Monica Henry
Monica Henry is a contemporary Australian artist based in Geelong, Victoria, whose richly textured textile works explore the expressive and emotional potential of colour through material. Working primarily with punch needle and wool, her practice is grounded in a deep connection to craft, place, and the tactile language of fibre.
She holds an Advanced Diploma of Visual Arts and has undertaken further study at the Geelong Fine Art School and Bloom College, developing a multidisciplinary foundation across fabric design, photography, life drawing, screen-printing, and painting. These diverse disciplines inform her distinctive textile practice, where traditional techniques are reinterpreted through a contemporary lens.
Henry’s work is shaped by her family’s generational ties to the wool industry in Geelong, historically a major centre of Australia’s textile production, as well as her time living abroad, particularly in Japan, where an appreciation for materiality, restraint, and considered composition continues to influence her approach.
She has exhibited widely and held gallery representation in Australia and internationally, including Vernissage Art Gallery (Melbourne), Adaro Art Gallery (USA), and Verandah Gallery (Geelong). Her work has been included in exhibitions such as the Toowoomba Art Show and LIFE Online Exhibition, and she was a finalist in the Petite Collections Small Works Art Prize, selected by Ken Done. In 2024, she was awarded People’s Choice at Arts to Hearts and, most recently, in 2025, won first prize in the Talburac Art Award. She is a current finalist in the Facets of Fairholme Art Prize.
Her work has been featured in publications including Geelong Advertiser GT Magazine, My Coastal Home, Surfcoast Times, and the Arts to Hearts Floral Edition Artbook. Monica’s work is held in private collections across Australia, the United States, Japan, Europe, and New Zealand.
Artist Statement
My practice explores colour as both a visual and tactile experience. Working with punch needle and wool, I use stitch, texture, and repetition to build layered surfaces where colour is not only seen, but felt.
Colour in my work is intuitive and responsive. I begin without a fixed composition, allowing tones and hues to emerge through process. As layers develop, colours shift in intensity and relationship, softening, contrasting, and expanding across the surface. This creates a sense of movement and rhythm, where the work feels immersive and continuously unfolding.
The use of wool is central to this exploration. As a material, it carries both physical softness and historical significance, particularly within the context of Geelong’s wool industry. By working with wool in a painterly and contemporary way, I aim to extend traditional textile practices into a more expressive, colour-driven language.
My forms often draw from botanical references, but remain open and abstracted, allowing the viewer to move through the work without a fixed narrative. Colour becomes atmospheric rather than descriptive, something to experience rather than interpret.
The process itself is slow and meditative. The repetitive act of stitching allows me to respond to subtle shifts in colour and composition over time. This rhythm is embedded within the finished work, inviting a moment of pause and immersion.
Ultimately, my work invites a sensory engagement with colour, one that is grounded in material, memory, and the quiet intensity of making.
https://www.instagram.com/monicahenryart/
