Past Exhibitions

Exhibition dates: 19 September to 18 October 2026

Image: Jane Hunter, From the outback, 2025. Explore Property Works on canvas/Hardboard Award. 70th Townsville Art Society Art Awards, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist. Photography: Through the Looking Glass Studio.

The Townsville Art Society Inc. is delighted to announce the 71st Townsville Art Society Art Awards. Since its founding, the Townsville Art Society has hosted an annual or biennial art exhibition, and the Art Awards exhibition has become a significant event in the city's cultural scene. Taking place at the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, this exhibition offers North Queensland artists affiliated with an Art Society a chance to showcase their work in a prominent gallery setting while vying for various prizes.

Winners

Townsville City Galleries and the Townsville Art Society are excited to announce the category Winners for the 71st Townsville Art Society Art Awards!

Open Award (Sections 1 – 3)
Winner
Lee Kirby, Nature’s tiny guardian II
Prize: $5,000 - Sponsor: Townsville City Council & Townsville City Galleries

Works on Canvas or Board (Section: 1)
Winner
Carole Howlett, Port portrayal
Prize: $1,000 - Sponsor: Explore Property

Works on Canvas or Board (Section: 1)
Highly Commended
Loraine Lowe, A slice of Summer
Prize: $500 - Sponsor: Phase 3 Projects

Works on Paper (Section: 2)
Winner
Elise Edler, Pack it in
Prize: $1,000 - Sponsor: Townsville Art & Framing

Works on Paper (Section: 2)
Highly Commended
Marionne Van Katwijk, Terminus
Prize: $500 - Sponsor: Townsville Art & Framing

3D Works (Section: 3)
Winner
Meredith Yeoman, Fire Sprite
Prize: $1,000 - Sponsor: Utopia Hair & Beauty

3D Works (Section: 3)
Highly Commended
Margaret Crawford, Le bouledogue
Prize: $500 - Sponsor: Utopia Hair & Beauty

Miniatures (Section: 4)
Winner
Mardi Saker, Kapok in the sun
Prize: $500 - Sponsor: McDonald Leong Lawyers

Miniatures (Section: 4)
Highly Commended
Michelle Weaver, In passing
Prize: $250 - Sponsor: Sunshine Metals

Unpacking Room Prize
Winner
Jayne Howlett, What a view
Prize: $250 - Sponsor: Sunshine Metals

Judge’s Special Commendation 1
Winner
Meg Allford, Protected Shore
Prize: $250 Voucher - Sponsor: Cowboys Leagues Club

Judge’s Special Commendation 2
Winner
Lyn Smith, Lunch Break: Elsewhere in thought
Prize: $200 Voucher - Sponsor: A Touch of Salt

Exhibition dates: 23 May to 30 August 2026

The Percivals is North Queensland's own biennial portrait competition.

Visit the website

Exhibition dates: 29 November 2025 to 3 May 2026

Image: Big Eye Theatre and Dancenorth Australia. Deeper than Dancing, 2024. Short film (Still). Image by Aaron Ashley.

In the Heart of the North is a rolling exhibition of newly commissioned artworks, works from the City of Townsville Art Collection and extraordinary art on loan from other cultural institutions. All evoke the distinctiveness of life in North Queensland by artists living locally or visiting from elsewhere.

The first part of In the Heart of the North includes Deeper Than Dancing (2024), a filmic love letter to Townsville-Gurambilbarra and its people, originally commissioned by Gurambilbarra-based performing arts company, Dancenorth Australia.

Exhibition launch: Friday 28 November 2025

Please note, this exhibition will be launching alongside Yuriyal Bridgeman, Ricky Emmerton and Young Indigenous Printmakers.

Exhibition dates: 4 February – 3 May 2026

Townsville City Council acknowledges the sensitive nature of this exhibition. Visitors are advised that it may contain the names and images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The exhibition also includes colonial historical content that some visitors may find confronting. Viewer discretion is advised, and visitors are encouraged to engage with the exhibition respectfully and with sensitivity.

