Architecture of Emotion: The Final Exhibition at 55 Gladstone Street
A solo exhibition by Angelina Mirabito, PhD
Curated by Angelina Mirabito with Louisa Chu
Installation by Scott Ross.
Architecture of Emotion marks the final exhibition of Romulus Folio Gallery at 55 Gladstone Street, South Melbourne, presented from 6 to 28 May 2026, with an opening on 22 May from 5 to 7pm.
Over the past year, the gallery has functioned as a spatial system that shapes how art is encountered and how emotion is held within an environment. The space has operated as an active framework, structuring relationships between material, viewer, and duration. This exhibition brings that enquiry into focus through a concentrated body of work engaging the relationship between architecture and emotion.
At its core is a proposition that architecture holds space for emotion, and that painting is where emotion becomes visible. The works are constructed through layers of texture, pigment, and gesture, forming surfaces that carry weight, pressure, and memory. Each painting operates as a field of accumulated decisions, where directional movements establish alignment, tension, and release. These conditions generate a spatial logic experienced through the body as much as through vision.
Soul Print, mixed media, 60cm x 90cm x 4cm, Angelina Mirabito, 2026
Emotion is embedded within the material. It is carried through density, repetition, and variation, allowing each surface to function as a record of internal states translated into physical form. The paintings hold a continuity between gesture and structure, where mark and meaning develop simultaneously.
Key works including Soul Print, Signature Frequency, and The Fates bring this condition into sharper focus. These works present a heightened density of material and gesture, where surface becomes imprint. They register a sustained engagement with pressure and accumulation, forming compositions that hold both intensity and restraint.
Signature Frequency, mixed media, 1m x 1.5m x 4cm, Angelina Mirabito, 2026
The inclusion of the first eight runes, forming the first aett, introduces a parallel structural framework within the exhibition. The runes carry a language of movement, force, inheritance, and transformation. Their presence extends the spatial logic of the work into a symbolic register, where structure operates across both material and conceptual dimensions.
Several works within the exhibition originate prior to the Gladstone residency and have been reworked within the current body of work. This process allows earlier states to remain active within the surface, establishing a continuity of time within the paintings. The works hold multiple moments simultaneously, creating a layered temporal condition that reflects the ongoing nature of the practice.
Thursiaz (rune based on boundaries), mixed media, 1.6m x 1.2m x 5cm by Angelina Miralbito, 2026
This exhibition marks the final presentation of Romulus Folio Gallery within this site. The year of programming has established a sustained engagement with exhibition-making as a spatial and social practice, where artworks, events, and conversations have contributed to a shared environment.
Architecture of Emotion brings this period into focus through a body of work that holds structure, material, and emotion within a single field, where each painting operates as surface and space.
Written by Angelina Mirabito, PhD
