A Journey of Seeking within Wonder

21 April 2026

Written by Louisa Chu

Wonder fills our childhood and stays with us throughout life. Behind every moment of curiosity lies an unanswered question, a desire to seek, and an impulse to explore the world and the self. Inside Wonder at Romulus Folio creates an immersive exhibition experience featuring works by Xinzhi (Doris) Li, Usha Newland, and Mark Alexander. The exhibition invites viewers into a colourful sensory world, leading us to reconnect with wonder about emotions and thoughts that live deep within the self.

For Xinzhi Li, painting is a medium to reveal her inner self and interior experiences. As she has said, "Paper and canvas are like skin, while floating elements and colour are like human thoughts and organs.” In Li’s works, there are traces of maternal body, new life, innocence, and fantasy, but also vulnerability, struggle, chaos, and the contradictions that shape how we first come to experience the world. Guided by intuition, her practice largely draws on childhood narratives, memory, and maternal intimacy, carrying the intensity of unspoken, raw feelings and the unresolved doubt that can stay with us long after childhood has passed. Her visual language allows abstraction and figuration to intersect, and familiarity and estrangement to coexist. The unresolved emotions unfold the magical side about wonder: sometimes the continuous process of feeling, questioning, and imagination is more valuable than the arrival at a final answer.

In Usha Newland’s work, thoughts, feelings, and inner questioning unfold through her visual language. The brushstrokes, lines, colours, and blocks on the canvas are just as unpredictable as our emotions and thoughts, where they encounter, merge, collide, overlap, and transform one another; there is no fixed path and cannot be fully mapped. Through Newland’s visual expression, we encounter reason and logic, intense and fluid emotions that are out of control, and even floating, inexpressible sensations flowing out from the unconscious. Rather than resolving contradiction and complication, Newland lingers within it, and the tension itself becomes a form of movement and energy. As we gaze into these paintings, the questions are once again returned to the viewer, inviting us to wonder: What is it that leads us toward these thoughts? Where might they lead us to? Are they real or are they perhaps a kind of illusion?

Following the previous exhibition, Mark Alexander’s furniture piece once again showcases the fusion of art and design. With their elegant, balanced structure and deep, dark timber surfaces, the two furniture pieces become the most neutral presence within a space filled with colour and emotion. In this exhibition, Alexander’s works create a pause, giving us a sense of home and a moment of calm and grounding inside the journey of wonder.

The exhibition presents a vibrant, candy-toned space that brings us back to a state of pure innocence and childlike wonder. At the same time, the space and the artworks continually invite us to reflect on those questions each of us may spend a lifetime contemplating and the answers we continue to search for. Those answers may remain as uncertain as Godot in Waiting for Godot, yet as long as we carry and embrace this sense of wonder, we are on the journey.

Artists: Xinzhi Li, Usha Newland, Mark Alexander

Curator: Angelina Mirabito

Installation: Scott Ross

Installation Assistant: Lousia Chu

Location

55 Gladstone Street

South Melbourne VIC 3205

Opening Hours

Wednesday to Friday 12pm to 7pm

Saturday to Sunday 12pm to 5pm