View the exhibitions from 2025 at the SASA Gallery
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2025 THE HELPMANN ACADEMY GRADUATE EXHIBITION
FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY - SATURDAY 22 MARCH
The Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition is South Australia’s ultimate celebration of emerging creative talent.
Showcasing the bold works of the standout graduates from Flinders University and the University of South Australia, this must-see exhibition is on at SASA Gallery from 14 February until Saturday 22 March 2025.
18 visual artists from Flinders University and the University of South Australia will showcase their graduate works, across a range of disciplines, including ceramics, glass, moving image, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, fashion, costume design, and textiles.
The Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition has long history of being a launch pad for the next generation of artistic talent in our state. This is your chance to view and celebrate the next generation of South Australian artists and see new works from emerging creatives on the rise.
12 awards valued at over $53,000 will be presented on the opening night of the exhibition. We’re thrilled to introduce new awards in 2025: the Mount Horrocks Wines Award from Stephanie Toole, valued at $5,000, and the South Australian Industry Award, proudly supported by JamFactory, SALA Festival and Guildhouse, and valued at $3,430 (including $1,800 cash).
Featured Artists
Angela De Palma
Antoni Phillips
Charlotte Treloar
Chin Ton (Naomi) Tang
Claire Marsh
Hana Alison
Jels
Joshua Sleep
Leanne Rowett
Maddie Stevens
Mads Conte
Martin Brine
Pippini Niamh
Oak
Silki Wong
Tara Rowhani-Farid
Thu Huong (Abigail) Nguyen
Tieyuan Zhou
Graduate Exhibition Project Curator
Stephanie Doddridge
Listen to an audio description of the exhibition here
Image: Martin Brine, Untitled #7. Glass sheet, slip-cast porcelain, distressed steel rod, Myponga stone. Photo by Sam Roberts.
Mahsa Makki (Misha McKee): Sewing Place to Time
Sewing Place to Time is a Farsi (Persian) expression meaning “trying hard to do something quite impossible”.
This exhibition sews together the past, present, future, elsewhen, here, there, and elsewhere, to respond to Bhabha’s (2012) unrepresentable Third Space. In doing so, through capturing the fleeting, mundane moments of everyday life, the naïve and whimsical illustrations, try hard to represent the unrepresentable.
Mahsa, is a visual practitioner-researcher whose work explores the interconnections between illustration, identity, culture, and everyday life. This exhibition forms part of her PhD project, an autoethnographic practice-based enquiry into the lived experience of a migration journey.
Bhabha, H. K. (2012). The location of culture. Routledge.
JOHN ANDREWS: ARCHITECT OF UNCOMMON SENSE
John Andrews: Architect of Uncommon Sense is a celebration of the great architect's work and its global impact. Andrews’s designs are a shining example of how architecture can be used to address urgent environmental and urban concerns.
Exhibited previously at Harvard University’s Druker Design Gallery, Architect of Uncommon Sense showcases formerly inaccessible Australian archival holdings from the State Library of New South Wales, with a special focus on Andrews's Adelaide Station and Environs Redevelopment (ASER) which includes the Adelaide Convention Centre and Exhibition Centre (both demolished), the Intercontinental Hotel (formerly the Hyatt Regency) and the Riverside Centre.
Beyond Andrews’s work, the exhibition highlights Australia's late modern architectural heritage and the evolution of environmental sensibilities in Australian design culture, while investigating the challenges entailed in the conservation of this work.
Organised through themes including Geography, Urbanism and Sustainability, the exhibition features period drawings, images and documents, with new photography by Noritaka Minami.
Curated by Paul Walker & Kevin Liu
Exhibition supporters
short notice (#3)
Temporary, hectic, responsive and kinetic: in this third iteration of short notice, various artists descend on the SASA Gallery for one night only. All welcome.
THE ARCHITECT’S DREAM, THE SLEEP OF REASON
The Architect’s Dream, The Sleep Of Reason looks at the opportunities that AI tools provide to architects and designers imagining and designing worlds through the hallucinogenic lens of generative AI imagery. Questions surrounding the authorship and legitimacy of AI art miss the point that engaging with the ‘picture worlds’ of AI is only the start of the journey. If we reverse engineer our aesthetic encounters with AI, we can find hidden narratives that speak of other ontologies.
The exhibition by students and staff at UniSA and RMIT brings together a collection of artefacts, drawings, AI-generated images, and digital environments, each responding to theoretical prompts drawn from architectural texts. These works explore how AI can mediate between abstract design thinking and concrete architectural expression—revealing unexpected, provocative, and sometimes even ‘buildable’ possibilities.
Presented by Sean Pickersgill, Andrew Lymn-Penning, Patrick Macaset, Vei Tan, Nathan Crane. This exhibition is supported by AASA (Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia).
Training Ground: Past and present students of the South Australian School of Art
The South Australian School of Art has nurtured and trained generations of South Australian artists. In the closing months of the University of South Australia, the exhibition Training Ground at the SASA Gallery draws together works by past and present students – from current students to industry luminaries – in a group exhibition that celebrates the excellence and legacy of the institution. From painting to prints, glass to ceramics, moving image to sculpture, installation and jewellery, Training Ground unearths key works and new talent, affirming the pivotal role of training in shaping artistic practice.
Artists: Sydney BALL / Andy BEST / Jane BOWDEN / Max CALLAGHAN / Sarah crowEST / Aleks DANKO / Brad DARKSON / Margaret DODD / Nicholas FOLLAND / Helium L / Barbara HANRAHAN / Pamela HARRIS / Anton HART / Louise HASELTON / Andrew HILL / Aidan HUGHES / Matt HUPPATZ / Aldo IACOBELLI / Shaun KIRBY / Kay LAWRENCE / Christian LOCK / Michelle NIKOU / Trevor NICKOLLS / Bruce NUSKE / Deborah PAAUWE / Jeffery SMART / Brianna SPEIGHT / James TYLOR / Angela & Hossein VALAMANESH / Gerry WEDD / Simon WILLIAMS / Geoff WILSON / Min WONG / Lucy ZOLA
Image: Training Ground, installation view, SASA Gallery, 2025. Photo: Sam Roberts
Glimpse
Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours) Graduate exhibition
Thursday 27 November – Wednesday 10 December 2025
Lisa Crowder / Caelan Farr / Anne Frazer / Mitch Hearn / Robert Hicks / Daniru Jayasuriya / Sarah Luckhurst/ Eric Luksch / Gemma Mason / Rosemary Prider / Olyvia Reimers / Aila Sage /Ember Satyn / Malyssa Tomkinson / ChenHao Wang / Isobel Waters / Ma Zhe
