Resilience in the Face of Adversity – Group Exhibition
I'm so proud to have been part of the Resilience in the Face of Adversity group exhibition at the Courthouse Mulgrave Galleries in Gimuy/Cairns. This exhibition brought together nine female artists and featured work inspired by interviews with one hundred women from all walks of life, sharing what helped them get through their most challenging moments.
As someone who deeply values storytelling, this project felt like a natural and important fit. Storytelling is one of the most powerful and ancient forms of communication. While each of us experiences adversity in different ways, we all have stories that hold wisdom. This exhibition created space for those stories to be seen and heard.
Curated in alignment with International Women’s Day, the exhibition ran from 7 March to 13 April and included a launch night on Saturday 8 March. A huge thank you to everyone who came along, showed support, shared their reflections, and especially to those who bought work. It means a lot.
The whole experience was healing and cathartic. For my part in the show, I created a series called Eyes of Resilience. These works are a tribute to the women I interviewed, whose honesty, strength, and insight shaped every piece. Each work centres around the eyes of these women – eyes that hold their stories. The eyes became the connection point between the viewer and the emotional depth of each woman’s lived experience.
During our interviews, we also created intuitive art together, exploring their stories through creativity. I’ve embedded elements of their art into the final pieces using mixed media. My process drew on intuition, colour, and texture, combining elements of my design background with raw emotional expression. It was important to me that their stories remained at the core of each work, not just visually but energetically too.
This series speaks to the complexity of resilience – it’s layered, messy, powerful, and ongoing. Creating this work reminded me just how important it is to hold space for vulnerability, reflection, and shared knowledge. I’m grateful to have played a part in honouring these women and their journeys.
The exhibition also offered free community workshops and included an interactive space for visitors to contribute their own wisdom. That kind of community engagement really reflected what this whole project was about: connection, sharing, and collective strength.
To Mum’a Nai, thank you for bringing such a powerful concept to life and holding it with such care, even through your own challenges. And thank you to all the participating artists: Annika Harding, Cristina Bevilacqua, Diljá Thorpe, India Collins, Lauren Carter, Marnie Hutchinson Awram, Mum’a Nai, Nicola Bryars-Parker, and myself, Nicolette Worth.
Happy International Women’s Day, and thank you to the 100 women who trusted us with your stories. You’ve reminded me how vital it is to keep telling ours.
Now showing at @courthousemulgravegalleries
📍 Mulgrave Gallery, 51 Esplanade, Cairns
Exhibition runs until Sunday 13 April 2025
– Nicolette Worth
