The Melbourne Art Fair 2026
Jacqueline Stojanović
19.02.2026 - 22.02.2026
Click here to request digital catalogue
Jacqueline Stojanović
19.02.2026 - 22.02.2026
Click here to request digital catalogue
Haydens is pleased to present a selection of new artworks by Jacqueline Stojanović for The Melbourne Art Fair 2026. The focus of this presentation are two bodies of work: contemporary textiles and woodblock mosaics. The textiles, meticulously wound onto steel grids in Stojanović’s signature style, hark back to her ongoing series of Grids, while her mosaics break the mould of rigid geometry, referencing stars and celestial forms.
Stojanović’s textiles, titled Field drawings, feature a vibrant array of hues, the deep blues and greens of fermented indigo, bright yellows and ochres of mistletoe, pinks of both wattlebark and safflower, and the dull chartreuse of wild cherry ballart. Many of these materials have been scavenged from Stojanović’s local surroundings or grown in her garden. Others have more sentimental meaning, such as the dark yellows, browns, and greys drawn out of pomegranates from her mother’s tree. The inimitability of these colours is the result of an alchemical reaction of metallic mordants, plant tannins, and the fibres themselves, revealing a secret world that exists in our living environment.
Accompanying her Field drawings are a series of woodblock mosaics created while in Serbia. The inspiration for the mosaics can be drawn back to Stojanović’s experience of ancient tile works of Byzantium, still prevalent in the Orthodox churches of Belgrade. Sourcing earth, mineral, and plant-based pigments, like those used in eastern iconography, Stojanović utilises traditional painting techniques and hand-mixed pigments and mediums to broaden her spectrum of colour, furthering a connection between her culture and the natural world.
In contrast to nature, the mosaics and grid’s formal geometries reference iconic brutalist social housing blocks of her biographical homeland of former-Yugoslavia. The tension between wilderness and the rigidity of modern industrialisation is central to both these bodies of work, and her apt use of a subdued palette memorialises the connection to her diaspora.
Pairing these two expanded series highlights Stojanović’s interest in the relationship between colour and culture. The use of natural dyes and pigments extends her investigation into the essence and significance of colour, grounded in her culture’s spiritual beliefs of artistic depiction – void of figuration and using only that which comes from the natural world.
Stojanović’s textiles, titled Field drawings, feature a vibrant array of hues, the deep blues and greens of fermented indigo, bright yellows and ochres of mistletoe, pinks of both wattlebark and safflower, and the dull chartreuse of wild cherry ballart. Many of these materials have been scavenged from Stojanović’s local surroundings or grown in her garden. Others have more sentimental meaning, such as the dark yellows, browns, and greys drawn out of pomegranates from her mother’s tree. The inimitability of these colours is the result of an alchemical reaction of metallic mordants, plant tannins, and the fibres themselves, revealing a secret world that exists in our living environment.
Accompanying her Field drawings are a series of woodblock mosaics created while in Serbia. The inspiration for the mosaics can be drawn back to Stojanović’s experience of ancient tile works of Byzantium, still prevalent in the Orthodox churches of Belgrade. Sourcing earth, mineral, and plant-based pigments, like those used in eastern iconography, Stojanović utilises traditional painting techniques and hand-mixed pigments and mediums to broaden her spectrum of colour, furthering a connection between her culture and the natural world.
In contrast to nature, the mosaics and grid’s formal geometries reference iconic brutalist social housing blocks of her biographical homeland of former-Yugoslavia. The tension between wilderness and the rigidity of modern industrialisation is central to both these bodies of work, and her apt use of a subdued palette memorialises the connection to her diaspora.
Pairing these two expanded series highlights Stojanović’s interest in the relationship between colour and culture. The use of natural dyes and pigments extends her investigation into the essence and significance of colour, grounded in her culture’s spiritual beliefs of artistic depiction – void of figuration and using only that which comes from the natural world.
