William Mora Galleries

Angels and Friends, newly framed and shown publicly for the first time, offers a glimpse into Mirka Mora’s fascination with storytelling through image.

In Sabine Cotte’s, Mirka Mora: A Life Making Art, Mirka’s discusses how much of her inspiration comes from the iconography of Aesop’s fables, where she describes the idea of “one story per square meter.” This admiration appears in Angels and Friends, where the composition is densely populated with figures each contributing to the work’s sense of narrative and movement.

Rather than a singular story unfolding across the canvas, Angels and Friends invites us to uncover a multitude of small stories within the whole.

Mirka Mora Angels and Friends, c. 1965
Oil on canvas
51 x 61 cm

The State of Pink
6 August – 4 September 2026
William Mora Galleries

William Mora Galleries is thrilled to announce the representation of Anna Pelc.

Anna Pelc is a Polish visual artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Originally from Kraków, she received formal training in printmaking and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Her practice has developed through international exhibitions, residencies and collaborative projects across Europe, Asia and Australia.

Working primarily in painting, Pelc creates expressive, layered compositions that explore human nature, emotion and the dynamic relationship between chaos and harmony. Through bold colour, gestural mark-making and abstract forms that occasionally evoke figures, masks or natural elements, she investigates transformation, identity and the emotional landscapes of human experience. Her work draws inspiration from mythology, psychology, anthropology, history and the diverse cultures she has encountered through extensive travel.

Pelc has exhibited internationally, including at Personal Structures during the Venice Biennale (2024), the 10th Beijing International Art Biennale (2025), Warsaw Art Fair, The Other Art Fair Melbourne, and exhibitions in New York, London, Dubai, Madrid and China.

Her work has received international recognition, including the Special Award at the 11th International Arte Laguna Prize in Venice (2017), finalist selection for the International Art Battle in Shanghai (2018), and shortlisting for the Emerging Scene Art Award in Dubai (2021).

Alongside her exhibition practice, Pelc has collaborated across performance, theatre, documentary and interdisciplinary artistic projects, reflecting her ongoing interest in expanding painting through dialogue with other creative disciplines.

We are delighted to welcome Anna to William Mora Galleries and look forward to supporting the continued development of her practice.

To register your interest in Anna Pelc’s work, please email [email protected] or send us a DM.

An eclectic selection of 5 hand-painted dolls (sculptures) by Mirka Mora from the early 1970s is currently on view as part of The State of Pink at William Mora Galleries until 4 September. This was a significant period in her practice, when she was creating a remarkable number of these three-dimensional textile works, which provided her with a means of succeeding as a single woman artist.

The dolls are not as innocent as their name might imply…

“Dolls satisfy all experiences; they embody painting, sculpture, design and sewing. I call them “dolls” because they capture one aspect of childhood. Back in history the origin of the doll was to replace the departed; it was used in ancient religions to express feelings; the dolls capture the soul.”
Mirka Mora (1978)

There is something powerful about the way Mirka Mora used colour — not simply as a palette, but as a way of meeting the world.
As Jessica Bram reflects, “colour was worth insisting upon.”

In Mirka’s work, joy doesn’t exist because life was without darkness; it exists alongside it, and perhaps because of it.

In Horned Angel with Serpent, Mirka’s beloved angel and serpent motifs appear not as opposites, but as companions — held together within the same myth, memory and imagination. From her “white period”, soft pinks, blues and greens emerge through the white, allowing colour to persist, quietly and defiantly.

Last exhibited in LISA GORMAN + MIRKA MORA: To breathe with the rhythm of the heart at Warrnambool Art Gallery, Horned Angel with Serpent returns in The State of Pink at William Mora Galleries.

Mirka reminds us that joy can be a choice, a posture, a way of insisting on beauty — even, and especially, when the world is not always beautiful.

Image :Mirka Mora
Horned Angel with Serpent, 2012
Oil on canvas, 168 x 112 cm

A trio of newly framed pastel works by Mirka Mora, each drawn from a sketchbook of works on paper that has remained unseen until now.

In each work, one figure holds another. Holding You Close, Whispering to My Friend and Dreaming Together evoke the embrace and the merging of two figures into one, key themes in Mirka’s oeuvre. The dryness of the pastel gives them a particular lightness and delicacy, allowing the figures to seem suspended between intimacy and dream.

These works are exhibited for the first time as part of The State of Pink, on view at William Mora Galleries until 4 September.



Holding You Close, c. 1967, pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
Whispering to my Friend, c. 1967,pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
Dreaming Together, c. 1967,pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm

This was William at the Melbourne Art Fair in 2022. What a fair that was!

Melbourne had just emerged from lockdown, and everybody was bursting with joy at being reunited. We showed Brian Martin, Mirka Mora and Jumaadi, including two large-scale charcoal diptychs by Mirka Mora from 1963-1966 that people still reminisce about today.

William wasn’t well, but he danced his way through the fair as though there were no tomorrow.

That was William. ❤️

Artist. Migrant. Icon.

Captured by Angela Lynkushka, this portrait of Mirka Mora is one of many powerful images documenting the people who shaped Melbourne's post-war Jewish community.

Featured in Through a Jewish Lens: Lynkushka, Saxon and Zahalka, these portraits offer an intimate glimpse into the lives, resilience and creativity of Jewish refugees and migrants who made Australia home.

Drawn from the Jewish Museum of Australia Collection, discover Through a Jewish Lens and explore the stories that shaped generations. Plan your visit today.

Link in bio to learn more.

📸 Angela Lynkushka, Mirka Mora in her studio 1990, St Kilda, Photographs from the series Jewish Community in Melbourne project, 1988-2007, Silver gelatin prints on photographic paper, Donated by Angela Lynkushka, Jewish Museum of Australia Collection 14027.

We are delighted to present our latest show, The State of Pink, an exhibition of 30 works from the Estate of Mirka Mora spanning 1965 to 2012.

Bringing together paintings, works on paper, and dolls, the exhibition explores the many shades and meanings of pink across Mirka’s extraordinary practice.

Several of the works on display have never before been exhibited, offering a rare opportunity to encounter new aspects of her legacy.

Please join us for the opening on Thursday 6 August, 6–8 pm. The exhibition will be officially opened by Jessica Bram, curator and cultural strategist, former Director and CEO of Jewish Museum of Australia and current Brand & Strategic Partnerships at Abbotsford Convent.

We look forward to seeing you there. Dress accordingly.