The Souvenir Gaze explores the power of everyday objects to preserve memory, identity and a sense of place. Since the sixteenth century, artists have used still life to reveal meaning within the familiar, transforming ordinary objects into placeholders of our past, our sense of belonging and our experience of the world.
This exhibition draws on that tradition through a distinctly Australian lens. Local bowling club badges, souvenir spoons and souvenir porcelain teapots become portraits of community and cultural memory. Designed to be displayed at home, pinned to a jacket or kept in a display cabinet, these objects were never intended as fine art. Yet as oil paintings they carry emotional weight. Rendered with careful attention to light, surface and material, these paintings invite viewers to slow down and reconsider overlooked objects. Scratched enamel, tarnished metal, faded typography and worn edges become traces of lives lived and places visited.
The exhibition is informed by cultural theorist Susan Stewart, who describes the souvenir as a physical anchor for memories that can be revisited. Each badge or keepsake preserves a personal story while reflecting a shared cultural history.
The Souvenir Gaze asks what we choose to keep, why certain objects outlive their original purpose, and how they continue to shape our understanding of ourselves, our community and our place. Through these small still life’s, the exhibition celebrates the enduring stories held within the everyday.
Dawn Walker holds an Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts, 2011, Murwillumbah TAFE, and was awarded the Graduate Prize.
Last year she held a successful solo show at the Tweed Regional Gallery and was a finalist in the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Show held in London, UK. This year, she was again shortlisted in the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Show held in London, UK and is a finalist in the Tweed Regional Gallery's Wollumbin Art Award 2026.
Walker has upcoming solo shows at the Lone Goat Gallery, Byron Bay, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW, the Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina, NSW and the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM), Armidale, NSW.
She has been a finalist in the Tweed Regional Gallery's Wollumbin Art Award 2022 and 2024, the BAM Art Prize 2022, and the Heysen Prize for Landscape, Hahndorf Academy, 2022. Walker has exhibited in various group shows including Small Works Gallery, Murwillumbah, Piece Gallery, Mullumbimby, Small Works Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, and Yella Tail Studio, MArts, Murwillumbah.