Juanita McLauchlan: guurrama-li / stand strong

CASSANDRA BIRD is proud to present guurrama-li / stand strong, a solo exhibition by the artist Juanita McLauchlan, marking her debut with the gallery. This exhibition highlights McLauchlan’s powerful exploration of family, identity, and cultural heritage through a stunning new series of delicate and dynamic wall sculptures. Rooted in her Gamilaraay identity, history, and language, McLauchlan reflects on family connections, personal belongings, and ancestry, exploring her spiritual bond with Country and cultural identity. Her work delves into the preservation of intergenerational ties through the gathering and sharing of ancestral knowledge, bridging the past, present, and future. Titled guurrama-li / stand strong, this exhibition features seven major new artworks, each honoring McLauchlan’s ancestors and acknowledging Country by capturing printed impressions of Wiradjuri Country in Wagga Wagga, NSW, where she currently lives and works. Intertwining native and colonial materials, McLauchlan regards these non-figurative forms as custodians of knowledge.

 In 2025, McLauchlan will present a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in July and at Wangaratta Art Gallery in February. She is also currently showcasing a solo exhibition, guuma-li / gather, at Artspace, Sydney (Ideas Platform), on until April 6, 2025. In 2023, McLauchlan debuted her first major solo exhibition, gii mara-bula / Heart Hand-also, at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, curated by Julie Ewington.

McLauchlan has been awarded the McCahon House Bundanon Exchange, which begins in April 2025, and she is a finalist in the Blacktown City Art Prize 2025. In 2024, she received the Griffith Regional Art Gallery’s National Contemporary Jewellery Award. She has also been a finalist in several prestigious art prizes, including the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW (2024), the Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize (2024 and 2022), and the Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize (2023).