Shepparton Art Museum announces Dore Stockhausen and Kat Parker as 2025 Community Gallery artists.

Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) is pleased to announce the selection of Dore Stockhausen and Kat Parker as the 2025 exhibiting artists of SAM Selects and SAM Spotlight respectively. The artists were selected by an appointed judging panel following an open call out and application process, which garnered 15 applications collectively.

In March 2025, Stockhausen will present a selection of large- and small-scale acrylic paintings in SAM’s Hugh D.T Williamson Community Gallery for her SAM Selects exhibition. Entitled echoes of a new eden, Stockhausen’s body of work explores the impact of human civilisation on formerly untouched landscapes. Based in Beechworth, Stockhausen’s practice reflects on themes surrounding irreversible human impact on pristine land in an abstract, hard-edged painting style.

Later in the year, Shepparton-based artist Kat Parker will present a solo exhibition of new artworks for her SAM Spotlight exhibition. An emerging artist and printmaker with a fascination with the dysfunctional relationship between humanity and the natural world, Parker will present a selection of linocuts and intricate paper sculptures that highlight animal extinction and endangerment in Australia. In 2024, Parker was awarded the People’s Choice Award for her entry in the SAM Fresh exhibition, entitled Discarded III (Robust White-Eye). Parker’s SAM Spotlight exhibition will be the artist’s first solo exhibition, opening in the Community Gallery in November 2025.

Caroline Esbenshade, SAM Curator – Community, says of the selection:

“This year’s panel was impressed with the calibre of the applications and the breadth of practices represented. Each year it seems to get harder and harder for the panel to decide on a single application as we have such talented creatives in our region. I am looking forward to working with both artists, whose practices differ materially, yet similarly explore the impacts of human involvement on our natural world.”

ENDS

About the artists:

Dore Stockhausen is a mid-career artist based in Beechworth, Victoria. Originally from Germany, Stockhausen has a rich creative practice with a background in goldsmithing. Over the last decade she has shifted her creative practice to painting, working in acrylic paint on canvas wrapped aluminium panels that appear to float on the wall. Stockhausen’s abstract combination of geometric and organic forms explores the idea of how we exist in a post-natural world by constructing her own post-natural landscapes. Stockhausen has exhibited regularly since the mid-90s and her work is represented in regional and national collections including the National Gallery of Australia.

Kat Parker is an emerging artist based in Shepparton. In 2021, she graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor of Fine Art, specialising in printmaking. Parker’s practice focuses on the dysfunctional relationship humanity has with nature, with a particular interest in promoting the overlooked aspects of our environment, especially unremarkable animals and extinctions. Her practice aims to encourage an appreciation for, and love of, nature through printmaking and paper art processes. Parker’s artworks have recently been included in the 'Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize' at South Australian Museum, 'Not Your Kitchen Lino' at Burrinja Cultural Centre, 'Fresh 2024' at Shepparton Art Museum and Geelong Art Gallery’s 'Acquisitive Print Awards'.

About SAM Selects:

The SAM Selects exhibition program allows artists, creatives, curators, and community groups to submit a recent creative project to be exhibited in SAM’s Hugh D.T Williamson Community Gallery. Applications for the space are reviewed by an external panel.

About SAM Spotlight:

SAM Spotlight is an annual paid opportunity for an emerging solo artist based in the Goulburn Valley and Hume region to work closely with the SAM Curator – Community to develop a new body of work for exhibition. Successful artists are selected through an application process, which is also reviewed by an appointed panel.

L-R: SAM Selects artist Dore Stockhausen and SAM Spotlight artist Kat Parker. Photo 1 credit: Jerrun Terlaak; photo 2 credit: Shepparton Art Museum