The frequency of that now-familiar phrase inspired IT expert and artist Marcia King to create works for a new exhibition that is fitting titled I Think You're on Mute.

The intricate sketches that Ms King created during the second half of 2020 explore some of the challenges of learning to manage new modes of communication during COVID through a series of drawings of faces of people she has had contact on screen during the pandemic.

Centrepiece of the exhibition, which is open at the Art Gallery of Ballarat's Backspace Gallery, is a grid of 64 faces, arranged as if on a Zoom call on a screen - some squinting, some close up, some further away and some with bemused looks on their faces.

Other larger artworks capture some of the emotion and stress of online communication through the pandemic.

"I have an IT background and have been to so many of these meetings ... and there's always someone who says 'I think you're on mute' so that's where it came from," she said.

"I put out a call during first lockdown for volunteer models and received about 1900 reference images. It resonated with everyone and they wanted to be part of it and have their experience recorded."

Ms King provided all the participants with either a written or verbal description of the images she was looking for. "There were some very funny squinting faces, other people didn't really want to look and I got a few people with more model poses," she said.

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Gallery curator Julie McLaren said that the drawings were more than just a record of the period of the pandemic .

"These drawings explore the human connection that occurs using apparently impersonal communication platforms in a way that is personal, humorous and engaging," she said.

"I think that what I enjoy about Marcia's work is she puts a lot of work in to creating really realistic images but always with a bit of sense of humor in her work. In really dark times it's important to use humour as a way of processing what we've been through."