Supples is pleased to present Epiphytes, a solo exhibition by Julia Phetra Oborne, on view from 26 July to 7 September 2025. This body of work brings together a series of new oil paintings that reflect Oborne’s ongoing exploration of the relationships between women and trees, memory and myth, landscape and identity.
Echoes (Pink I), 2025
Oil on canvas
120 x 98 cm
Rooted in stories, memories, and personal observations of woodlands and forests, Epiphytes explores histories and relationships between women and trees. The paintings reflect the woodland as a universal and symbolic environment, familiar yet ambiguous, where the presence of the female form threads through the landscape. Both personal and symbolic, the paintings are shaped by Oborne’s dual Thai and British heritage.
Echoes (Green), 2025
Oil and oil stick on canvas
120 x 98 cm
The title Epiphytes—plants that grow upon other plants—considers the canvas as a site of accumulation. Oborne builds surfaces that play host, revealing and veiling forms, through the process of mark-making and layering. The imagery is inspired by ritual, literature, and myth, including the Buddhist tale of the Nariphon, a tree bearing fruit in the shape of women. Like epiphytes themselves, these symbols are tethered to the surface, which becomes a space where the past and present meet and are reexamined.
Gathering, 2025
Oil and oil stick on canvas
120 x 98 cm
About the Artist
Julia Phetra Oborne (b. 1995, Hong Kong) lives and works between Bangkok and London. She holds a BA in Painting from Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh.
With the act of painting underscoring her practice, Oborne blends myths, folklore, and autobiography in paintings that explore memory, identity, and reimagined visual languages. Influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Southeast and East Asian imagery, her work shifts between abstraction and figuration.
She recently completed a residency with SAC Gallery, Chiang Mai (2024), and Epiphytes marks her solo exhibition at Supples Gallery.
Selected Artworks