Image: Monika Morgenstern, I Dwell in Possibility, Murray Bridge Regional Gallery 2023, photograph Sam Roberts.
Monika Morgenstern: Aether
Exhibition launch:
Friday 6 March 2026, 6 – 8pm
JPE Design Studio
4/19 Gilles Street, Adelaide 5000
RSVP here
Exhibition dates:
6 March – 30 April 2026
Contemporary visual artist Monika Morgenstern has been embedded within the JPE Design Studio as the 8th Artist in Residence, presented in partnership with Guildhouse, bringing a spirit of curiosity, experimentation and creative inquiry into the studio’s day-to-day practice.
Monika’s work explores colour as both a mystical and material force. Through colour-based meditations, material testing and iterative making, her practice examines the relationship between light, perception and space. During the residency, Monika has worked closely with the JPE team and project suppliers to explore the expressive potential of glass and light, investigating how materiality can shape atmosphere, mood and sensory experience within the built environment.
The residency has opened up space for cross-disciplinary conversation – encouraging artists and designers alike to slow down, ask different questions, and test ideas beyond conventional project frameworks. Through shared studio time, material experimentation and open dialogue, the collaboration continues to enrich how we think about colour, materiality and perception in architecture and design.
Photograph Bob Sabbage.
Monika Morgenstern, a contemporary visual artist born in Germany and currently residing on Ngarrindjeri Country in Strathalbyn, South Australia, is known for her investigation into colour as a mystical material. Morgenstern’s gained a Bachelor of Visual Art with Honours in 2014 at the Adelaide Central School of Art, Adelaide.
In 2021 she received an independent makers Arts SA grant, where she acquired expertise in using glass as a medium, and the Guildhouse Catapult mentorship, where she collaborated with Sasha Grbich, an artist, writer, and lecturer known for her responsive work with places and communities. And in 2022 she received an Arts South Australia fellowship in which she explored colour as a mystical substance, pushing the boundaries of her practice.
In 2023 she received the Eran Svigos award for the exhibition titled “I Dwell in Possibility.” Additionally, she earned the Fringe Best Visual Art & Design weekly award for the same exhibition. In 2023 she exhibited “Wordless Silence” at the Barossa Regional Gallery and created an immersive and contemplative visual experience over two rooms.
Monika Morgenstern has been consistently shortlisted, including the Gallery M Contemporary Art Prize in 2022, 2023 and 2025, the Heysen Prize for Landscape in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and the Tatiara Contemporary Art Prize in 2021, 2023 and 2025.
Earlier in her career, her work was shortlisted for the 2018 SALA Latent Photography Prize. In 2018 her video work “Visitors of the Night” was featured at the Adelaide Festival Centre, and “I am the Wind,” was shown at Murray Bridge Regional Gallery and Praxis Artspace in 2022. More recently, in 2023/24, her work featured at Lake Macquarie’s Museum of Art and Culture “Shifter” exhibition.
