Instagram story viewer> @jochew_> Tagged

Jo Chew

@jochew_

2.1K

followers

1724

following

lutruwita

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

18

0

👋
Hi gang.

The first show of 2026 approaches.
‘Unsettled’ will open February 6 @goodgriefstudios & I’ll be showing new work alongside;
#christlberg
@jillianfarmer9
@jochew_
#denispybus
@tamzenbrewster
& @jacob.leary

2026 I am IN you.

73

9

Farewell to 2025, a year full of endings and beginnings, hard work and rest, hurdles and accomplishments, creativity and creative blocks, adventures and lulls, and good company with people I love.

Looking forward to a slower and more purposefully year ahead, though I know I say that every year. Sending love to everyone for 2026.

156

6

FINAL DAYS: JO CHEW | Painting Now | Until 28 December | Michael Reid Sydney

“The collage that informed this painting is of a pale yellow spirit house obscuring a cut-out copy of a Louise Bourgeois drawing attached with masking tape to a picture of a Japanese garden in the snow,” says Tasmanian artist JO CHEW, discussing her work, ‘Magnetic Variation’ – on view in our year-end group survey, Painting Now, which will continue online after the gallery closes this week.

“More a meditation on the relationship between colour and form than storytelling, the title nonetheless suggests ideas of navigation and the difficulty of finding a way. Things are not always as they seem; sometimes, North isn’t really North, and we need to adjust. To me, this painting conveys a quiet acceptance – and a waiting. All of the things within this painting are deliberately hidden, enclosed, but like a cocoon, they hide something that is forming.”

With her Painting Now series, Chew builds bright, sun-dappled scenes on a dazzling scale, deriving her compositions from earlier collage work. Through this process, fragmentary photographs, drawings and found references are spliced together “in the hope of finding something that speaks to me,” she says. Achieving an almost trompe-l’œil effect, the resulting paintings retain a collagistic sense of pictorial layering in space – an illusory interweaving of paper and paint, memory and material.

Despite compelling ambiguities, themes slowly coalesce through Chew’s Painting Now series, in which house-like structures repeat in various guises and take on poetic resonance. Whether temporary and improvisational – tents and makeshift A-frames – or suggesting visions of a modernist future – dream houses and geodesic domes – her pitched forms invoke a universal language of shelter, inviting reflections on our longing for refuge and a place to call home.

To discuss ‘Magnetic Variation’ and other works from Jo Chew’s Painting Now series, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

@jochew_

#jochew #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney

99

1

🌿☀️🌊🎨

214

8

NOW OPEN: Painting Now 2025 | Until 28 December | Michael Reid Sydney

This week at Michael Reid Sydney, we are thrilled to present the 2025 edition of Painting Now – an expansive group survey assembling significant new bodies of work by five extraordinary artists: JO CHEW, HEATH NOCK, BRENTON DRECHSLER, COLUMBIERE TIPUNGWUTI and DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI.

Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, our annual program spotlights an exciting school of established talents at a moment of creative breakthrough, celebrating the here-and-now of contemporary painting with works that expand the medium’s possibilities and push it into optically charged, conceptually daring and technically dazzling terrain.

Now unfolding across the entire ground-floor gallery at our flagship Eora/Sydney space as the capstone to our 2025 exhibitions program, Painting Now will be celebrated with opening drinks this Saturday, 6 December, and all works are available to explore and acquire online or by contacting curator Dean Phillips-Andersen.

“The calibre of the artists, the ambition of the work, the conversations along the way, and seeing everything come together in the gallery made curating Painting Now 2025 one of my most fulfilling projects to date,” says Phillips-Andersen, who sat down with each of the artists for a series of online profiles – now live on our website.

