The Lock-Up

08/10/2026

We are very excited to now stock Steel City Literary Magazine issue No. 3 in our gallery store - The Little Locker - now! ⭐️

Pick a copy up next time you’re in and support Muloobinba/ Newcastle’s artist-led and non for-profit literary magazine supporting and publishing local emerging authors and the next generation of storytellers.
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06/10/2026

The Lock-Up welcomes Homebody (homebody ) , Way Lie ( WAY LIE ) and Rose White ( rose___whiteee ) to our live program with an evening of ambient electronic music, live performance and collective listening within the galleries at the lock-up.

⢀⠴⠞⠛⠳⠤⡄⢳⣤⠾⠻⠟⢨⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
a deep listening experience
fri 6 nov
doors 6.30pm

beginning the night with a live listening session of prefrontal cortex, the debut album by Wiradjuri artist Homebody (Chloe Toole). Songs and sonics formed through place, memory, written words and sound and serve reflections on identity, culture, trauma and healing. From there, homebody joins Way Lie (Caleb De’athe) and Rose White for an extended collaborative performance and artists come together for an extended collaborative performance creating sonic conversations with each other and their audience.
sounds meeting and drifting apart. A sonic conversation.

presented alongside Izabela Pluta’s cavitation.
Tickets and capacity are extremely limited, link in our bio now.

Poster & visuals design by noah curry ⋆💫

05/10/2026

We're closed today, but we'll be back to regular opening hours tomorrow, Wed 7 Oct, with Izabela Pluta's monumental solo exhibition, 𝐶𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛.

𝐶𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 explores how systems of orientation falter under pressure, repetition and displacement. The term describes the formation and implosion of bubbles as water moves through changing pressure: an invisible event capable of immense force.

Within this project, the concept of 𝐶𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 becomes a way of thinking about instability, rupture and transformation.

Presented at The Lock-Up from 25 September 2026 to 31 January 2027, the gallery exhibition brings together sculpture, photography, moving image, tapestry, light and sound. Across these forms, Pluta materially unpacks how water carries bodies, materials and histories between distant geographies.

📸: Exhibition view, Izabela Pluta, 'Cavitation', 25 September - 31 January 2027, The Lock-Up, Muloobinba/Newcastle. Courtesy the artist and Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert. Photography by Edwina Richards.

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04/10/2026

It's almost time to say goodbye to 𝐶𝘢𝑣𝘪𝑡𝘢𝑡𝘪𝑜𝘯: 𝐵𝘳𝑒𝘢𝑡𝘩𝑖𝘯𝑔 𝑂𝘤𝑒𝘢𝑛 as we wrap up another happy ! Today marks our last day of interaction as the festival draws to a close, and we would like to thank all of our dedicated volunteers, staff and Patrons for a memorable ten days across the activation of the Newcastle Canoe Pool and the exhibition at The Lock-Up. 🫶

Artist Izabela Pluta’s () work unfolds across two interconnected sites and distinct durations. Presented at The Lock-Up from 25 September 2026 to 31 January 2027, the gallery exhibition brings together sculpture, photography, moving image, tapestry, light and sound. Across these forms, Pluta materially unpacks how water carries bodies, materials and histories between distant geographies.

During New Annual Festival, from 25 September to 4 October 2026, the project extends beyond the gallery to Newcastle’s Canoe Pool through 𝐶𝘢𝑣𝘪𝑡𝘢𝑡𝘪𝑜𝘯: 𝐵𝘳𝑒𝘢𝑡𝘩𝑖𝘯𝑔 𝑂𝘤𝑒𝘢𝑛, a temporary installation of marine floats gathered from beaches on Dingaal and Kuuku Ya’u Country in Far North Queensland.

The two presentations are connected by recurring processes of drift, fracture, circulation and translation. While the outdoor installation remains responsive to tide, weather and bodily movement for ten days, the works within The Lock-Up continue these inquiries across the longer duration of the exhibition.

A spoken text written and voiced by cultural theorist Astrida Neimanis moves through ‘Cavitation: Breathing Ocean’.

