Tender

Tender, a group exhibition of women artists at Inner West Council’s Chrissie Cotter Gallery (19 Sept – 5 October, 2025) will explore tenderness as an act of resistance and care. Curated by Shelley Watters, the exhibiting artists include: Ngugi woman Stephanie Beaupark; Eden Crain; award-winning author and artist Amani Haydar; architect, author and curator Laurence Kimmel, Rochelle Morris, Kath O’Donnell, Emily Simek, Bundjalung artist Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Shelley Watters, Estelle Yoon and Wendy Qi Zhang.

The premise behind Tender is both imminent and urgent. At no time in history have we been facing the existential threats of this moment. Climate change, species and habitat loss, dislocation, and algorithms reinforcing biases and loss of culture and language are at the heart of Tender, which asks viewers to consider how they respond to these layers of emergency.

Curator Shelley Watters says: “The exhibition is both a provocation and response: Can acts of tenderness and care be key to resisting the dominant narratives that divide contemporary society? What happens when we embrace softness and slowness instead of grind-culture, the beating heart of white-supremist, extractive capitalist, colonial, ableist, patriarchy…?”