Past Exhibitions

Journey Through Images: 40 Years of Perc Tucker Regional Gallery

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: 3 September - 28 November 2021

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery celebrates its fortieth anniversary with a diverse selection of work made by the artists of Townsville, the community, and staff of the gallery past and present. Journey Through Images builds on the connections made between artist and viewer through the gallery, and through the art work, an exhibition drawn from connections, stories and anecdotes related to our city, our region and our community. Featuring Tate Adams, G.W. Bot, James Brown, William Bustard, Laura Castell, John Coburn, Ray Crooke, Russell Drysdale, Donald Friend, HAHA, Sandi Hook, Jan Hynes, Robert Jacks, Jenuarrie, Peter Lawson, Sean Leathers, Anne Lord, David Malangi, Ron McBurnie, Stewart McFarlane, George Milpurrurru, Mini Graff, David Rowe, Jan Senbergs, Anneke Silver, Madonna Staunton, Ben Trupperbaumer, Fred Williams and many more.

Exhibition Launch

6 - 8pm
Friday, 3 September 2021
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery

Image: John Coburn, Garden of desire 1976, Screenprint, printed in colour, from multiple stencils, 56 x 89.8 cm, Accession No: 1976.0010.000.
Purchased with funds from the Townsville Art Society and the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council, 1976. City of Townsville Art Collection.
Photography: Michael Marzik

Virtual Tour

Take a virtual tour of the Journey Through Images: 40 Years of Perc Tucker Regional Gallery exhibition.

• Use the tool in the bottom right corner to see different views of the gallery or move between floors.
• Zoom in and out using your mouse or finger controls.

Celebratory Video

It’s hard to put into one video all that is Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, but we think this comes pretty close.

Thank you to all of our speakers, all Townsville City Galleries staff past and present, Townsville CityLibraries Local History Collection, and to all artists and patrons of the Gallery for your ongoing support.

Here’s to 40 years!

Online publication

Featuring reflections from staff, artists, and community members, the publication offers a wonderful insight into 40 years of Perc Tucker Regional Gallery.

Hard copies of the publication can be purchased from Perc Tucker Regional Gallery.

Robert Preston: Inner Visions: Observation, Abstraction and Imagination, 1955 - 2021

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: 18 June - 22 August 2021

Inner Visions: Observation, Abstraction and Imagination, 1955 – 2021 is the first career-spanning retrospective of Townsville-based artist, Robert Preston, and the largest and most comprehensive selection of his work to date. The exhibition covers some sixty-six years of artistic practice, and includes key works from every period of Preston’s vast oeuvre, including never-before exhibited student works, studies, commissions and commercial pieces, and the career-defining Communion to the Trees in its entirety, exhibited for the first time in two decades.

This expansive exhibition is drawn from collections public and private, and features many works, journals and ephemera drawn from the artist’s own archives, offering new insights into one of North Queensland’s most beloved and influential artists.

Curated by Jonathan McBurnie.

• 1989 Robert Preston Survey Exhibition publication (PDF, 10.2 MB)

Image: Robert Preston, Morning Raga on Contemplating Pataya, 1978, gouache on Arches dessin paper, 36 x 33cm. Collection of City of Townsville.

Ephemera

Exhibition dates: 17 - 25 July 2021

Celebrating 20 years of Ephemera! One of North Queensland’s most anticipated events, Ephemera will once again feature an array of local, national and international sculpture, installation and ephemeral art talent. Come and enjoy the visual arts at the picturesque destination during Townsville’s glorious festival season weather, vote for your favourite artwork and discover something different and new. We’re sure you will love this very special edition of Ephemera!

Image: Karl Meyer, Hand in the Sand, 2019
Strand Ephemera People’s Choice Award Winner 2019
Photograph: Andrew Rankin Photography

Hannah Murray: Entropicana

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: 6 April - 13 June 2021

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery is proud to support the next generation of Townsville and North Queensland-based artists. Hannah Murray is fast growing a name for herself as one of North Queensland’s most beloved artists, and Entropicana is her first major solo exhibition. Murray’s Entropicana explores the duality of life in the tropics through lush illustration, and a playful postmodern approach to composition, juxtaposing seemingly unrelated imagery to create a series of beguiling montages. Most life on this planet lives— thrives— in the tropics, and so too does it inevitably die, fulfilling its function in a greater scheme, its nutrients and energy passing along the chain to sustain new life. With the natural world in tumult, and the increasingly unpredictability of life, is our own existence any different? Murray examines such questions in an artistic voice which alternates between the sobering and bleakly humorous; an accurate and symbolic reflection of life.

