Ever since Lisa Gorman stepped down as creative director of Gorman last year (the brand she founded way back in 1999!), we’ve been wondering what she’ll do next.

The answer is ‘Fluorescence’; an eye-catching debut art exhibition, which opens to the public on Friday!

Held at 93 George St, Fitzroy (the previous home of Melbourne favourite Third Drawer Down), Lisa’s exhibition of works explore and re-imagine a subject she’s very familiar with; textiles. 

Her 21 ‘acrylic tartans’ highlight the junction of the warp and weft (the two basic components used in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric), and explore how two lines of coloured thread extend and intersect to become one new colour. 

‘My curiosity with the non-negotiable formation of a new and unknown colour inspired me to create these pieces,’ says Lisa. ‘It’s an experience I’ve had when creating woven textiles and I was interested to see this translated in a new medium with the added elements of translucency and light.’

The rigid, acrylic material has been used to emphasise the woven structure, almost as though the viewer is observing a section of tartan cloth through a magnifying glass. 

‘The filtration of light through layers of colour, sliced up methodically by the intense neon edge are the components that form this re-fabricated “cloth”,’ she explains. ‘However, the rigidity of the acrylic is somewhat dissolved back to its traditional soft, draped form as colours cast from the works rest on surrounding surfaces, shifting with the light over the day.’ 

‘Fluorescence’ by Lisa Gorman
93 George st, Fitzroy 

Friday 22 October – Saturday 29 October
11am – 4pm