This is the second in a series of new exhibitions featuring artworks from the City of Townsville Art Collection. These are accompanied by pieces which have been newly commissioned by the Gallery, either by local artists or those who have spent significant time in Townsville. These include works by Baylee Griffin, Anne Lord, Tony Di Giacomo and Cameron Robbins.

All artworks have been selected because they depict elements of life in the ‘north’, which includes North and Far North Queensland, along with our regional neighbours in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

With Townsville home to Australia’s largest Army base, the City of Townsville Art Collection includes many works depicting national and international military and peacekeeping activities.

In contrast, other works in this exhibition evoke the natural qualities of landscape and Country in this vast and diverse region, from lush tropical vegetation found in suburban backyards to the Spinifex country of northwest Queensland.

In the Heart of the North continues upstairs on Level One.

Exhibition launch: Friday 13 February 2026

Floor talk: Saturday 14 February 2026

Image credit: William Jamieson ALLOM, Townsville [painted from David Brands Slipway, Ross Creek], 1884, oil on canvas. Purchased, 1995. With the assistance of Mr Paul Martinez of wilson/ryan/grose Lawyers. City of Townsville Art Collection. Accession number: 1995.0095.000. Image: Michael Marzik. Courtesy of the Artist and City of Townsville Art Collection.

Exhibition dates: 29 November 2025 to 3 May 2026

Image: Ricky Emmerton, Muu Kunti, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 112 x 66 cm. Image courtesy of the artist. Photography by Andrew Rankin.

Mintjapuni is part of Ricky Emmerton’s PhD studies at James Cook University. He has introduced the Kalkatungu words mintja (shine) and puni (to-make or to-cause) to investigate how mintja aesthetics in Indigenous art relate to spirituality. In cultural art practices, “to mintjapuni” involves painting or decorating the body, objects, or the ground to enhance spiritual power, whether for ceremonial or everyday applications. Focusing on Kalkatungu art, Emmerton identified a lack of aesthetic appreciation and critique of Indigenous art more broadly. Seeking deeper insight, he gathered firsthand accounts from Elders, community members, and other Kalkatungu artists throughout North Queensland. Through yarning and interviews, he found that Kalkatungu people—himself included—aspire to maintain cultural integrity by fostering spiritual connections with their ancestors and Country. The spiritual aesthetics of mintja serve as one powerful means of affirmation in this ongoing cultural practice.

Launch event: Friday 28 November 2025

Please note, this exhibition will be launching alongside Yuriyal Bridgeman, In the Heart of the North and Young Indigenous Printmakers.

Exhibition dates: 29 November 2025 to 3 May 2026

Image: Kesa-Lee Savuro (Kirwan State High School), Swaying Darrmanji of Wakaja and Gudanji, 2025. Linocut on paper, 15 x 30 cm. Image courtesy of Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, Gurambilbarra / Townsville

Young Indigenous Printmakers is a collaborative outreach project run in partnership between Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts and Townsville City Galleries. The free education program gives First Nations senior students the opportunity to learn and experience lino carving, printing and editioning, and gain exhibition experience. The initiative seeks to engage, foster and promote artistic development. School groups participate in a two-day intensive workshop facilitated by a printmaking expert and a First Nations artist. Participants are introduced to printmaking techniques and assisted to explore their Indigenous Culture/s and identity. The first day of the program is held at the school and the second is spent in The Studio at Umbrella. The students’ prints are exhibited in Umbrella’s gallery or at Townsville City Galleries once a semester.

This year's artist mentors are Margaret Robertson and Ricky Emmerton.

Launch event: Friday 28 November 2025

Please note, this exhibition will be launching alongside Yuriyal Bridgeman, In the Heart of the North and Ricky Emmerton.

To find out more about the program, visit the Young Indigenous Printmakers page of the Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts website.

Exhibition dates: 20 September to 1 February 2026

Image: Yuriyal Bridgeman, cardboard composition tiles [detail]. Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Meanjin/Brisbane.