Image: Hannah Murray, Floating World, 2020, Graphite on Arches Aquarelle watercolour paper, 76 x 57cm. Courtesy of the artist

Carolyn Craig and Damian Dillon: (Dis)Location

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: 16 April - 13 June 2021

Dis(Location) examines the intangibility of affect over Australia’s post-colonial landscape. In the visual arts, this is a context where landscape is considered as a set of inter-relations between body and space, inhabitation and other cultural metaphors. The landscape serves as a site of analysis in relation to the underlying violence of capital economies. This cultural matrix is disrupted through strategies of chemical dissolution (Dillon) and copy generated error codes (Craig). Both approaches dissolve the boundary between self and other, and subject and object, to provoke slippages into smooth space.  This space of osmotic fluidity allows the artists to transgress the everyday into an uncanny state of confusion – to implicate the viewer within the abject state of loss.

This exhibition brings a range of new and recent works by both artists, including printmaking and photography, performative, sculptural and installation elements to fuse a new whole between the artists and their various media. (Dis)Location is thought-provoking and visually disarming collection of works, and an experiment in collaboration between these two artists uniquely suited to the modular downstairs space of Perc Tucker Regional Gallery.

Image: Damian Dillon, (Dis)integration #5, 2019, unique C-Type print on Alupanel, 100 x 90 cm

Lauren Carter: Yonder

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: 12 February - 11 April 2021

Yonder is the first major solo exhibition of North Queensland-based artist Lauren Jaye Carter, and brings together new interdisciplinary works on paper which incorporate drawing, painting, collage and printmaking. Carter’s studio approach is considered and nuanced, incorporating the artist’s subtle sense of colour, which shifts the mood of the works from the sun-bleached climes of so many Australian artists, toward somewhere more liminal, a twilight world.

Image: Lauren Jaye Carter, Closer / Further, 2020
Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata Warm

Artist Talk

Katya Venter: Curiouser and Curiouser

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: 12 February - 11 April 2021

‘Curiouser and Curiouser is a sublime world of perfection mixed with the grotesque. Immersive in scale, it is an abject yet beautiful playground of hybridised baby-animals. The artist, Katya Venter, invites us to be Alice in Wonderland inside a large scale Wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities). Laser-cut silhouettes cast neon light on the artists’ “babies”, rendered in ink and bleach.  The perfection of the machine cut refracts on of the human hand’s splatters of ink and acid.  It conjures a new kind of steampunk futurism with a twist of neo-noir.

-Selection written by Kate O’Hara, from her exhibition essay.

Image: Katya Venter, Insight installation component, 2020
Ink on paper and Perspex

Artist Talk

Sylvia Ditchburn: Mapping Loam Island on the Ross

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: 12 February - 11 April 2021

‘The deep north has proven a lure for Australian artists, including Sylvia Ditchburn who arrived in North Queensland from Toowoomba in 1967 and has spent decades since walking in, knowing, painting and evoking in form and exotic colour a landscape that she has found entrancing. Mapping Loam Island on the Ross is constructed like a portrait in homage to this special place, a pocket of wildness on the banks of the Ross River, yet located only 27 minutes’ drive to the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in Townsville’s CBD. In her capture of this place, she takes us into its smallness which expands into a sense of the holistic connectedness of the natural world.’

-Selection written Louise Martin-Chew, from her exhibition essay.

Image: Sylvia Ditchburn, Mapping Loam Island on the Ross No. 7, 2020
Acrylic on canvas

Artist Talk

Roland Nancarrow: Maldives Artwork

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: 22 January – 28 March 2021

Maldives Artworks, a striking new exhibition by North Queensland artist, Roland Nancarrow, is touring Australia, and will soon be shown at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, kicking off a year-long North Queensland showcase of our region’s artist, celebrating the gallery’s fortieth year. The exhibition features a vibrant selection of watercolour works on paper, acrylics on canvas and hand painted sculptural wall works inspired by recent trips to the Maldives.

