News / Arts
Coburg artist’s debut exhibition is a time capsule of a changing suburb
Lanie Harris seeks to capture everyday Coburg in her paintings
Emma Giles
VISUAL artist Lanie Harris captures the heart of Coburg through watercolour painting in her new exhibition at Big Elma cafe.
For many years Harris has painted local homes and businesses, but in 2024 she started working on commission creating portraits of people’s houses for themselves.
Now she will exhibit a collection of these works to the public presenting both homes and businesses that make up the area.
The locations she has chosen to be turned into paintings are those she has a distinct connection with.
“Every building I painted in this exhibition, I have multiple stories about,” Harris said.
But one of the most important things to Harris was that the places she had chosen were not just those most recognisable, but also represented the Coburg people call home.
“It’s the really ordinary, everyday buildings that people feel like, recognised and they feel a connection to,” she said.
From the Harding St milk bar which closed in August to Big Elma where the exhibition is to be held, Harris chose to paint those buildings that were part of everyday life for Coburg locals.
Harris used this exhibition to build a connection with her home suburb and believed others would find the same nostalgia she did during the creative process.
“I suppose I want them to see themselves, and see the community that they live within to reflect in the building,” she said.
She went on to say that while many of the buildings hold significance to her through past experience, for exhibition visitors they would also be places which have been present in their lives.
“I have stories about the memories of each building, but they will have their own.”
Harris noticed that in the nearly 15 years she has lived in Coburg it has changed greatly.
Through her work she created a record of Coburg today, some of the houses she had painted have been demolished, and buildings like the Harding Street milk bar have closed.
With new housing projects and upgrades to many of the facilities used by the public either already underway or planned for the future, Coburg is experiencing rapid change but this exhibition captured the now.
Harris noted that she will continue to create art that depicts local architecture producing an artistic historical record of the northern suburb.
“It’s a time capsule of the last couple of years, of the buildings that are around now,” she said.
“But, you know, it’s always evolving and I’ll be drawing new things.”
Lanie Harris’ exhibition Hey that’s my Coburg: what remains, what’s next will continue at Big Elma, 138 Nicholson Street until January 30, 2026. She can also be found on Instagram at @hey_thats_my_house.
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