Bondi exhibition ‘Holding Light’ turns grief into collective response
Four months after the Bondi Beach terror attack that killed 15 people during a Chanukah celebration, a major exhibition has opened at Bondi Pavilion Art Gallery, transforming grief into a shared act of reflection.
Titled ‘Holding Light’, the exhibition brings together 29 artists responding to the December 14 tragedy, with works shaped by loss, memory and the search for meaning in its aftermath.
Death, Despair, Bondi Beach, Hope by David Solomons
Curated by Shalom Collective and supported by Waverley Council, the exhibition presents 28 works selected through an extensive community call-out. Across visual art, installation and digital media, the works explore themes including loss and remembrance, courage and compassion, vulnerability and strength, community and care, memory and meaning, and hope and renewal.
Organisers say the exhibition positions art as a communal language, offering a way to process trauma beyond words.
Of the compelling works in the exhibition, many engage directly with the events at Bondi and their aftermath.
Photographer and filmmaker Ella Dreyfus presents Nature Morte – Zikaron (Still Life – Remembrance), dramatically documenting some of the remains of the spontaneous memorial that formed near the beachfront. Her images capture the tension between beauty and decay, preserving the physical traces of grief.
Aboriginal artist Munganbana Norman Miller contributes Shining Lights: Fifteen Flames of Remembrance, created after travelling to Bondi Beach to pay his respects. The work honours the 15 victims, reflecting both mourning and solidarity across communities.
The Holding Light art exhibition
Illustrator Beck Feiner’s In Bloom, We Mourned; In Stone, We Remember draws on the local response in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, using bold forms to express collective care in the weeks following the attack.
Bibi Solimani’s Light Prevails explores endurance and cultural memory through symbolic imagery shaped by her Iranian heritage, reflecting the persistence of light in the face of trauma.
Sydney artist David Solomons presents Death, Despair, Bondi Beach, Hope, capturing the coastline as both a place of tragedy and reflection. Working in watercolour, his piece traces a shift from darkness to light, suggesting the shock of the attack alongside a gradual sense of hope.
Other works take a more abstract approach. Ariella Friend’s Wattle Encryption transforms natural forms into layered compositions that sit between the organic and constructed, while Asher Abergel’s Shore Break, in wood and ceramic, invites quiet reflection through material and form.
Rabbi Alon Meltzer said the exhibition creates a space for the community to come together.
“This exhibition is an opportunity for our community to come together through creativity, to mourn, to honour, and to imagine pathways towards healing,” he said. “Art helps us hold what feels impossible to hold alone.”
‘Holding Light’ runs until June 28, open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm.
