May 15 - June 10, 2026
Botanical Meditation
Solo Exhibition by Oxana Arefin
After moving to Australia a year and a half ago, I was deeply moved by the richness and diversity of Queensland’s native flora. The vibrant beauty of this landscape became both a daily source of wonder and a quiet teacher. The plants I paint are shaped by this new environment: eucalyptus leaves, blooming jacarandas, native grasses and flowers. They act as both material and spiritual codes, perceptible on many levels.
In the Botanical Meditation series, I explore the subtle boundary between seeing and feeling. Botanical forms emerge through layers of translucent blue, a colour that for me evokes inner silence and meditative space. They appear not as decorative motifs, but as quiet invitations to pause.
The series draws inspiration from Shinrin-yoku, the Japanese practice of forest bathing, a contemplative immersion in nature. It is not about observing from a distance, but about listening with the whole body. My paintings follow the same principle. Each work becomes a slow breath, a moment of sensory presence and a space for resonance.
These are not botanical illustrations. They are visual meditations shaped through stillness, texture and light. Each painting unfolds gradually, inviting the viewer to pause, reflect and reconnect with a deeper rhythm of life.
Through these works, I offer a return to the body, to the natural world and to the unconscious. They are not simply paintings of plants, but mindfulness practices expressed in visual form.
Exhibition Events
About the Artist
Oxana Arefin
Oxana Arefin is an interdisciplinary artist and psychologist whose practice brings together painting, photography and mixed media. Born in Moscow to a Russian-Ukrainian family, she moved to New Zealand in 2014 and now lives and works in Australia.
Her background in psychology is closely connected to her artistic practice. Oxana is interested in the ways memory, emotion and lived experience are held within the body and emerge through image, metaphor and sensory perception. Her work moves between the conscious and unconscious, the visible and the felt, creating spaces for reflection rather than offering fixed narratives.
Materiality plays an important role in this process. Raised forms, translucent surfaces and dimensional layers allow her to move beyond conventional flat representation, giving the works a tactile and shifting quality. Meaning is deliberately left open, inviting viewers to bring their own memories, associations and emotional responses to what they see.
Across her practice, Oxana approaches art as both a form of personal expression and a means of inquiry into perception, memory and inner experience.
Her work has received awards and recognition in competitions and biennales and is held in private collections in the United States, France, Russia and New Zealand.
