Sharing a profoundly empathetic humanist vision, Australian-born sculptor Ron Mueck and German expressionist artist Käthe Kollwitz each explore the body’s emotional traces. The gestures, postures and expressions they register emerge from both ordinary and exceptional human experiences, which Kollwitz called the ‘silent and noisy tragedies’ of everyday life.

Mueck’s sculptural language is built on close observation and emotional force, his psychologically insightful creations tenderly reflecting inner worlds of private feeling. The uncannily diminished scale and exquisitely observed details of his Old woman in bed enhance the fragility of a figure at the end of life.

In prints deeply admired by Mueck, Kollwitz created some of the 20th century’s greatest works of social criticism – compassionate and moving representations of the ravaged and oppressed. Her depictions of the impact of war, social injustice and deprivation are haunting reflections on a modern and violent Europe.

Themes of youth and age, relationship and solitude, trauma and resilience – and a striving for emotional distillation – unite the two artists. Their work is an invitation to feel.