Last Thursday night, we opened our doors and welcomed you to a very special event – our very first solo exhibition in our new Hawthorn gallery space! Madeleine Simson has been hard at work, painting away to create an incredible new collection of works; 26 stunning original pieces, along with 5 special limited edition print designs.
With over 120 people celebrating with us on Opening Night, this exhibition has already had an incredible start, and we can't wait to continue the magic with you over the coming weeks...
Pop into the gallery during open hours to view this gorgeous new exhibition in person, or browse online through our catalogue or on Madeleine Simson's artist page!
While everyone enjoyed a complimentary glass of bubbles, Philippa Demase, Director of Art to Art kicked of the celebration and introduced the night;
"Good evening everyone, and a very warm welcome to you all. Thank you so much for making the effort to come along tonight and a special mention to Council Chancellor of RMIT, Peggy O’Neal for your company.
To those that have travelled from interstate, in particular to Jane and Steve from New York to be here. For those I haven’t met, my name is Philippa Demase and I’m the Director of Art to Art.
We are incredibly excited to be hosting our first solo exhibition in our new Hawthorn gallery, and we couldn’t be more thrilled that our first solo artist is the wonderful Madeleine Simson.
When Maddy first came to us with the idea for this exhibition, both our brains went into overdrive. Milk crates. Chatterboxes. Oversized origami cranes. Paper. Plastic. Butterflies. Birds. And somehow, we were going to turn all of that - into an exhibition!
Together with Maddy’s wonderfully quirky sense of humour, her openness and her infectious personality, we knew right from the start that this wasn’t going to be an ordinary exhibition.
But first, let me rewind the clock to how we first were introduced to Maddy. It was in 2024 when she entered our Unearthed Art Prize and was selected as one of the 26 finalists. Maddy describes that moment as a real career kick-start for her, and looking back, we’re so happy she took that leap and entered. Because what started with Unearthed has grown into a really lovely relationship.
Over the past couple of years, Maddy has contributed to Art to Art in so many ways. She became an Ambassador for the Unearthed Art Prize, helping to encourage and support the next season of Unearthed finalists. We’ve taken her work to the Affordable Art Fairs in both Melbourne and Brisbane, and she has been part of many of our group exhibitions along the way. And during that time, we’ve loved to watch her work evolve.
Maddy’s ability to create beautifully detailed photo-realism works, combining everyday found objects, with an element of nature, a hint of insects or birds, has captured the attention and has connected with so many collectors. There’s something really clever about her work. It’s playful and quirky at first glance, but the more you look, the more you discover.
So when Maddy came to us with the idea for Paper & Plastic, we were in!
Tonight we encourage you to act and if there’s a piece that you really love… I wouldn’t hang around too long because there are 26 original works only here tonight!. Five of those works have also been reproduced as beautiful 40 x 40 cm limited-edition prints, so be sure to order your print tonight and let us take care of the framing.
And because we love Maddy’s work so much, we couldn’t help ourselves and have turned one our favourites into a limited edition tea towel with only 5 in production. So there’s lots of options to take a little bit of Maddy’s magic home tonight.
To explain the concept behind Paper and Plastic I’d now like to welcome Maddy Simson."
Following Philippa's introduction, artist Madeleine Simson and star of the night took the stage to thank not only her close supporters and family, but everyone who'd taken the time to be a part of Opening Night. She also introduced the exhibition and explained her thoughts behind Paper & Plastic.
"Good evening everyone, Firstly, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who bought a ticket.
You actually left the house and came here tonight — on a Thursday night — which, let’s be honest, is a big ask. So thank you for getting out of the house and supporting me and my work.
A special thank you to Vez, who has come all the way from sunny Queensland, and to my friends who have travelled from Geelong. Also some Family from Mt. Eliza/ Thank you to my V-Line friends for making the journey.
I know we’re living through a cost-of-living crisis. Interest rates have gone up… again. Groceries cost a small fortune… And yet, somehow, I’ve decided that this is a great time to stand here and try to convince you to buy a painting.
So genuinely — thank you. It really does mean a lot.
