Entanglements with Fungi
life, death and renewal
WAMA Foundation
Curated by Felicity Spear
Opens Saturday 21 March 2026
Image courtesy of Alison Pouliot
WAMA at Gariwerd (the Grampians) is a bridge between nature and culture.
The artists in WAMA’s Autumn 2026 exhibition Entanglements with Fungi – life, death and renewal reflect on art, science, history and politics to explore the complexity and diversity of the Kingdom Fungi and its vital role in the survival of life.
They will present new and intriguing ways to understand and imagine the remarkable organisms of the Kingdom Fungi. Fungi are the links between interspecies life forming myriad complex interactions. The continued ability of plants and fungi to form relationships plays a vital role in the life of our planet – a planet where human influences are threatening the future of all life.
Artists
- Chris Drury (UK)
- Chris Henschke
- Gracia Habey and Louise Jennison
- Vicki Hallett
- Sam Leach
- Alison Pouliot (mycologist and photographer)
- Felicity Spear
- Debbie Symons
Ebb and Flow
the Overview Effect
7–24 August 2024
Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
77ᵒ 50´N - 13ᵒ 19´E The Recession. 2014.
Pigment inkjet print on rag paper. 500 x 2200 (edition of 5).
Printed by Michel Szczepanski, C-Lab, Uni. Melb.
Ebb and Flow: the Overview Effect
Biosphere – a sense of belonging
Felicity Spear: On reflection – ebb and flow
Inkjet print
Felicity Spear: Darkness falls (after Melanodes anthracitaria)
Charcoal & Conté on paper
Beneath Nature’s seductive surfaces lies a deep sense of pathos revealed in the destructive power of humanity.
Biosphere – a sense of belonging
Out there: in light of remote possibilities
A sound work created from star radio frequency samples.
The Sky Lab Project
Felicity Spear: Shifting Boundaries
The cultures and technologies associated with sky-situated knowledge are entering the public consciousness. Increasingly we look beyond our planet to speculate about cosmic signs in our everyday world, the relationship between Earth and sky, and our future and place in the universe. The author and astronomer John Barrow writes:
We feel like the Universe’s only child and that has many consequences.
In 2009 Felicity Spear curated the first Sky Lab exhibition to coincide with the International Year of Astronomy. Since then she has worked with a core group of artists to develop the projcet.
- 2009 / Sky Lab / Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
- 2011 / Sky Lab: from where you stand / Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
- 2013 / Sky Lab / Latrobe Regional Gallery Morwell, Victoria
- 2015 / Sky Lab: lines of sight & forces of attraction / Counihan Gallery in Brunswick, Melbourne
- 2016 / Sky Lab: Kepler’s Dream / La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre Bendigo, Victoria
Felicity Spear »
Working with a range of media, Felicity Spear’s art practice has evolved through interests in history and art-historical images, optical phenomena, light and space, mapping and abstraction, and the relationship between the natural and constructed world as they are revealed through art and science and the mechanics of image capture.
Exhibitions »
Umwelten 2 (2019)
Oil on wood