Curated by Megan Monte, Wollongong Art Gallery’s new exhibition The Architecture of Feeling features ceramic pieces by Elisabeth CUMMINGS and Barbara Romalis. From the Wollongong Art Gallery collection, The Architecture of Feeling explores how emotion is held, transformed, and revealed through form, gesture, and encounter.
This exhibition brings together ceramics, works on paper, and photographs in intimate tableaux that trace the thresholds of human experience, where pleasure and restraint meet in a quiet theatre of feeling.
Elisabeth and Barbara’s collaborative pieces are exhibited alongside work by the following artists: Hannah Barclay, Julie Bartholomew, Stephen Benwell, Stephen Bird, Pat Brassington, Jacques Charoux, Kirsten Coelho, Nici Cumpston, Greg Daly, Lynda Draper, Diogenes Farri, Honor Freeman, Marea Gazzard, Ian Gentle, Sarah Goffman, Juz Kitson, John Kuczwal, Danie Mellor, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, David Nolan, Graham Oldroyd, Jenny Orchard, Anders Ousback, John Paine, Alan Peascod, Jacky Redgate, Ebony Russell, Derek Smith, Sarah Smuts‑Kennedy, Vipoo Srivilasa, Phyllis Stewart, Suzanne Stewart, and Amy Joy Watson.
Thank you to Vivian from Wollongong Art Gallery, Megan Monte for her curation of the show, and to the installation team!
Artwork Wall Label:
The work appears in the Lust and Lustre vitrine that marks the first threshold within this architecture of feeling, where emotion gathers at the surface. Here, light moves like a language across objects, carried through the sheen, glow, and reflection of their surfaces. Touch gives way to looking. Surfaces hold attention: luminous yet contained, delicate yet controlled. Textures appear porous and absorbing, while others remain smooth, sealed, and reflective. These material qualities evoke desire, introspection, and restraint. Lustre becomes more than decoration: it becomes a mirror for feeling. Subtle gestures and suggestive imagery guide the eye toward moments of longing and attraction, where fascination deepens and desire begins to extend beyond the surface.
Barbara Romalis, Elisabeth Cummings
born Great Britain 1946, to Australia 1949
born Brisbane, Queensland 1934
Blue Boy
Pink Boy & Mermaid
ceramic plate, glazed stoneware, cobalt oxide brushwork
Acquired with assistance from the Crafts Board of the Australia Council.