CODED BLOOMS | flowers have never been innocent
Robert Mapplethorpe
from the National Gallery of Australia
with new commissions by:
Pat Brassington
Del Kathryn Barton
Jake Preval
Meng-Yu Yan
Flowers have long stood in for the things we couldn't say aloud: sex, death, longing, defiance. Soft in appearance, potent in meaning, they are the great deceivers of art history. Across centuries and cultures, the bloom has operated as a colourful code, a motif that artists actively engage, reclaim and rewrite.
CODED BLOOMS begins with the American artist Robert Mapplethorpe, whose photographs of flowers set the tone for a contemporary rereading of the floral. Drawn from the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, his works provide a charged framework for the exhibition. In his hands, the bloom becomes sculptural, erotic and exacting. From here, four artists push the floral beyond polite still-life traditions into new, unruly terrain.
Pat Brassington, Del Kathryn Barton, Jake Preval and Meng-Yu Yan each take the floral in distinct directions, exploring the psychological, the sensual, the bodily and the relational. Every petal, shadow and pattern becomes a coded signal, revealing what is hidden, forbidden or quietly radical.
In Brassington's images, the bloom hovers in a quiet psychological register; Barton amplifies it into symbols of desire, transformation and feminine psyche. Preval lingers on the flower's vulnerable drift after its peak, while Yan traces intimacy through shadows and silhouettes. Together, these artists confirm that flowers have never been innocent.
The National Gallery of Australia is a Significant Lender of this exhibition.
Launch event Saturday March 7, 1-3pm
Curator Angela Connor, MAPh Senior Curator
Museum of Australian Photography
7 March - 24 May 2026
Entry is FREE
Tue-Fri 10am-5pm
Sat-Sun 10am-4pm
Closed Monday
❊ When ❊
Happens: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Time: Tue-Fri 10am-5pm Sat-Sun 10am-4pm
❊ Where ❊
Museum of Australian Photography View Venue
860 Ferntree Gully Rd, Wheelers Hill Victoria 3150 Map
✆ Venue: +61 3 8544 0500 | Event:
❊ Web Links ❊
Advertiser:
maph.org.au
→ www.mga.org.au
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