Yuriyal Bridgeman is a leading Papua New Guinean/Australian contemporary artist, and this exhibition surveys the breadth of his art to date. Bridgeman’s work is anchored in the traditional cultural practices of his PNG community while also bringing insightful perspectives to the context of contemporary art. Born in Redcliffe, Queensland, Bridgeman now lives and works between the Redcliffe Peninsula, Meanjin/Brisbane and PNG.

Bridgeman’s artwork encompasses photography, video, painting, sculpture and installation. His photographic and video works are positioned in portraiture and social commentary, often featuring loved ones and members of his community. His paintings and sculptures, developed during his time in PNG, draw deeply from the traditions of the Yuri Alaiku men’s practices in the Simbu Province. Bridgeman is also the co-founder of the artist collective Haus Yuriyal, where he plays a key role in developing the group’s contemporary art projects.

This exhibition has been co-curated by Angela Goddard, Director of Griffith University Art Museum and respected Bougainville Elder and art curator Aunty Sana Balai.

Launch event: Friday 28 November 2025

Floor talk: Saturday 29 November 2025

Yuriyal Bridgeman: yubilong(mi)bilongyu is a Griffith University Art Museum touring exhibition.

Exhibition dates: 13 September to 16 November 2025

Image: Carole Howlett, Street Smart, 2024. Mixed media on paper. Townsville City Council Open Award Winner. 69^th Townsville Art Society Art Awards, 2024

The Townsville Art Society Inc. is delighted to announce the 70^th Townsville Art Society Art Awards. Since its founding, the Townsville Art Society has hosted an annual or biennial art exhibition, and the Art Awards has become a significant event in the city's cultural scene. Taking place at the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, this exhibition offers North Queensland artists affiliated with an Art Society an opportunity to showcase their work in a prominent gallery setting while vying for various prizes.

Launch: Friday 12 September 2025

Judge’s Talk with Robert Heather: Saturday 13 September 2025

Exhibition dates: 6 April to 24 August 2025

Exclusive to Australia in 2025, Wedgwood: Artists and Industry showcased highlights from over 200 years of Wedgwood ceramics and design — straight from the UK’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).

Exhibition Showcase Videos

Hear about the exhibition from V&A Wedgwood Collection chief curator Catrin Jones:

• Wedgwood: Artists and Industry exhibition (YouTube)

Hear from Lucy Lead, Archivist, V&A Wedgwood Collection and Holly Arden, Gallery Director, as they provide insight into the makings of this Australian exclusive exhibition:

• Insights into Wedgwood: Artists and Industry (YouTube)

_{Created by the V&A – touring the world.}

Interactive Guide

As part of the Wedgwood exhibition, Galleries created an Interactive Guide to be used as a means of encouraging individual and group responses to the art on display. Included are discussion points, engaging activities and ideas for further research.

• Wedgwood Interactive Guide (PDF)

_{Image credit: First Edition copy of the Portland Vase, Josiah Wedgwood and sons, 1790-94. Photo courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London.}

_{Created by the V&A – touring the world.}

Exhibition dates: 30 November 2024 to 9 March 2025

Do you find joy eating food in fake rainbow colours, even though it might be bad for you? Do you like watching videos of objects being squished, or even people popping pimples?

Even if you answered "no" to all the above, you would know that some things can be both delicious and disgusting at the same time. Or they can be funny and sad. Sometimes we actually desire things because they are scary or dangerous.

The artists in this exhibition have made works that you might find both yucky and yum. Hopefully, the art sparks your senses. It may ignite your emotions and memories too.

Many of the works in this exhibition are connected by themes around food, nature and the "unnatural", disgust and taboo. These themes have complex and challenging histories, presents and futures. The artists don't shy away from tough subjects, but their works are also filled with fun and irreverence. Yucky Yum Yum will be packed with new, artist-designed activities to keep you entertained and engaged over the long summer months. Just don't eat ice-cream off the pavement.

Featuring: Ebony Russell, Elizabeth Willing, Hotham Street Ladies, Jan Hynes, Kenny Pittock, Lisa Ashcroft, Smac McCreanor and more.

