Of Many Unbroken Threads
Threads of thought stretch back and forward in time
a convergence of paths imagined and real.
Unassuming until you witness the fabric take shape.
Feel it now, not necessarily soft to touch
a string of complexities unfolding.
It is told only with my whole body.
Unbroken threads persist, having survived the severing.
Together they weave this story to form what is not fully understood.
Enough time spent asking how and why.
Such things cannot be looked at directly unless wearing special glasses.
– Zara June Williams

Zara June Willams
Rolling all you have known into one (detail), 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
105 x 85 cm / 41 5/16 x 33 7/16 inches

COMA is pleased to present a solo presentation, titled ‘Of Many Unbroken Threads’, by Sydney-based artist Zara June Williams, on view 4 March – 2 April, 2022 in the gallery. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with COMA.
Made in part on one side of the hemisphere and fully realised on the other, these paintings straddle time and place. Drawn to practices that mimic the labyrinth that exits both inside and outside our heads, Zara June Williams’ exhibition Of Many Unbroken Threads is the result of various interlocking and overlapping conversations.

Zara June Williams
The endless search, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
60 x 50 cm / 23 5/8 x 19 11/16 inches




These works speak to that fear in knowing the volatile nature of our realities. A fear well articulated by Lila, a character in Elena Ferrante’s novels, who once overwhelmed rushes to explain that the outline of people and things are delicate and porous, constantly meshing and mixing with their surroundings. Everything to her has dissolving boundaries.
Zara June Williams

Zara June Willams
The meshing of partings and greetings, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
105 x 125 cm / 41 5/16 x 49 3/16 inches




These works evolved over a year spent in limbo, from a period marked by pending change and seemingly endless purgatory. They hold within them the contradictory desire for both change and stability. Together they stand as an attempt to further understand and accept such a time.
Made to feel lived in and touched, like objects sharing space rather than windows into other worlds, these paintings are the result of a direct dialogue with the artists body. They reflect the chaos within that underlies the illusion of order. Extending beyond the traditional boundary of the frame, they speak to what cannot be contained.


Zara June Williams’s (b. 1990) practice is centred around the curious nature of entropy and its relationship to order. Residing within the realm of abstraction, her work engages predominantly with painting and collage. Blurring the distinction between thinking and making, June Williams’ material explorations give rise to questions concerning cycles, play, touch, chance and time.
Zara June Williams completed a Master of Fine Arts at the National Art School in 2018. Upon graduation she was granted the Lift Off Award enabling her to undertake an international artist residency at Pilotenkueche in Leipzig, Germany in 2019. She has since participated in numerous group exhibitions in Sydney and Leipzig. In 2020 her debut solo exhibition Fuse was held at COMA.

Zara June Willams
They too are only once in this world, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
60 x 50 cm / 23 5/8 x 19 11/16 inches

Zara June Willams
The endless search, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
60 x 50 cm / 23 5/8 x 19 11/16 inches

Zara June Willams
Worn into translucency and held up towards the light, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
105 x 85 cm / 41 5/16 x 33 7/16 inches

Zara June Willams
The meshing of partings and greetings, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
105 x 125 cm / 41 5/16 x 49 3/16 inches

Zara June Willams
Learning the lesson late and liking yourself for forgetting it again, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
105 x 85 cm / 41 5/16 x 33 7/16 inches

Zara June Willams
The actions it contains, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
60 x 50 cm / 23 5/8 x 19 11/16 inches

Zara June Willams
Of patience, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
60 x 50 cm / 23 5/8 x 19 11/16 inches

Zara June Willams
Up to your neck and coming out of your ears, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
125 x 105 cm / 49 3/16 x 41 5/16 inches

Zara June Willams
Rolling all you have known into one, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
105 x 85 cm / 41 5/16 x 33 7/16 inches

Zara June Willams
Gone unmentioned, 2022
acrylic on canvas, acrylic and wax polish on timber frame
105 x 85 cm / 41 5/16 x 33 7/16 inches














