Helen S. Tiernan – Two Views: As Above, So Below

About the Exhibition

New paintings from Helen Tiernan Drawing on her European and Aboriginal heritage, along with an ongoing curiosity and interrogation of art history, Helen has created her own visual language to express important issues through her art, including Black/White contact; women's experience and her concern for the environment. The exhibition presents new suites of works, exploring abstraction and fantasy, as well as paintings inspired by her experiences involving whales. Download the catalogue here Watch the video of opening remarks by Rosemary Forde, Visual Arts and Cultural Development Officer, Bass Coast Shire Council. Watch the video of Helen S. Tiernan speaking about her latest paintings. "Helen’s work is offering us so much – of history, of literature, of sheer visual mastery; it is ourselves, our story, our land, sea, and sky, reflected back to us in many complicated and nuanced ways. ... This is a senior artist who continues to play and push herself into new territory, and to find joy and new discovery in that experimentation and challenge. ...  Helen offers us all a chance to learn with her, to take delight in the rubber ducky, to get lost in the beauty of the deep green sea, and to think, really think, of our place, our role, our stories, in the relationality of people to people, and of people to place." Rosemary Forde, 2025