A Townsville City Galleries exhibition.

_{Image credit: Smac McCreanor, Hydraulic Press Girl series, 2022. Video. Image courtesy the artist}

Exhibition dates: 14 September tp 17 November 2024

Exhibition launch: Friday 27 September

Exhibition curator's floor talk: Saturday 28 September

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists tells a new story of Australian art. Looking at moments in which women created new forms of art and cultural commentary, it highlights creative and intellectual relationships between artists across time.

The Know My Name touring exhibition follows the National Gallery's major two-part exhibition of Australian women artists. It is part of a series of ongoing gender equity initiatives by the Gallery to increase the representation of all women in its artistic program.

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists is a National Gallery Touring Exhibition supported by the Australian Government through Visions of Australia.

_{Image credit: Ponch Hawkes, Mrs Mimi Torsh and her daughter Dany [detail], 1976. Gelatin silver photograph, 25.4 x 20.2 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Gift of the Philip Morris Arts Grant 1982.}

Exhibition dates: 14 September to 13 October 2024

Exhibition launch: Saturday 14 September

Exhibition panel discussion: 21 September

Transitions is a partnership between Townsville City Galleries and Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, that combines mentorship, critiques and development for emerging visual artist mentees. Now in its fourth iteration, mentees have worked one-on-one with established North Queensland artists to develop their arts practices, gain valuable insights into working professionally and to begin to forge a career in the arts. Mentees self-define their goals and receive support and feedback from their mentors, gallery professionals, guest mentors and their program peers.

To celebrate Transitions and its outcomes, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery is pleased to present an end of program exhibition displaying artworks created by the mentees.

The exhibiting artists are Hannah Aiello, Sabrina Toby, Vicki Katthagen, Sarah Treadwell and Lisa Gianni. The work they have developed spans portraiture, breastplates, photography and sculpture.

_{Image credit: Transitions mentees presenting and discussing their works-in-progress at the group critique session at Umbrella, amidst artwork by Odessa Mahony-de Vries. Photo: Rikaela Rusch.}

Exhibition dates: 14 September to 6 October 2024

Exhibition launch: Saturday 14 September

Exhibition judges talk: Sunday 15 September

2024 Winners

• Ruth Heiner, A Track Winding Back
  Section 1 – Works on Canvas Highly Commended ($500 sponsored by Townsville Art Society)
• Steve Crowe, Impending Storm over Orpheus Island
  Section 1 – Works on Canvas Award Winner ($1000 sponsored by Explore Property)
• Bruce Parry, Fish Drying – Vietnam
  Section 2 – Works on Paper Highly Commended ($500 sponsored by Townsville Art Society)
• Marionne Van Katwijk, Let the Rivers Run
  Section 2 – Works on Paper Award Winner ($1000 sponsored by Top Frames)
• Ros Jones, It Takes a Village
  Section 3 – 3D Highly Commended ($500 sponsored by Liberte’ Hair)
• Liberte’ Hair– Natalie Ward, Forest
  Section 3 – 3D Award Winner ($1000 sponsored by Liberte’ Hair)
• Michelle Weaver, Grandma’s Place
  Section 4 – Miniatures Highly Commended ($250 sponsored by Design Works Apparel)
• Ros Jones, The Art Critics
  Section 4 – Miniatures Award Winner ($500 sponsored by McDonald Leong Lawyers)
• Rosemarie Garutti, Monet’s Garden
  Sponsors Choice Award – Acquisitive for Sections 1-4 ($2,000 sponsored by Classic Painting Qld)
• Carole Howlett, Street Smart
  Open Award – Sections 1-3 ($5,000 sponsored by Townsville City Council)

The Townsville Art Society Inc. proudly presents the 69^th Townsville Art Society Art Awards.

The Townsville Art Society has held an annual or biennial art exhibition since its inception, and the Townsville Art Society Art Awards exhibition is now a major exhibition in the cultural life of the city.

