Soft Return brings together the work of two emerging local painters and recent art school graduates, Shaz Rhodes and India Swinton (Byron School of Art and the National Art School).
Although their styles are very different, both artists explore the inner world – where sensation, memory, and emotion sit just beneath the surface.
Swinton works with soft, sculptural canvases and gentle colour fields to explore quiet states of feeling and moments of transcendence. Some works are light and delicate, suggesting stillness; others are dense and deeply coloured, full of movement and contrast. The pillow-like forms and textured surfaces create a physical presence in the space, encouraging viewers to slow down and engage with a sense of care, intimacy, and subtle tension.
Rhodes presents portraits that function like masks, floating in a psychological, dreamlike space. Each figure emerges from an intuitive process, shaped by memory and emotion. Her paintings dig into the inner self, revealing traces of past experiences and deeper, archetypal feelings. Thick layers of oil paint hint at what lies beneath the surface – energies that remain even when partly hidden.
Together, the works in Soft Return offer a gentle immersion into the complexity of human experience. They invite viewers to move between tenderness and intensity, between what can be seen and what is quietly held within. In a fast-paced, overstimulating world, the exhibition offers a moment to pause – a space where the inner world can be noticed, felt, and given room to breathe.
Sharon Rhodes is a multidisciplinary artist working across oil painting and sculptural installation, exploring the inner landscapes of the unconscious through mythology, psychology, poetry, and personal history.
Born in South Africa and raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during a time of political upheaval, Rhodes’ early life – marked by natural beauty, social contradiction, and the influence of strong, craft-skilled women – sparked a lifelong devotion to making by hand.
After training as a graphic designer, she studied painting at Ku-ring-gai TAFE and later became a finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award. She fulfilled a long-held ambition to attend art school, after completing the three-year program at the Byron School of Art in 2024 and continues her practice through their Alumni Program.
India Swinton is a British/Australian artist based in New South Wales whose practice explores spirituality, colour, and transcendence. Raised on Australia’s east coast after moving there in 2003, her early experiences of surf, creativity, and dream exploration continue to shape her work.
A graduate of the Master of Fine Art program at the National Art School, Sydney, India draws inspiration from spiritual and abstract practitioners such as Hilma af Klint, Georgiana Houghton, Emma Kunz, Gotthard Graubner, and Wolfgang Laib.
Working with acrylic on canvas and soft, sculptural forms filled with polyester, she creates pillow-like paintings that act as vessels for energy and sensation, inviting viewers into contemplative, otherworldly spaces.