Melbourne-based contemporary artist Anna Kiparis is set to unveil her latest solo exhibition, Strange Air, at Montsalvat’s Wood Workshop Gallery in Eltham, running from 30 July to 24 August 2025.
Marking five years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Strange Air revisits the emotional textures and haunting silences of lockdown life. Through a series of quietly arresting photographs, Kiparis captures the eerie calm and altered relationship to space that defined a moment in history many are still processing.
“The absence of crowds and space between each other seemed to allow nature to reclaim its presence in a way that felt pleasantly peculiar,” Kiparis reflects. During a time of intense physical restriction and emotional uncertainty, it was Melbourne’s suburban streets and parklands—encountered on her daily walks within the strict 5km-radius rules—that offered the artist solace and unexpected beauty.
Interestingly, the series did not emerge through deliberate documentation at the time. Instead, Kiparis revisited images she had largely forgotten she’d taken. Her camera, largely inactive during the height of the pandemic, held a quiet archive that has now revealed itself as a poetic meditation on memory, atmosphere, and place.
Kiparis, a first-generation Greek-Australian born and raised in Melbourne, holds a Master’s in Photography from RMIT. Her practice spans analogue and digital forms, often exploring surreal landscapes of suburbia and the emotional imprints left by its inhabitants. Her work has earned shortlistings in major art prizes including the National Photographic Portrait Prize, Footscray Art Prize, Darebin Art Prize, Wyndham Art Prize, and more. Her pieces are also housed in the permanent collections of Maribyrnong and Merri-bek City Councils.
When: Friday, 1 August 2025, from 6–8pm at
Where: Montsalvat’s Wood Workshop Gallery, Eltham, VIC
For further information contact: info@annakiparis.com
