Highlighting their shared interests in questions around colonialism and the representation of Pacific places and peoples in European art, a new exhibition presented at Penrith Regional Gallery, in partnership with the Art Gallery of NSW, Hibiscus celebrates the work of Angela Tiatia and Philip Juster, connected through their inventive, insightful reconfiguration of imagery and stories of Pacific places and peoples.
Born in Auckland and based in Sydney, Angela Tiatia works in performance, photography, sculpture and the moving image, drawing on her Samoan heritage to explore questions of representation, gender, colonialism and the commodification of body and place.
Brisbane-born Philip Juster’s extensive body of work in collage and painting combines an enduring interest in Asian and Pacific cultures with the language of kitsch, pop, punk and psychedelia. Penrith Regional Gallery is home to more than 60 of Juster’s works.
Hibiscus sparks a conversation between Tiatia’s sumptuous digital work The Pearl, commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW in 2021, and Juster’s vivid, richly textured and often surreal images. Together they highlight the capacity of collage in its different forms to recast history, art and material culture in a new and unexpected light.
The Pearl is an opulent digital video reimagining the myth of the Birth of Venus, rising from the sea in a clamshell, through the story of the Pacific creator god Ta’aroa, also born in a shell.
Tiatia has described The Pearl as a ‘digital tapa’ – a contemporary version of Polynesian ceremonial patterned bark cloth. The artist takes a Western symbol of beauty and transforms it into a vision of Polynesian female power.
Despite his prolific output and obsessive creativity, Juster has been largely invisible in the story of Australian art. Yet over a career spanning 30 years, he created a rich body of work in collage and painting as well as sculpture, textiles and wearable art, and characterised by incisive wit and an irreverent, queer sensibility.
His late works, informed by his travels in Asia and the Pacific, parody the commodification and objectification of non-western cultures and places, and draw attention to issues of colonialism, collecting, religious imperialism and dispossession.
Introducing these two artists to each other, previously disconnected by time, medium and background, Hibiscus reveals the performativity and playfulness of each artist’s work, and the rich layers of meaning and visual delight emerging from the dialogue their distinctive imagery creates.
“The Gallery is thrilled to work with Angela Tiatia, bringing such a significant, resonant example of her work to the local Pasifika community,” said Joanna Gilmour, Penrith Regional Gallery Curator, Collections.
“We’re equally excited – 20 years since his death – to shine a light on the relatively unsung and unknown work of Philip Juster, whose brilliant collages are among the hidden gems of the PRG collection.”
Hibiscus: Angela Tiatia & Philip Juster
Penrith Regional Gallery, 86 River Road, Emu Plains
Exhibition: 2 August – 26 October 2025
For more information, visit: www.penrithregionalgallery.com.au for details.
Image: Angela Tiatia, The Pearl, 2021. single-channel digital video, colour, sound; duration 00:07:45 min; aspect ratio 32:9. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Purchased with funds provided by the Contemporary Collection Benefactors and Atelier 2022 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Contemporary Collection Benefactors © Angela Tiatia. Image © Art Gallery of New South Wales | Philip Juster, Untitled (Baines warrior spearing Tasman and Cook), 2002. synthetic polymer paint and collage on paper. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program in memory of Philip Juster, 2011. Penrith Regional Gallery, Home of the Lewers Bequest | Philip Juster, Sugar and Spice, 2002. synthetic polymer paint and collage on paper. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program in memory of Philip Juster, 2011. Penrith Regional Gallery, Home of the Lewers Bequest