Exhibition runs Saturday 15 November -Saturday 22 November
The table is a place to gather and eat, to be in communion and to work; it is a place to be challenged, to feel our perspectives broaden. Everybody has something to bring To The Table––though historically, Western Sydney has been left uninvited.
Amidst the increasing chairs and placemats being laid out for the Area, Potluck ARI’s opening exhibition celebrates the importance of coming together and fostering this creative community. The six Western Sydney artists of To The Table explore the inevitable beauty and tension of gathering; their works share lessons with us and bestow blessings.
The community quilt from Rae Boggs tells us that time must be spent together to share stories. Karlina Mitchell suggests the preparation of any food is a labour of love, and Keorattana Luangrathrajasombat responds that the meal itself is a gravitational force. Thao Nhi La’s work speaks to the harmony of fusion and the joy of belonging. Jamie Jude Smith’s work notes how the sharing of a meal has its own complexities––but there is contentment in this experience, too, Eleanor Wickens reminds us. They add, we must memorialise the remnants of a good time, wrapping them carefully like leftovers to enjoy again later.
The exhibition gently asks: what would you like to bring to the table? Who would you like to see across from you, and who would you like seated beside you?
This exhibition emerges from the growing need for another ARI in Western Sydney, a region rich with culture, voices, and perspectives that deserve more spaces to be seen and heard. Western Sydney artists need places that value collaboration over competition and process over product; spaces where community, experimentation, and cultural exchange can thrive. Through exhibitions and public programming, Potluck ARI hopes to bring this to the community.
‘To The Table’ would not be possible without the support of UTP and Bankstown Arts Centre (BAC), whose commitment to nurturing emerging artists and diverse communities continues to make it possible.
Through this first exhibition, we invite everyone to gather, connect, and imagine new possibilities for art and community together, at the table.
Opening: Saturday 15 November, 2-3pm
Please note this exhibition is part of Utp’s Another World Festival . The opening is free to attend, you can purchase tickets for Another World Festival's other programming here.
Karlina Mitchell is a multidisciplinary artist. Her practice looks at the impact multiple cultural identities can have on the formation of self and understanding of belonging.
Thao Nhi La is a Vietnamese-Teochew professional artist & community arts worker who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours from UNSW. She loves to work with community groups to create colourful and whimsical artworks displayed around Sydney, from local parks, schools, electrical boxes, town centres, libraries, plazas, hospitals and more… Over the span of her career, she had 9 solo art exhibitions and over 60 group exhibitions at galleries and museums across Sydney, so you may have seen some of her mosaics or paintings around the city!
Rae Boggs, a Gadigal/Sydney based artist, works in the expanded field of print and textiles. Their practice is informed by ongoing concerns around childhood, gender, and language. Their artistic practice draws on the personal experience of identifying as non-binary to investigate the myth of gender representation. Through this investigation they explore the construction of gender stereotypes in the material culture of childhood through language.
Rae holds a Master of Fine Arts from National Art School, Sydney 2021, they were the recipient of the print prize for their Bachelor of Fine Arts, and has been a finalist in the Fifty Square Art Prize, the Small Works Art Prize, Ravenswood and the Gippsland Print Award. Their Solo shows include Subtextual at Little Yellow Studio Collective, 2024 and Queering Space at Airspace Projects, 2023. Recent group shows include Home, Articulate Project Space 2025; Palimpsest, Goodspace, 2025; and Yellow, Tiliqua Tiliqua Studio, 2025.
Eleanor Wickens is an emerging ceramics artist based in the lower Blue Mountains, NSW. After graduating from the National Art School with a BFA in Ceramics, she began to develop a practice that incorporates her love and obsession with history and literature and how pop-culture narratives shape our own realities.
Working in predominantly stoneware, Eleanor uses traditional methods of wheel throwing and handbuilding techniques to create objects that the audience are able to recognise instantly but can still offer a sense of surprise and intrigue. Her obsession with food and how the art of eating has a close connection to ceramic forms have shaped her current practice to create sculptural forms that closely resemble food objects from childhood memories and pop-culture.
Keorattana Luangrathrajasombat is a multidisciplinary visual artist, designer, and director working across 3D animation, XR, interactive media, and projection. As Kero, also known as PANDAKERO, his creative practice explores visual experimentation and storytelling through still, animated, virtual, and interactive works.
Under his full name, Keorattana Luangrathrajasombat (the long version of Kero), his practice delves into the intersections of memory, culture, and human fragility through surreal, immersive worlds. Central to his work is the R0CK B0D1ES series—stone-like figures that embody the clumsy resilience of humanity as they navigate fragile environments and symbolic rituals.
Drawing on his Lao heritage and upbringing in Western Sydney, Keorattana blends personal experience with universal metaphors, often reflecting on food, family, and shared spaces as forces that hold communities together. His works span gallery installations, augmented reality projects, and international commissions, including presentations in Tokyo, New York, and Los Angeles. By combining digital craft with poetic symbolism, Keorattana creates spaces where vulnerability and optimism coexist, inviting audiences to reflect on how we connect, endure, and imagine futures together.
Potluck is a new Western Sydney ARI on Dharug Country, where stories are shared, cultures mix, and creativity thrives. Founded by artists Grace Almansour, Ilana Lapid and Narelle Odeh, Potluck fosters collaboration and celebrates diverse, underrepresented voices across generations and cultures. The founders met while studying Fine Arts at UNSW, bonding over food, politics, thrifting, and the shared challenge of long commutes from Western Sydney. Their conversations sparked the vision for more accessible art opportunities beyond the CBD. Potluck now exists as a space for connection, creativity, and community, shaped by the strengths and struggles of artists out West.
Narrelle Odeh is a Palestinian artist with a BA of Fine Arts/Arts. Her art practice is located within the disciplines of painting and drawing, but often expands into a diverse blend of mediums as she explores symbolism, language and heritage. She is interested in storytelling through a cultural and political lens as influenced by the individual and collective Palestinian identity.
Grace Almansour is a contemporary artist known for her vibrant, abstract works exploring human experiences and emotions. Born in Syria, Grace studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the UNSW. Her art practice focuses on the concept of the work that mostly speaks to the complexities of being a refugee. She highlights how conflicts shape us while also leaving trauma.
Based in Dharug country, Ilana Lapid is a first-generation Filipino Australian, born and raised in Penrith. She graduated from UNSW with a BSci/BFA. Her practice seeks to challenge the perception of value in objects through processes of destruction and reconstruction. She enjoys working with found objects and textiles and has a foundation in painting and drawing.