Tika Robinson’s fungi-inspired Sleeping Connections won the Bega Cheese People’s Choice indoor prize at Sculpture Bermagui 2025. Photo: Supplied.
Many artists find themselves drawn to fungi. They say fungi are mystical, magical, intriguing, and other-worldly, looking like they don’t belong here.
With an estimated 3 million species, there is a vast spectrum of colour, form, texture and details for artists to explore and interpret.
Appreciating that, the Fungi Feastival has a rich and varied range of fungi art. Art exhibitions, workshops, a book launch, live music, and a horror movie all pay homage to fungi.
Ayla Junor has been making little clay creatures since she was 10 years old. She started with her Bitsy Bears, which she sold through a florist in Victoria where she then lived, and has added mushroom-inspired pieces.
“I don’t know much about fungi, but I like the way they look so I replicate that,” Ayla says.
The Narooma High School student has come to appreciate the variety of fungi.
“If you look at the details, like the texture, it is really cool,” she says. “You can replicate those details and explore it in different ways.”
Ayla will teach how to make polymer clay mushrooms at a workshop on Sunday, 22 June. More details about this family-friendly event are available on the Fungi Feastival website.
Ayla Junor’s mushroom-inspired clay pieces. Photo: Ayla Junor.
Luke Kelly’s sip-and-paint event Paint in the Dark sold out at Narooma Oyster Festival. These sessions are limited to 12 places and the oyster festival demonstrated they are great fun.
After a photographer friend sent him pictures of the bioluminescent Ghost mushroom, Luke was inspired to create a fungi-themed Paint in the Dark event.
“It is painting with fluorescent paint under UV light,” Luke says. “The process is so striking under the UV light that it is very enjoyable. The experience is unique.”
He is drawn by fungi’s colour and form.
“They seem quite other-worldly when you look at them close up,” he says. “There is a science-fiction element because they don’t look like they belong here.”
The Narooma-based artist will guide people on an artistic adventure on Sunday, 22 June.
Luke Kelly’s Paint in the Dark session as part of the Narooma Oyster Festival was sold out and a huge success. Photo: Supplied.
Collage artist Emma Anna discovered the allure of fungi in Colombia, where she lived for 15 years.
“It is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world and I was exploring it,” she says. “I started to document mushrooms, which I find aesthetically curious.”
Emma will launch a compendium of her mushroom-themed collages under the title Once, upon a mushroom: a fungitale in June.
“People love my mushroom art, I think, because it is so weird,” she says.
Her mushroom collages are full of fun. She plants them in surreal scenarios such as in a shark’s mouth in the ocean, or a wrinkled mushroom hanging out with old men by a swimming pool.
“I feel like Alice in Wonderland, who has gone down the rabbit hole into this wild world,” Emma says.
“I think once you enter this world, you realise the unlimited potential of fungi. The mysticism and magic of them is intriguing.”
Emma is running a Collage Forage at Moruya’s Air Raid Tavern on 25 June, and the Tathra Hotel on 26 June.
Her art will be exhibited at Moruya Books from 20-28 June, with the launch of Once, upon a mushroom: a fungitale on 28 June.
Walking Fungi, another of Tika Robinson’s entries into Sculpture Bermagui 2025. Photo: Annette Kennewell.
Sculptor Tika Robinson grew up surrounded by nature on a cattle and truffle farm near Bungendore.
Her fascination with fungi began four years ago while doing her honours degree in fine art.
“I’ve always been interested in the small, hidden bits of nature,” Tika says. “The moment you have to be paying attention to see it.”
Fungi’s life-and-death aspect also appeals.
“The regeneration from death to life is interesting, alongside the idea of growth in decay.”
Tika’s sculptures evoke strong reactions.
“Some see beauty, others are disturbed by the works, often similar to how people view fungi in general.”
See her evocative work in Bermagui from 23 June to 21 July.
Fungi is a source of endless inspiration for Tika, from visual to scientific.
“The idea of connection through mycelia networks and connecting different organisms also resonates with artists as this is what art does in a community.”
Check out the Fungi Feastival website for the full range of fungi-inspired art exhibitions, events and workshops, including sessions for kids.
