Gillian Kayrooz

About the work

The TAKEAWAY exhibition takes place at Canberra Contemporary from 12 September-24 October 2026 and features works by Marley Dawson, Keg de Souza, Gianna Christella Hayes, Gillian Kayrooz, Zora Pang, Janhavi Salvi, and James Tylor. Presented as part of Canberra Art Biennial 2026, the show is accompanied by a public program at multiple venues across Canberra themed around gastropoetics, food security, and diaspora eating imaginaries. Included in the show is a pop-up reading area by Magenta House featuring publications and ephemera that serve as ‘side-dishes’ to the themes explored by the participants of this project. Ultimately, TAKEAWAY takes a regenerative approach into why and how we eat, while digesting fraught histories and ecologies of land, water and labour.

Images

About the artist

Gillian Kayrooz and her art practice were nurtured on unceded Dharug land in Guildford, Western Sydney and is deeply rooted in alternative methods of truth-telling through image-making. Working across photography, video and participatory practice, her work foregrounds collective memory, everyday life and community resilience while challenging dominant forms of representation. She was awarded the 2018 Create NSW Young Creative Leaders Fellowship and has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across Australia. Kayrooz has held a studio tenancy at Parramatta Artists’ Studios and served as Co-Director and Co-Chair of Firstdraft from 2021–2023. In 2024, she was announced as the recipient of the Create NSW x Artspace Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship.In 2025, she became a member of the Create NSW Youth Network and contributed to the Create NSW Western Sydney Creative Plan. Most recently, she was the Vitocco Curator at the Powerhouse Museum, focusing on the cultural, agricultural, entrepreneurial and food-related histories of South-West Sydney. In 2026, she was selected as lead artist alongside L-Fresh the Lion for the ReVITALise Public Art Commission with Campbelltown City Council, and is exhibiting in And Still I Rise at the Art Gallery of NSW.