Image: Roland Nancarrow, Niyama Sand Garden Series 1 [detail], 2017 Watercolour on paper, 29.7 x 42 cm

Andrea Huelin: Men and Cones

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Exhibition dates: 27 November 2020 – 7 February 2021 High-vis, yet invisible, they are among us. Where there’s traffic to be managed, or roads to be worked, you will find them. Men and Cones turns the generator-powered spotlight onto the reflective workwear of our suburban heroes, as they go through their well-practiced motions of daily toil. This exhibition marks a shift in scale and focus from Huelin’s usually-intimate still life works, rendering workers – and their cones – monumental in their everyday lives. Image: Andrea Huelin, Man with Canvas 2020, gouache on paper, 35 x 28 cm

Artist Talk

Leonie Wood: Life Lines

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Exhibition dates: 27 November 2020 – 7 February 2021 Life Lines draws heavily on Mackay-based artist Leonie Wood’s relationship with the curvilinear line of the female form, showcasing works that skilfully weave the contrasting strength and softness of the feminine spirit. Wood’s life drawings in ink, pen, charcoal, and graphite, and her hand-drawn imagery on ceramics, produced in collaboration with her late husband and renowned ceramicist Rick Wood, perfectly illustrate her ability to harness this dynamic force. Image: Leonie Wood, Repose 2020, artist pen on paper, framed, 50 x 41 cm

Artist Talk

Regi Cherini: All the Single Ladies

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Exhibition dates: 27 November 2020 – 7 February 2021 Regi Cherini’s work is a playful meditation on contemporary womanhood. An acknowledgement and companionable shout-out to the single ladies, with each embroidery depicting, through still life arrangements, an aspect of single life. These vary from the public (shopping list items and handbag contents from a night on the town) to the private (the plans for a Saturday night at home, in the form of tea, Tim Tams and television). The deliberate emphasis and meticulous depiction of each object offering a relatable commentary, at times humorous, sincere, personal and  unapologetic; contemporary life in miniature. Image: Regi Cherini, Saturday Night In 2019, embroidery floss on cotton, 38 x 27.5 cm

50 Treasures: Celebrating 50 Years of James Cook University

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Exhibition dates: 30 October 2020 – 10 January 2021 Take this unique opportunity to explore the people, places, and events that have shaped North Queensland and the Tropics through a stunning selection of the most rare and precious artefacts, including original manuscripts and artworks, drawn from the JCU Library Special Collections. Journey through 150 years of history as you encounter explorers and creators of all kinds and gain insights into life - on the land, in our towns and on the Great Barrier Reef. View the online catalogue Image front: Anton Hasell (1994), The Investigator (maquette), JCU Art Collection. Photograph by Michael Marzik. ©Anton Hasell, 2020. Reproduced with permission.

Virtual Tour

Shireen Malamoo: Work is a Healer

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Exhibition dates: 25 September – 22 November 2020 Shireen Malamoo’s paintings are meditations on the artist’s upbringing in the strict, Pentecostal church system, and fuse the iconographies and narratives of Christianity and her own South Sea Islander and Aboriginal heritage. Drawing on these very distinctive cultural and spiritual backgrounds, it is no surprise that Malamoo’s works are complicated and beautiful meditations on her people’s past and future. The artist expresses her own difficulties in reconciling these parts of her life, as well as some of the more troubling aspects of only Australia’s colonial history, specifically the people of the South Sea Islands, whose story is such a seminal, heartbreaking and often overlooked part of North Queensland’s history. Malamoo’s paintings are vivid, beautiful and powerful, reflecting her own complex world. View the online catalogue Shireen Malamoo: Work is a Healer Price List (PDF, 505.6 KB)

Image: Shireen Malamoo, Appeal to higher power | Black elegance pray | Keep your mouth shut there are people worse off than you [detail] 2018. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 86 x 86.3 cm Photo: Through the Looking Glass Studio. Courtesy of the Artist

65^th Townsville Art Awards

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: 25 September – 25 October 2020

The Townsville Art Society Inc proudly presents the 65th Townsville Art Awards.

The annual Awards have been held since 1955, after a group of enthusiastic artists, the Townsville Art Group, initiated a successful exhibition called As We See It. The Townsville Art Group was the genesis of the Townsville Art Society which formed in 1962. The annual Townsville Art Awards exhibition has continued over the years with many notable artist judges providing their expertise.

