In our fast-paced, hyperconnected world, images are a contagious force that reshape how we perceive reality. In The Contagion of the Image, Sienna van Rossum presents the act of slow looking as a necessary response to navigate the evolving conundrums of our algorithmically determined media feed.
Her meticulous, small-scale paintings depict overlooked, everyday matter - both familiar and alien- inviting us to look closer and question what captures or eludes our gaze. Van Rossum's work reminds us that vision is never neutral, but a vulnerable, ever-mediated act.
Sienna van Rossum is an artist and PhD candidate at the Queensland College of Art and Design, Griffith University whose research focuses on the art of slow looking in our image-saturated culture. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Art Honours Degree (Visual Art) in 2017 at VCA, University of Melbourne. Her paintings have been exhibited interstate in galleries such as Tiles Lewisham, Tweed Regional Gallery, Sarah Scout Presents and Margaret Lawrence Gallery.
Van Rossum was also a shortlisted finalist in the Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Scholarship in 2019 and the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Prize in 2020. She is a recipient of the Terry Cutler Acquisitive Prize and the Fiona Myer Award. In 2024, she was the winner of the prestigious international Asia-Pacific Three Minute Thesis competition for her presentation on the importance of slow looking through creative practice.
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Exhibition Dates: 25 November - 6 December 2025
Celebration Event: Friday, 28 November, 6pm - 8pm
Location: Grey Street Gallery, 226 Grey Street, South Bank, 4101
Opening Hours: 10am - 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday
Image credit: Sienna Van Rossum, Arche, 2022, Oil on aluminium composite panel. Courtesy of the artist.