Held in Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, it provides an opportunity for North Queensland artists, who are affiliated with an Art Society, to display their work in a major gallery and to compete for prizes.

_{Image credit: Carole Howlett, Curtain closed [detail], 2023. Oil on canvas, 64 x 78 cm. Townsville City Council Open Award Winner 68th Townsville Art Society Art Awards, 2023.}

Exhibition dates: 20 April to 9 June 2024

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 26 April 2024

Exhibition floor talk: 10am, 27 April 2024

Exploring how we arrived at this point—from the archaic to a language of compressed space—Bruce Reynolds invites us to consider the ancient and the ‘now’ in his work.

His practice has expanded from collage to relief and sculpture over several decades. Recent residencies in Rome focused both studio and architectural works on relief forms that occupy the space between painting and sculpture, between drawing and architecture. He describes it as being both archaic and a fresh place of representation.

_{Image credit: Bruce Reynolds, Bungalow With Cypress 2019, Paint on linoleum on wood panel, 45 x 58 x 7cm. Courtesy of the artist.}

_{How Soon is Now? is a Museums & Galleries Queensland touring exhibition presented in partnership with the artist, Bruce Reynolds. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program; and is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. Museums & Galleries Queensland is also supported by the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funds through the Australian Cultural Fund.}

John Nesirky: The Recollection of Sound

Exhibition dates: 20 April to 9 June 2024

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 26 April 2024

Exhibition floor talk: 10:30am, 18 May 2024

Townsville City Galleries is pleased to present John Nesirky’s The Recollection of Sound, a look at the sounds of insects, their tropical night-time soundtrack, and the structures that allow these creatures to sing.

Memories are triggered by all our senses. We can be transported by a song, a scent, an old photograph; and find distant moments of our lives surround us briefly. It is more poignant when the memory takes you to people lost and places long ago altered.

Early memories of John Nesirky's time in North Queensland are underpinned by the sounds of insects during hot hikes to cool off in a creek or swimming hole. The tropical nighttime soundtrack.

_{Image credit: John Nesirky, Memory of sound [detail] 2024, Timber veneers and resin composite, 100 x 35 cm. Image courtesy of Townsville City Galleries.}

Exhibition dates: 2 February to 14 April 2024

Exhibition launch: 6:45pm, 2 February 2024

Exhibition curator's talk: 10:30am, 24 March 2024

An exhibition of Torres Strait Islander textiles, prints, and paintings from the City of Townsville Art Collection, curated by Gail Mabo.

We are pleased to present Eastern Threads, an exhibition showcasing cultural practices from the Eastern Torres Strait and islands east of Mer Island. Gail Mabo has selected works for inclusion in the show, focusing on pieces originally sourced by Diane Moon as part of the exhibition CarriedLightly at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in 1988 and more recent acquisitions.

There are 66 artworks from Eastern Torres Strait and 14 from the Western, Inner and Central Torres Strait in the Townsville City Art Collection. The artwork on display celebrates Erub, Mer Fibrecraft, and Tongan Tapa. The exhibition features works by artists from the permanent collection, including Ais Bero, Jenny Mye, Lucy Thaiday, Ken Thaiday, Alice Hunai, Andrew Passi, George Sambo, Aicey Zaro, and Tommy Pau.

Exhibition Materials

• Artwork Overview Video (YouTube)
• Feature Video (YouTube)

_{Image: Tommy Pau, Sia (Carina Nebula) [detail], 2015. Linocut print on paper, 54.5 x 90.5 cm (plate mark), 71 x 107 cm (sheet). Purchased from Umbrella Studio of Contemporary Arts, 2019. City of Townsville Art Collection. Accession number: 2019.013. Image courtesy of Townsville City Galleries.}

Exhibition dates: 8 December 2023 to 11 February 2024

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 8 December 2023

Exhibition floor talk: 10:30am, 9 December 2023

Sihot’e Nioge reveals the centrality of nioge, painted, and sihot’e, appliquéd, beaten bark cloths in Omie culture and life from the first Omie man and woman who arrived on the earth until today. Working from the remote mountain rainforests of Oro Province, not so far from Kokoda, Papua New Guinea, the Omie Tapa artists continue to develop the most colourful and compositionally diverse, bark cloth art in the Pacific region, using all natural products from their vast, rainforest homelands. Curated by Joan Winter.