Through breath, memory and the sea’s capacity to carry matter and histories, the voice work sits alongside the drifting forms of the floats — extending their movement into an embodied experience of listening, suspension and change.

🎧 Listen to the full spoken work via the link: https://on.soundcloud.com/XDQfuJXZPZGE0iLqr2

📸: Wanagi Zable-Andrews

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.newy

03/10/2026

Join us as we usher out what has been an incredible period and Izabela Pluta's public art installation Cavitation: Breathing Ocean with our final two special events.... 🗺️

🌊 Morning Drift
🗓️ Sunday 4 October, 8:30am
📍 Newcastle Canoe Pool
Led by a trained mindfulness and Yoga practitioner, Heather Foat, Morning Drift invites you to begin the day with quiet meditation, focusing on the subtle pressures, currents, and pauses that shape both the body and the sea.
🎟 Tickets: $40

🎤 Spotlight Talks
🗓️Sunday 4 October, 11am
Hear directly from our curator as they share insights into the work, the process and the ideas shaping 'Cavitation'.
🎟 Free, bookings essential

Come together for one last weekend of art, reflection and connection before we farewell this remarkable work at the Canoe Pool.

Bookings via the link in bio.

Izabela Pluta is represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert. ‘Cavitation’ is an international co-commission with in Szczecin, Poland.

📸 Images: Documentation of Between Waters: Cavitation opening night. Photos by Wanagi Zable-Andrews.

02/10/2026

A huge thank you to the delegation from the Polish consulate for visiting ‘Cavitation’ 🌊 🙏🏼

01/10/2026

🗺️ It has been one whole week since we launched 𝘊𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘖𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘯, the major public art installation at the Muloobinba/Newcastle Canoe Pool as a part of 2026 by Izabela Pluta .

𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘖𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘯 is at the Newcastle Canoe Pool until this Sunday 4 October. Don't miss out on experiencing this incredible public art installation now! 🗺️

Izabela Pluta is represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert. ‘Cavitation’ is an international co-commission with in Szczecin, Poland.

📸 Images: Documentation of Between Waters: Cavitation opening night. Photos by Wanagi Zable-Andrews.

29/09/2026

Thanks for the feature Art Guide Australia! ‘Cavitation’ is now open at The Lock-Up, alongside ‘Cavitation: Breathing Ocean’, a public ephemeral art installation at Newcastle’s Canoe Pool. Visit us now!

The Lock-Up in Newcastle presents Izabela Pluta’s Cavitation, a presentation that employs two bodies of water—the Canoe Pool in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Newcastle and the Baltic waterways on the Polish-German border—to explore migration, borders and memory.

29/09/2026

𝙴𝙻𝚂𝙴𝚆𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴 𝙸𝚂 𝙽𝙾𝚃 𝙰 𝙿𝙻𝙰𝙲𝙴
Pocketbook Poetry presents spoken works on memory and the making of belonging

This Thursday night we're open late as Pocketbook poets join us for an after-hours evening of poetry, listening and shared writing inspired by Izabela Pluta’s exhibition, 'Cavitation'.

🗓️ Thu 29 Sep, 5-7pm
🎟️ FREE
📍 The Lock-Up

Through invited readings and an open mic, poets will respond to places remembered, left behind, crossed, translated or transformed by environmental and human forces. Taking its cue from Cavitation’s fractured maps, displaced materials and uncertain geographies, 'Elsewhere Is Not a Place' asks how language might locate an experience without attempting to hold it still. How does a place persist after we leave it? What becomes of memory when it is carried into a new landscape? Can poetry bring different times and locations into the same room?

Open-mic places are limited to 10 readers, with up to 6 minutes per reader. Register to read via emailing Pocketbook ahead of the night at [email protected]. New and experienced poets are equally welcome.

📸: Pocketbook Poetry Evening, 2026, The Lock-Up, Muloobinba/Newcastle. Courtesy Pocketbook and The Lock-Up. Photograph by Ella Grace Paterson.

Let us know in the comments if you are thinking of reading!

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