To enquire about available work or RSVP to this Saturday’s celebration, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

@brenton_drechsler @jilamaraartsandcrafts @jochew_ @bukuartnow @mulkaproject @heathnock @deanandersen.art

#brentondrechsler #columbieretipungwuti #jochew #dhukumulwanambi #heathnock #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney

343

23

My dear friend Jo Chew is part of Painting Now 2025 at Michael Reid Gallery, showing in good company alongside Columbiere Tipungwuti, Heath Nock, Dhukumul Waṉambi and Brenton Drechsler.

@jochew_
@michaelreidsydney
@deanandersen.art

Opening celebration this Saturday at 2pm
Michael Reid Gallery, Eora / Sydney
4—28 Dec 2025

Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, Painting Now 2025 presents significant new bodies of work by each artist, recasting painting as an expanded creative field; with their distinct approaches, perspectives and preoccupations, they push the medium into optically charged, technically dazzling and conceptually daring terrain.

#jochew #painterspainter #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #contemporarypainting #michaelreid #michaelreidsydney

93

0

YOU’RE INVITED: Painting Now | Opening Drinks this Saturday, 6 December, 2–4pm | Michael Reid Sydney

Our 2025 program at Michael Reid Sydney culminates this week with the latest edition of Painting Now – set to be welcomed with opening drinks this Saturday, 6 December, where many of the artists will be in attendance.

rinks will be served from 2pm and everyone is welcome to join us, experience this dynamic exhibition and hear from the five incredible talents who have joined forces for this year’s show: Columbiere Tipungwuti, Jo Chew, Heath Nock, Dhukumul Waṉambi and Brenton Drechsler.

Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, our annual group survey spotlights an exciting school of established contemporary painters from across Australia whose practices expand the creative possibilities of art’s most storied medium.

Each artist selected for the Painting Now Class of 2025 treats painting as an expanded creative field. With their distinct approaches, perspectives and preoccupations, they push the medium into optically charged, technically dazzling and conceptually daring terrain.

All works from Painting Now 2025 can be previewed and acquired online and by request ahead of this Saturday’s public celebration. For all enquiries and to RSVP to the opening drinks, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

OPENING DRINKS
Painting Now 2025
Saturday, 6 December, 2–4pm
Michael Reid Sydney
109 Shepherd Street
Chippendale NSW 2008

@brenton_drechsler @jilamaraartsandcrafts @jochew_ @bukuartnow @heathnock @mulkaproject

#brentondrechsler #columbieretipungwuti #jochew #dhukumulwanambi #heathnock #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney

98

0

NEXT WEEK: JO CHEW | Painting Now | 4–28 December | Michael Reid Sydney

“From an early age, I was encouraged to be curious – to look at and find wonder in small things and the natural world. I remember beachcombing on Bruny Island and Dolphin Sands, collecting shells, seedpods and sea urchin endoskeletons,” says Tasmanian artist JO CHEW, one of five artists assembled for the 2025 edition of our annual survey, Painting Now. “Treasuring these small ‘homes’ fed my creative impulse. I can’t help but see their influence on my paintings of shelters and dwellings.”

For her Painting Now series, which can now be previewed by request ahead of next week’s opening, Chew has constructed a sequence of sun-dappled scenes derived from collaged compositions – fragmentary photos, drawings and found references spliced together “in the hope of finding something that speaks to me,” she says. The large-scale works that result retain a collagistic sense of pictorial layering in space – an interplay of memory and material with almost trompe-l’œil effects.

Across five canvases, house-like structures recur in various guises and take on a poetic resonance. Whether temporary and improvisational – tents and makeshift A-frames – or evocative of imagined utopias – modernist dream houses and geodesic domes – Chew’s forms gesture towards a distilled visual language of shelter, prompting reflections on our longing for refuge and a place to call home.

Created during her final months in what had been her long-term residence, Chew’s exploration of how we dwell and what we treasure is tinged with an acceptance of transience. A nostalgic thread runs through the series: “A desire to get something back that we can’t quite retrieve,” she says. “But they’re not dark or depressing; I think there’s an appreciation for something from the past and an optimism that something similar might still be found. Many of my works this year have a feeling of something hidden and forming, suggesting a period of rest and reflection; cocoon-like, perhaps.”