_{Image: Doris Naumo Buruhi dehi’e Vei’e ijihe Vindho’e, Eagle feathers, lizard bone, human belly button, 2019, natural rainforest plant pigments beaten bark cloth, 118 x 140 cm. Image courtesy of the artist. Omie Tapa Artists PNG and Baboa Gallery, Brisbane.}

Exhibition dates: 4 November 2023 to 21 January 2024

Exhibition launch: 6:45pm, 3 November 2023

Exhibition floor talk: 10:30am, 4 November 2023

Asia Pacific Contemporary celebrates The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, recently in its tenth iteration. Featuring works that have appeared in the Triennial since its debut in the 1990s, and across media from painting and sculpture to video, performance and works on paper, Asia Pacific Contemporary showcases art from Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Vanuatu and Vietnam. As these varied and compelling artworks demonstrate, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art continues to be a pre-eminent platform for the art of Asia, Australia and the Pacific, surveying a vast and dynamic region through series of exhibitions, forums and cultural exchanges. The diverse works in Asia Pacific Contemporary reflect the triennial embrace of contemporary art in all its forms, ranging from the ceremonial to the conceptual, and from the deeply personal to the resolutely social.

_{Image: Tomoko Kashiki Japan b.1982 / I am a rock [detail] 2012 / Synthetic polymer paint, masking tape on linen on plywood 162 x 227.5cm / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2013 with funds from Michael Sidney Myer through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation QAGOMA – Tomoko Kashiki.}

Exhibition dates: 13 October to 3 December 2023

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 13 October 2023

Artist talk: 10:30am, 14 October 2023

Soundtracks is an exhibition in which a group of printmakers explore the relationship between verbal and nonverbal imagery in “albums”, personal narratives resonant in their chosen playlists.

Printmaking is an important element in the personal practice of each of the artists in this exhibition. Each has employed printmaking media and techniques including stencils, etchings, linocuts and risographs in combination with other media and art forms.

Nonverbal memory is what makes it possible to retain and remember content without words and has the ability to code, store, and recover information about faces, shapes, images, songs, sounds, smells, tastes and feelings. Sound, particularly in music, is heavily involved in associative memory of events or experiences of our past.

Hearing a few notes of a song or feeling an emotion one associates with a song may trigger involuntary memory of an experience.

Using a smart phone to scan the QR codes, viewers may extend their experience of the exhibits by listening to the linked tracks.

_{Image: Brian Pool, Talkin ’bout a revolution, Linocut, 38 x 28 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

Exhibition dates: 29 September to 29 October 2023

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 30 September 2023

Judge's talk: 10:30am, 1 October 2023

The Townsville Art Society Inc proudly presents the 68^th Townsville Art Society Art Awards.

The Townsville Art Society has held an annual or biennial arts exhibition since its inception, and the Townsville Art Society Art Awards exhibition is now a major exhibition in the cultural life of the city.

Held in Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, it provides an opportunity for North Queensland artists, who are affiliated with an Art Society, to display their work in a major gallery and compete for prizes.

_{Image: Steve Crowe, Dawn at the Daintree [detail] 2021, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 120 cm. Townsville City Council Open Acquisitive Award Winner, 67th Townsville Art Society Art Awards, 2022. Image courtesy of Townsville City Galleries.}

Image: Kate Ballis, 2350, 2017, archival pigment ink on cotton rag, 103 x 153 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

Exhibition dates: 18 August to 24 September 2023

Exhibition launch: 6:45pm, 18 August 2023

Curated by Dr Greer Honeywill, this exhibition examines the connection between Palm Springs and Australia, and how contemporary artists engage with and respond to modernism’s aesthetic and influence. Place and home, landscapes (real and imagined), and Bauhaus sensibilities inform the exceptional works in this exhibition.

