Janine Combes Artist and Jeweller
Exhibitions
​I have been exhibiting as a member of group shows and in solo exhibitions since 2010. The artworks produced can be grouped into three key themes:
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Looking back: history, place and belonging
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Celebrating the now and recognising what we may lose
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Looking forward with hope and action
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This section provides examples of a range of works from these exhibitions. It does not cover all works produced but further detail can be gained by following the links provided to online catalogues or other sites.
Paper towns and abandoned places: what we take, what we cast off, what might have been, Plimsoll Gallery Hobart 2024
A solo exhibition at the Plimsoll Gallery in Nipaluna/Hobart at the end of my Master of Fine Arts (Research). Forty-nine works across four gallery spaces. It included sculpture, installation and contemporary jewellery works. This research
focussed on the impact of colonial resource exploitation on our relationship to place and history.
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Watch a short video of some of the exhibition works here. Images by Jessica King, Photography.
Images Jess King
Read a review of this exhibition here: https://makeanddo.art/notes-on-paper-towns-and-abandoned-places/
Puncturing the mask
of civility 2024
Runneymede House Hobart
Tasmania's colonial history and wealth was built upon hunting whales and the exploitation of resources like Huon Pine for boat building.
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For this exhibition, I made a large carved neckpiece in the shape of boat shackles using Huon Pine pieces which were waste from other projects.
While outside peoples and land are laid to waste 2024. Colonial sites often celebrate bravery and achievement. In this installation, I acknowledge the violence and land seizure that occurred. Patina roots the work in a past and embedded text challenges dominant historical narratives.
Gilded Encounters: Hadleys Orient Hotel 2018-2019
For this exhibition I made works about three aspects of the history associated with this iconic Tasmanian hotel: the journey to the South Pole by Amundsen, a famous baker, and the opera singer known as the 'Tasmanian Nightingale', Amy Sherwin.
Precious: excellence in contemporary jewellery
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston Tasmania 2023
The works for this exhibition included a Chalelaine made from found and created objects. Other works included a large neckpiece which juxtaposed blackened silver button grass seed heads with hand-made barbed wire.
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Hidden Histories, Narryna Museum Hobart 2020
Hidden Histories exhibition focussed on the lives of women associated with this historic house. Embroidering the past is a large neckpiece made from plastic filled with lacquer, paper and blackened silver. Words hint at the separation from 'home' and the dynamics of a small colonial society.
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A poisonous cup, 1, 2 and 3 features tea cups with large needles pushed through them, a nod to the underlying politics of polite colonial society.
Inscription and Place, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery 2017
​This exhibition involved research into objects and stories associated with one of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery's collections.
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Text, letters and familiar domestic objects all connected me to the life of Hilda Maning. I’ve relished finding small scraps of detail about her on the public record and joined the dots where nothing was to be found.
I study my own large, old front door key and see the same shapes and maker’s mark. Fabrics and inherited black cards from my great-grandmother sit alongside words from Hilda’s last will and testament. Connections are made through time, space and place.
Truth or Dare, Adornaxis, New York Contemporary Jewellery Week 2023
My work for this exhibition explored the truth of Australian colonial histories. Words embedded into copper - words about what it means to belong to this place.
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Events - NYCJW (nycjewelryweek.com)
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Celebrating the now and recognising what we may lose
Contemporary Wearables 2025
Toowoomaba
Regional Gallery
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Flourish brooch, 2025 Stingray skin (shagreen), silver, patina
When a dead stingray washed up on a shore near my studio, I knew it was precious.
Historically, shark or stingray skin, known as shagreen, was used in decorative objects.
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Glossy black, delicate but dramatic it draws attention to its material nature.
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Words about my relationship to place, land, and creatures like the stingray, flow over the edges, becoming part of their surrounds. The fragments of shagreen come together. Words and silver enclose them, hold them safe.
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This place
Handmark
Gallery 2024
In 2024 I started to work with discarded fragments of Tasmanian timbers, carving and inserting text. Wood is associated with 'an end to hostilities' so is a material suitable for signifying a respectful relationship to place and nature.
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In this work, called Look Back, words flow over edges. The story of how to live lightly in this place is yet to be completed.
Tidal'20 Paranaple Arts Centre Devonport
The impact of warming seas, introduced predators and pollution on kelp forests in Tasmanian waters has been a focus for my artworks over recent years. This work , Kelp Elegy was selected as the winner of this art prize and was acquired by the Gallery for their collection.
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Women's Art Prize, Finalist Tasmania 2020 and 2022
Liminal brooches- a celebration of the textures and forms of the shoreline.
This set of large neckpieces drew inspiration from the idea of the Suffragette Penny. On vintage Tasmanian pennies I engraved text that acknowledges the rights women now have but recognises how far we have to go until we are safe, adequately housed, and have economic parity.
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Finalists 2020 — Women's Art Prize Tasmania (womensartprizetas.com.au)
Serial Exchange, Radiant Pavilion Melbourne 2015
Line in the sand, brooch made from sterling silver, sand, cardboard, glass resin, foam and stainless steel.
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Reflecting a fascination with tidal shorelines but, also a sense of urgency to act in protecting the natural world.
Time and Tide, Handmark Gallery 2019
Sailing into the Southern Ocean brooch 2019 and Red Tide brooch, 2019
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