Melbourne Estonian artist Bernadette Pilli returns to the gallery next week with Departures, an exhibition exploring memory, journeys, leaving — and the complicated question of finding our way home.
Opening at Red Gallery in Fitzroy North, Departures (30 September to 11 October 2026) brings together the work of Bernadette and fellow Melbourne artist Marija Patterson. Both approach departure through women’s experiences, but Bernadette’s work takes us into territory that will feel particularly familiar to many Estonians: landscapes and maps, arrivals and departures, cultural memory and the journeys of refugees.
Bernadette has been exploring landscape as a reference point in her art for around 15 years, interlocking particular places with maps and using them to revisit the feeling and memory of a journey. More recently, figures have entered those landscapes too — particularly women waiting for partners who have gone away to work or fight battles, whether literal or metaphorical.
There is something particularly beautiful about the question at the centre of her new work: when we leave a place, situation or relationship, do we take a map with us? Can a map lead us into the unknown — and, perhaps more importantly, can it show us the way back? For Bernadette, asking for a map is also asking someone to tell you a story.
Event details
📅 Exhibition: Wednesday 30 September – Sunday 11 October 2026
📅 Opening night: Friday 2 October, 6.00–8.00 pm
🕙 Gallery hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 10.00 am–5.00 pm
📅 Final day: Sunday 11 October, closing at 3.00 pm
📍 Location: Red Gallery, 157 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North VIC 3068
🔗 More information: Departures — Red Gallery
Landscapes you can almost step into
HEIA readers may remember Bernadette’s work from Melbourne’s Mingle 2024 exhibition, where her paintings drew inspiration from the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg. Rather than placing the mighty Kalevipoeg himself at the centre, Bernadette turned her attention towards the women left behind — waiting while men journeyed away and fought their battles.
I remember standing in front of those works for a very long time. I found myself moving closer, then further away, then sideways, discovering something slightly different each time — longing and loneliness in one moment, enormous freedom and possibility in the next.
There are layers to Bernadette’s paintings that photographs don’t quite capture. Maps emerge through landscapes; figures seem both strong and vulnerable; distance stretches towards horizons that invite you to keep looking.
That horizon is not accidental. Bernadette has previously described it as a symbol of hope: something that connects the past while simultaneously pointing towards possibilities still undiscovered. Her works often begin with a photograph taken from a moving car or a sketch made outdoors before landscape and map are gradually layered together in the studio.
For Departures, those longstanding ideas of mapping and memory continue, but with leaving itself brought sharply into focus.
Two artists, two views of departure
Bernadette shares the exhibition with sculptor Marija Patterson, whose work considers departure as a transition containing several emotions at once: grief and anxiety alongside excitement and hope. Patterson’s wider practice has explored women’s stories and experiences, and her works are held in collections in Australia and overseas.
Bernadette, meanwhile, has worked across visual and performing arts as an artist, arts administrator and teacher, and now concentrates on her painting and drawing practice. She has held solo and joint exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows.
Many Melbourne Estonians will, of course, know her from an entirely different setting. Bernadette has given many years to Melbourne’s Estonian community, including serving as Chair and Co-Chair of the Melbourne Estonian Society, and in 2025 received an AESL Honours Award recognising her longstanding contribution to Estonian culture. She also curated the art exhibition at Melbourne Estonian House during May’s Last Hurrah.
Next week, we recommend meeting Bernadette in another part of her world. Go and stand in front of the paintings. Move closer. Step back. Look for the maps underneath. And see where they take you.
Read more
Marija Patterson and Bernadette Pilli exhibition “Departures” at Red Gallery
Bernadette Pilli on Facebook | Instagram (@bernadette_pilli)
OnePointFiveFive | Artist’s profile – Bernadette Pilli
Kalevipoeg-inspired art exhibition in Melbourne that you must see | HEIA