For previews and priority access, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

@jochew_

#jochew #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney

183

16

NEXT WEEK: Painting Now 2025 | 4–28 December | Michael Reid Sydney

Michael Reid Sydney’s 2025 exhibition program will culminate next week with the official opening of the latest edition of our annual group survey, Painting Now. Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, Painting Now shines a light on an exciting school of established contemporary painters from across Australia whose practices expand the creative possibilities of art’s most storied medium.

Painting Now 2025 presents significant new bodies of work by BRENTON DRECHSLER, COLUMBIERE TIPUNGWUTI, JO CHEW, DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI and HEATH NOCK. With their distinct approaches, perspectives and preoccupations, each of these artists sees painting as an expanded creative field, pushing the medium into optically charged, technically dazzling and conceptually daring terrain.

The success of so many Painting Now alumni reflects the program’s ambition to identify, mentor and celebrate singular talents at a moment of creative breakthrough, presenting their work just as it ascends to a new level of collectability and acclaim.

All works from Painting Now 2025 can be previewed and acquired by request in the lead-up to the opening on Thursday, 4 December.

For enquiries, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

@brenton_drechsler @jilamaraartsandcrafts @jochew_ @bukuartnow @heathnock

#brentondrechsler #columbieretipungwuti #jochew #dhukumulwanambi #heathnock #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney

30

2

COMING SOON: JO CHEW | Painting Now | 4–28 December | Michael Reid Sydney

Michael Reid Sydney’s 2025 exhibition program will soon culminate with the next edition of Painting Now. Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, this annual group survey spotlights an exciting school of established contemporary painters from across Australia whose practices expand the creative possibilities of art’s most storied medium. We are delighted to announce that this year’s stellar line-up includes Nipaluna/Hobart-based artist JO CHEW.

In Chew’s painted worlds, built forms become vessels for meditations on vulnerability, hope and longing. “A poem doesn’t need to describe everything and a song doesn’t need to make sense – I feel it can be the same with a painting,” says the artist, whose vibrant, sun-dappled scenes derive their compositions from collaged fragments of photographs, drawings and found images.

Chew’s hybrid process achieves an almost trompe-l’œil effect, with her large-scale paintings retaining a collagistic sense of pictorial layering – an illusory interweaving of paper and paint, memory and material.

Despite the work’s compelling ambiguities, themes slowly coalesce across Chew’s Painting Now series, in which house-like structures repeat in various guises and take on poetic resonance. Whether temporary and improvisational – tents and makeshift A-frames – or suggesting past visions of a future utopia – modernist dream houses and geodesic domes – her recurring forms invoke a universal language of shelter, inviting reflections on how we dwell and what we keep.

“There’s a desire to get something back that we can’t quite retrieve,” says the artist, who completed the series during her final months in her long-term home, “but also an optimism that something similar might still be found.”

All works from Painting Now 2025 can be previewed and acquired by request in the lead-up to the opening on Thursday, 4 December.

Please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

@jochew_

#jochew #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney

329

19

Poetry is Everywhere⁠
⁠
Robert Frost’s poetry emerged from the rhythms of rural New England life more than a century ago. Where some saw only woods and fields, Frost saw a vast workshop for building metaphors and rhythms, transforming his deepest thoughts into verses that carried far beyond the farm.⁠
⁠
In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” he used silence and snowfall to carry questions of duty and desire. In “Birches,” a boy swinging from a branch became his meditation on memory and escape. His walk along a wooded path in “The Road Not Taken,” inspired his reflection on options, choices and consequences.⁠
⁠
For readers then and now, he proved that poetry lives not only in libraries but also in stone walls, snowy fields, and woods waiting just beyond the fence.⁠
⁠
#PoetryDay #NewEnglandBeauty #PoetryIsEverywhere⁠
⁠
Photo by Marvin Koner, 1961⁠
marvinkonerarchive.com

12

3