Lost in Palm Springs is the result of three artist-residencies Greer undertook in Palm Springs, California, USA, between 2017-2019 researching the world’s largest collection of domestic mid-century modern architecture and connecting with artists who share her passion. In doing so, she discovered architectural and aesthetic sensibilities with surprisingly strong connections to Australia, particularly the Gold Coast.

_{Curated by Dr Greer Honeywill, Lost in Palm Springs is a touring initiative developed by HOTA, Home of the Arts, Gold Coast in partnership with Museums & Galleries Queensland. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through its Visions of Australia program and through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. It is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy, and proudly sponsored by IAS Fine Art Logistics and o2 Architecture.}

_{Museums & Galleries Queensland is supported by the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funds from Creative Partnerships Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund.}

Image: Andrew Rankin, Cairns Performing Arts Centre, 2019, Cox Architecture + CA Architects, 123 x 95 cm, Cotton Rag Print. Image courtesy of the artist.

Exhibition dates: 18 August to 24 September 2023

Exhibition launch: 6:45pm, 18 August 2023

This exhibition by Andrew Rankin documents recent developments of new contemporary buildings and the changing landscape of urban centres in North Queensland. Many of the structures form part of the master plan for James Cook University in Townsville and Cairns.

Chasing Light refers to the tool kit of a working photographer by searching and waiting for moments of illumination - be it dawn, dusk or bright midday sun. The images also showcase architects responding to the environmental challenges of designing buildings suitable for life in the tropics and dealing with extreme weather events such as cyclones and flooding rains.

Chasing Light is an inspiring celebration of the beauty and diversity of North Queensland's architecture. The images capture the unique charm and character of the buildings and structures that make up this diverse and beautiful region.

Image credit: Len Cook, Set of 3 square vases [detail] 2013, 100-hour wood fire, reduction kiln using pine and black wattle, a. 24 x 10 cm, b. 20 x 11 cm, c. 17 x 10 cm. Collection of the artist. Photography: Michael Marzik.

Exhibition dates: 12 May to 13 August 2023

Len Cook is one of Australia’s foremost wood-fired potters. The exhibition Fire and Rain draws together nearly 80 artworks created over 40 years of ceramic practice with loans from public and private collections, as well as key works from the artist’s own collection.

Len first became interested in pottery when he moved to Townsville from Victoria in 1977 and joined the North Queensland Potters’ Association. The formative experience of attending a 10-day workshop convened by the Potters Association, led by Carl McConnell whose pottery style was inspired by Japanese techniques, reinforced Len’s excitement with traditional methods of firing.

The exhibition highlights the artists lifelong passion for wood-fired kilns and pots that are glazed by natural ash deposits over extended firing in traditional Japanese anagama (cave) kilns. Len Cook’s practice encompasses domestic ware, ceramic sculpture inspired by the coral forms of the Great Barrier Reef, and his anagama-fired work.

Exhibition Materials

• Virtual Tour

_{Image credit: Len Cook, Set of 3 square vases [detail] 2013, 100-hour wood fire, reduction kiln using pine and black wattle, a. 24 x 10 cm, b. 20 x 11 cm, c. 17 x 10 cm. Collection of the artist. Photography Michael Marzik.}

Exhibition dates: 12 May to 13 August 2023

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 12 May 2023

Exhibition floor talk: 10:30am, 28 May 2023

Ricky Emmerton is a Kalkatungu man living in Townsville. Emmerton has commenced a Doctor of Philosophy (Creative Arts) at James Cook University. Who Flash! will preview new paintings from his university research which asserts that Kuathuat Ritjinguthinha, Rainbow Serpent Dreaming, is a living tradition that maintains our culture and identity. ‘Flash’, in Indigenous art, is in the form of bright colours, dots and patterns. Emmerton’s paintings reflect experimentation into new and expressive forms of ‘flash’ colours and composition. Inspired from Kalkatungu rock art, historical documents and artists within our family, Who Flash! will demonstrate a continuance of Kalkatungu culture through art.

