Joshua Searle: Bienvenido

MPRG Local Focus

6 September – 16 November 2025

Bienvenido is the first solo exhibition by Mornington Peninsula-based emerging artist Joshua Searle (b. 1998, Australian/Colombian) to be held in a major public gallery. Searle’s work explores his Colombian heritage and diasporic identity as well as broader socio-cultural issues in Australia today. Searle is primarily a painter but also works across sculpture, contemporary jewellery, glass and printmaking – and now, ceramics.

Bienvenido draws on research from Searle’s recent fellowship in Colombia (ISSI Mason Family Trust Fellowship) and the experience of being in his mother’s homeland for the first time. The artist explains:

'The title Bienvenido (Welcome) comes from the street signs welcoming you to Bogotá, it is the first thing you hear when arriving in a new space and it was how I felt meeting my family in Colombia. It felt like I was arriving home for the first time. This exhibition is a celebration of that journey home.'

Bienvenido also continues the artist's interest in the impacts of colonisation by examining pre-Columbian artefacts held in museum collections. Inspired by the Indigenous goldsmithing and sculptural traditions Searle researched in Colombia, the exhibition features a new major ceramic work supported by MPRG as well as new and existing paintings and wooden sculptures.

Joshua Searle, ‘Lost in Colour’ exhibition view, &Gallery, Australia.