Today Gone Tomorrow in Yogyakarta and recently finished a residency at Kingston Arts.
Active in the field of contemporary jewellery, her work continues to evolve, through her exploration of making, imbued with a distinctive, contemporary aesthetic.
Tim Gresham
Tim Gresham’s practice is in woven tapestry and spans more than 30 years. Tim also has a parallel photography practice and has combined the two mediums conceptually in exhibitions. Alongside this practice he is a senior weaver and tutor at the Australian Tapestry Workshop.
Gresham’s recent abstract work reflects light and colour in rhythmic compositions with a nod to modernist design. He utilises techniques unique to woven tapestry and the works evolve as they are woven. He has exhibited widely including solo exhibitions at Craft Victoria in 2004 and Craft ACT in 2011.
as included in the Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award, National Gallery of Victoria, 2003, and Group Exchange the 2nd Tamworth Textile Triennial, 2014. He has work in public and private collections including The City of Darebin, LA Trobe University Art Museum, Ararat Regional Gallery and Wangaratta Art Gallery.
Jacqueline Betsy Lord
Betsy Blonde's work is the creative manifestation of jeweller, designer, and artist, Jacqueline Betsy Lord. Jackie’s work is a unique, and distinctive expression of an ode to a lifelong love affair with something old, and its harmonious expression as something new.
Jackie’s work with the old comes to the fore using brilliant vintage glass, gems and found objects, combined with sustainably sourced precious metals. All of Jackie’s work is produced within the creative walls of her studio, deep within the forest, on Gadubanud country in the Otway ranges of Australia.
Kristina Sostarko - Inaluxe
Inaluxe is an independent art studio combining the talents of fine artists Kristina Sostarko and Jason Odd.
Kristina originally started Inaluxe in 2006 as an online presence for various art projects. Over time Jason joined Inaluxe allowing the duo a chance to explore ideas, and concepts they first talked about in art school where they met. As a result, in early 2010 Inaluxe shifted home base from a city environment to the tranquil setting of a small town home studio close to the Grampians National Park.
Working on designs with like minded people is an absolute pleasure, and some collaborations include: Neiman Marcus, Blue Q, Earth Greetings, Kate Spade New York, Art Press, Bloom Cosmetics, Land of Nod, Urban Outfitters, IKEA, King & McGaw, and Think Rugs.
The Inaluxe team look forward to each new project and long running relationships alike, they have a philosophy of keeping fine art of the highest quality with collaborators of a similar mindset. As well as keeping busy with inaluxe Kristina and Jason freelance on independent writing and design projects, although Inaluxe remains the diverse heart of creation for them both. Our Philosophy... One of the greatest things about working for yourself is quality control.
Our philosophy is simple: Be passionate about the creative process, use the best materials possible, and be responsible and sustainable in production practice. Therefore we only print on the best archival fine art papers, working with industry standard giclee reproduction print technology. The end result is a beautiful product that has an incredible depth of colour, and lasts a lifetime.
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Contact THE UNICORN COLLECTION
Have an enquiry about The Unicorn Collection? Please use the form below to get in touch with the board of Ballarat Evolve.
