Artist Statement:

Arabella Strachan (b.1986, Melbourne) is a Melbourne based artist whose textile based practice applies contemporary and traditional rug making techniques and other craft processes, exploring patterns and motifs that are imbued with personal meaning, emotion and hidden desire, reflecting the larger human experience. Arabella’s background in textile design and love of pattern and embellishment, influence the composition of each work with a desire to create tactile and luxurious works that are a playful mixture of colour and touchable surface.
Arabella graduated from a Bachelor of Arts (Textile design), (RMIT, 2017) and began her practice in 2021. Arabella has presented solo shows at St Helier St gallery, (Abbotsford, 2022) the Queen Victoria Women's center (Melbourne, 2023), and been part of group shows at Forty five downstairs (Melbourne, 2023), G3 gallery, (Parkdale, 2024), Artemisia gallery, (Windsor, 2025) and Glen Eira city gallery (Caulfield, 2025). In 2024 she was awarded a six month artist residency with Kingston art in collaboration with Craft Victoria. Her work is held within the public art collection of Kingston Arts council, and private collections in Victoria and Western Australia.