Image: Tony Busch, Sandstone arch, Sellicks, 2026, hand dyed jute, hand dyed cotton warp, 46 x 68 cm, Photo: Sam Roberts.
May 25 - July 17, 2026
Opening: Friday, May 29, 5:30-7:30pm
Gallery I, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta
Free entry, all welcome
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You can find Tony’s exhibition in The Mill’s Gallery I, located at 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide).
Gallery I is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm.
Accessibility
The Mill’s entrance has a small step into the building. We have a ramp available, please ring the doorbell and our friendly team will assist you.
During gallery hours, our entrance will be unlocked. If the door is closed, please ring the doorbell to alert our team.
The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.
Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.
We are thrilled to present Closer Horizons II, a new exhibition of woven textiles by Tony Busch. In this exhibition Tony brings audiences into a sense of place, exploring local landscapes; Warripari Sturt Gorge, Aldinga and Sellicks beach. Through the act of walking, Tony has gathered inspiration from the uniquely South Australian landscape- texture, colour, shape are translated through Tony’s chosen material.
Slow and generous appreciation are also part of Tony’s process- his use of hand dyed cotton warp, hand dyed jute and yarn on his hand built frame looms attenuate the pace of creation. This allows for the both the artist and audiences attention to be drawn slowly across the surface of works- we take notice of subtle shifts in tone and texture, and an understanding of the gesture of the artists hand that have skilfully manipulated the raw materials into abstracted forms. Like the act of walking, the slow process of building these woven landscapes creates a deep appreciation of beauty, and reverence for the life-force of the landscape.
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Tony Busch graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Visual Art (Hons FC) from Adelaide Central School of Art. He has been weaving for three years and is entirely self-taught. Influenced by Magdalena Abakanowicz, his work is an abstraction of natural forms, finding his cues in nature and translating the textures and surfaces he encounters into three-dimensional woven forms. His first solo exhibition at Mrs Harris’ Shop was a virtual sell-out and he has enjoyed subsequent solo exhibitions at praxisARTSPACE and Sauerbier House, Port Noarlunga, where he was the recipient of a 12-week residency in 2025. Over the past 2 years, Tony has also been involved in 6 group exhibitions including Adelaide Design Week, Fabrik in Lobethal, and 6 Manton Gallery. In 2024 he was awarded the Emerging Artist Prize at the Fleurieu Biennale as well as the Highly Commended Prize in the Irene Davies International Award at the Australian Tapestry Workshop.
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Walking and weaving are entwined for me; one feeds the other. Walking ties me to place and this ‘sense of place’ feeds my creative energies which find their outlet in the process of weaving. Thus my work is an exploration of the elusive expression of place, specifically the Sturt Gorge, Warripari in Kaurna language, south of Adelaide, and the coast around Aldinga and Sellick’s Beach. Walking a landscape deepens my understanding of its beauty, its energy and its importance as I learn about its changing seasonal face, its bones, its structure and its content. My work is an abstraction of natural forms. I find my cues in nature and then try to express the essence of the textures and surfaces I encounter. I choose to work with jute fibre because I believe its textural qualities are closest to those found in the Australian landscape. I hand-dye it to achieve subtle variations in colour and use frame looms I built myself. I also continue to experiment with dyeing my cotton warp to mimic the effects of underpainting, deliberately allowing a little of the warp thread to show through the weft in places. My practice continues a dialogue with materiality, giving agency to the materials I works with and exploring the potential opportunities they provide. Each work is woven in a continuous piece, not sewn together, and employs techniques I developed myself to add a third dimension to the traditional flat woven surface.