Image: Laura Castell, One fish for dinner 2019, woodcut on paper, 62 x 42.5 cm.
Winner of the Townsville City Council Open Acquisitive Award, 64th Townsville Art Awards 2019, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville. City of Townsville Art Collection.
Photo: Townsville City Galleries

North Queensland Ceramic Awards 2020

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition Dates:  Friday 31 July - Sunday 20 September, 2020

The biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards has long aimed to increase public exposure to a high standard of pottery from around the nation. A showcase for both well-known and emerging artists, this competition displays the diversity of ceramic art currently being produced in Australia. The City of Townsville Art Collection Award of $10,000 continues to provide both opportunity for artists to become a part of one of the nation’s most significant ceramic collections, as well as ensuring the continued growth of this important subsection of the City of Townsville Art Collection.

To view the virtual tour of the exhibition, see the winning works, watch the Judge’s talk, read through the exhibition publication, or to view the price list, please visit  NQCA webpage.

Image: Simone Fraser, Landscape Series (single)  2017, clay and dry glazes, 63 x 27 cm
Major acquisitive prize winner of the City of Townsville Art Collection Award, 2018 biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards, Townsville
City of Townsville Art Collection

The Percivals

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Exhibition dates: Friday 22 May – Sunday 19 July 2020

Having begun in 2007, The Percivals is an open competition for artists. While showcasing the outstanding and innovative work currently being produced by Australian artists, the competition has also given many emerging artists an opportunity to engage with portraiture and share their expressions of themselves and those close to them. There are three entry categories for the Percivals which include:

• Percival Portrait Painting Prize
• Percival Photographic Portrait Prize
• Percival Animal Portrait Prize

To view the virtual tour of the exhibition, see the winning works, watch the Judges’ and artists’ talks, read through the exhibition publication, or to view the price list, please visit  The Percivals webpage.

Image: Jenny Rodgerson, Balancing in the big red coat, 2017, oil on linen, 180 x 150 cm.
Winner of the acquisitive Percival Portrait Painting Prize 2018, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville. City of Townsville Art Collection.

Reflections: The TNQ7 Film Archive Project

Exhibition dates

3 April – 17 May 2020

Take a virtual tour of the exhibition!

• View the exhibition publication
• View the exhibition price list

Reflections: the TNQ7 Film Archive Project is a partnership between Townsville City Council Galleries and Libraries. The Project comprises of eight local artists who, facilitated by the Libraries team, have been given access to the historic TNQ7 Film Archive in order to find and respond to footage that is of significance to the artist and our city. The archive consists of approximately 8625 tapes of archival footage, and this exhibition aims to highlight the value of its digitization for future generations.

Reflections: the TNQ7 Film Archive Project includes works by Neil Binnie, Elijah Clarke, Rob Douma, Kathy Cornwall, Sheree Kinlyside, Hannah Murray, Anneke Silver, and Kellie Williams.

Image: Elijah Clarke, Stories from Bwgcolman (8) 2019, printed scan from 4x5 negative, framed, 40.64 x 50.8 cm

Stewart MacFarlane: Outside Looking In

Exhibition dates

3 April – 17 May 2020

Take a virtual tour of the exhibition!

• View the exhibition price list
• Download colouring in pages adapted from Stewart MacFarlane’s artworks!

Fifty years ago, 1970, in Adelaide, Stewart MacFarlane entered art school, aged 16 (The South Australian School of Art). He’d always known he was going to be a painter. It consumed him more than anything else at the time, apart from pop music. But there was no school for pop music, so art school it was. He was forever chasing the perfect image, the illusive masterpiece. The perfect image never really came, but each new canvas would bring him a flicker of hope that this could be the one.

Outside Looking In spans these decades of exploration, reflecting MacFarlane’s consistent fascination with the world, with people and places, and how light falls on it all. Inspired by his heroes of the Modern Art world- Van Gogh, Picasso, Drysdale, Nolan, and Boyd- as well as his Contemporary idols- Americans, Edward Hopper, Fairfield Porter, and Alex Katz, his figurative influence and vision has remained constant. As the dialogue of the art world has gradually become narrower and politically driven, MacFarlane prefers to remain on the outside looking in; a figurative, narrative painter from an earlier time.

Image: Stewart MacFarlane, Self Portrait, 2017, oil on canvas, 42 x 402 cm

Virtual Tour

Artist Talk