Melbourne Art Fair 2026: Selma Coulthard + Jun Chen
Upcoming exhibition
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MELBOURNE ART FAIR
19 – 22 February, 2026
BOOTH J5
Jun Chen and Selma Coulthard's practices are rooted in the landscape: its presence, histories, and how it continues to shape how we see the world.
Chen paints with gestural immediacy, working en-plein-air and from memory to capture the shifting energy of the Australian landscape. His thick, impasto surfaces speak to a deep, unfiltered connection with place. This profound respect is shaped by his migration to Australia and training in classical Chinese painting traditions. He evokes the vastness of the bushland with visceral impressions, anchored in place and memory.
Coulthard, a senior Pertama Maduthara Luritja artist, paints Country through inherited knowledge, passed down from elders and ancestors. As a senior law woman in her community, she connects land with personal and ancestral storytelling, ceremony and cultural responsibility. For Coulthard, painting is an act of continuation—ensuring that knowledge is not forgotten.
Despite distinctly different visions, these artists share an unflinching respect for land. Together, they remind us that the environment is a reflection of us. From desert tracks and highland scrubs to rivers, they ask us to consider how we belong to place and how the land shapes who we are. -
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