There are a few thank-yous that are particularly important to me. Firstly, to my darling husband, Sam. I love you. Thank you for helping me so much this year. Especially with the kids, taking them out in the mornings on weekend so I can sneak some more painting time in, and being so encouraging even when I think I’m completely failing at everything. And thank you for forgiving me when I get paint on our furniture and your clothes. Your support has been amazing, and I’m so lucky to be married to such an incredible man and such a giving partner.
Thank you to my parents, robs and Mais. Your unwavering support means the world. Mums always one of the first people I send a photo of a painting to and get some feedback. You are both always there if I need some help in anyway and it’s so appreciated.
And to my mother-in-law, Debrah, and my father-in-law, John — thank you for taking the kids for extra hours when you can and letting me paint.
Thank you for letting me set up a studio and paint in your beautiful house. And sometimes even getting to take home some sort of delicious dish for dinner that deb has cooked that day. I’m very lucky. I genuinely wouldn’t have been able to get to this point without your help. So thank you.
And of course a huge thank you to Philippa, Erica, Dana and Barbara. Philippa You have put so much hard work into making this exhibition happen, running around collection crates like a uni student and Erica your beautiful graphics and paper crane origami skills are amazing and I appreciate all your hard work.
There are a few different ideas behind this exhibition, but I suppose they all come back to one theme: Making magic out of the mundane.
One of the ideas I’ve been exploring in my work is the relationship between the man-made world and the natural environment — and what happens when nature starts interacting with the things we create. I love seeing how nature adapts to us.
I’ve physically seen birds making nests in abandoned shopping trolleys, and I’ve read stories about honey bees making hives inside plastic lawn ornaments and animal statues. There’s something really fascinating about these things that we make, use and eventually discard being taken over and repurposed by nature.
And that leads into another big part of my work — reusing things. Now, I just want to clarify that I’m not a hoarder… …but I am pretty terrible at throwing things away. I can’t throw out a nice gift bag because obviously I might need that gift bag one day. I keep wrapping paper. I keep old books. I keep interesting bits of paper. I keep bags, packaging and random objects that most normal people would probably put straight in the bin.
I love op shopping and finding something that somebody else has decided they don’t want anymore and thinking, “I could do something with that.”
My husband Sam is particularly thrilled by this habit. He is always deeply embarrassed when I suddenly yell: “STOP THE CAR! because I’ve spotted a piece of furniture on the side of the road that I am absolutely certain I can repurpose. Whether I actually can repurpose it is another question. But I have the vision. And I suppose the idea of giving things another life is really important to me. Whether it’s an old book, a paper bag, a piece of wrapping paper, a discarded old phone, or something that would otherwise be completely overlooked.
The other, slightly less environmentally noble idea behind this exhibition is that I’m a little bit greedy as an artist. We’re constantly told that artists should have a niche. Find your thing. Paint the same subject. Make your work recognisable. Build a brand. Become collectable.
And I completely understand why, but unfortunately… I have too many ideas. I want to paint everything. Vintage books, paper bags, bread tags, dry cleaning, plastic, flowers, objects, patterns. Basically anything that catches my eye.
So I had this problem of thinking: How on earth am I going to paint all these completely unrelated things and somehow pretend they’re a cohesive body of work? And then I realised something. I looked back over what I’d been painting for the last few years and noticed that, somehow, almost everything I was drawn to was either paper or plastic.
And I thought… That’s a theme.
Paper or Plastic is about sustainability, reuse, our relationship with the objects we surround ourselves with, and the way nature can interact with — and sometimes reclaim — the things we make.
But it’s also about looking at ordinary things differently. Taking something that we might normally walk past, throw away or barely notice, and giving it a bit of attention. Making something mundane feel beautiful. Or strange. Or funny. Or magical.
And I think that’s ultimately what I love most about painting. It gives me an excuse to look at everyday things and say: “Hang on… that old milk crate is actually really interesting, how can I make this beautiful."
So thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting my work. Thank you for humouring my obsession with paper and plastic. I hope when you look at milk crates and shopping trolleys you see something a little differently. And maybe — you’ll think twice before throwing out that really nice gift bag."
– Madeleine Simson
