14 & 15 SEPTEMBER
14 & 15 SEPTEMBER
Artist Raquel Caballero invites us into her brightly coloured, heavily embellished world where everything is handmade using salvaged materials. Her resourceful practice is organic, personal and highly egalitarian, championing an “art is for all” ideal in which there are no barriers or limits to what we can make with our hands.
In this workshop, the artist will demonstrate practical Bricolage techniques using fun, decorative materials to create a Patchwork Doll! Anything goes in this dynamic workshop and participants are encouraged to bring any colourful decorative materials they have on hand, to include in their works.
In her most recent works, Caballero employs the Bricolage technique to decorate 2D and sculptural papier-mâché pieces. “Bricolage” is a fancy French word for “Do it Yourself” and describes something that’s constructed from a diverse range of things.
Raquel Caballero is a Sydney-based artist whose artmaking pays tribute to the peculiarities present on the fringes of popular culture. This fascination manifests itself in Caballero’s handmade creations, which pursue a ‘hardcore craft’ tradition. This is a dedication to intricate and skillful craftsmanship, exploring the mediums of papier-mâché and textiles, using unconventional and salvaged materials. For Caballero, whose work was once described as “a brightly coloured, heavily embellished kind of folk maximalism”, the pleasure of play is found in the act of decoration and display.
Raquel presented a solo show, The Patchwork Portal at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2025. She was the 2023 Creative in Residence at the UTS Library. She has exhibited in various group shows across Sydney including at Firstdraft gallery, Campbelltown Arts Centre and West Space, Melbourne. In 2026 she will present a solo show, Once Upon a Doll at Wollongong Art Gallery.