_{Image credit: Ricky Emmerton, Muu Kunti – Country is Home 2022, acrylic on canvas, 112 x 66 cm. Collection of the artist. Photographer: Andrew Rankin.}

Image: Simon Gende, Plane crash into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, 2012, Acrylic on canvas, ART96124, Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.

Exhibition dates: 3 March to 7 May 2023

Contemporary artists’ responses to conflict bring to light untold stories, reveal neglected histories and deepen our understanding of Australia’s experience of conflict, both past and present.

A showcase of diverse responses to war, the exhibition includes more than seventy paintings, drawings, films, prints, photography and sculptures. Leading Australian artists are represented, such as Khadim Ali, Rushdi Anwar, eX de Medici, Denise Green, Richard Lewer, Mike Parr and Ben Quilty. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, a collection priority for the Memorial in recent years, is featured, with works by Tony Albert, Paddy Bedford, Robert Campbell Jr, Michael Cook, Shirley Macnamara and Betty Muffler.

Supported by research from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project, the exhibition highlights how war art can lead us to consider different ways of thinking about current and recent conflicts, inviting us to consider perspectives we might not otherwise encounter.

Presented by the Australian war memorial.

Exhibition Materials

• Education Kit (PDF)

Image: Ann Thomson, Water transit [detail], 2016, Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 122.5 x 153 cm. Donated through the Cultural Gift Program by Ann Thomson, 2021. City of Townsville Art Collection. Accession number: 2021.0023.000. Image courtesy of the artist and Townsville City Galleries.

Exhibition dates: 2 December 2022 to 5 March 2023

Exhibition launch: 6 to 8pm, 2 December 2022

Speed-dating style artist talk: 10:30am to 12noon, 28 January 2023

Showcasing a selection of artworks recently acquired for inclusion in the City of Townsville Art Collection, this exhibition includes purchases, gifts, and Cultural Gift Donations of significance in line with the collection priority areas of the City of Townsville Art Collection Policy, including Australian Art/Art of North Queensland, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Modern and Contemporary Art, and Australian Colonial and Historical Art.

The City of Townsville Art Collection is at the heart of Council’s efforts to engage, educate and enrich the diverse populations drawn to the Townsville region.

Further Artist and Donor Information

• Ann Thomson (PDF)
• Anonymous Donation (PDF)
• Noel McKenna (PDF)
• Ross Searle (PDF)
• Tom Risley (PDF)

Image: Julie Fragar, The Single Bed 2017, Oil on board, 135 x 100 cm. Collection of Griffith University Art Museum. Purchased 2017. Photography: Carl Warner.

Townsville exhibition dates: 2 December 2022 to 12 February 2023

Julie Fragar: Biograph is a travelling exhibition produced by Townsville City Galleries.

Touring dates and venues:

• University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery: 1 March to 28 May 2023
• Tweed Regional Gallery: 9 June to 27 August 2023
• Rockhampton Museum of Art: 8 December 2023 to 3 March 2024

Julie Fragar makes paintings about the stories we tell, simultaneously chronicling and critically analysing her chosen subjects. Bringing a unique level of psychological enquiry to the activity of painting, Fragar’s practice brings into focus the slippery relationship between reality and fiction. Through her unique language and remarkable aptitude as a painter, Fragar blends intense studies of social politics with biographical detail and personal speculation into vivid figurative and textual imagery. Often superimposing fragments from disparate sources, Fragar’s is a careful process of selection, editing and obfuscation that interprets the glut and vastness of post-internet connection through her own experiences, memories and associations.

Biograph is the first career survey of Fragar’s work. Mapping more than twenty years of practice, the exhibition assembles key works made between 1998 and 2021, including some previously unexhibited. The survey is arranged according to key ongoing themes for the artist, including biography, memory, identity and narrative. This major retrospective of Fragar’s distinctive style will tour between galleries in Queensland from February 2023 to December 2024, commencing at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery before travelling to University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery, Tweed Regional Gallery, and Rockhampton Museum of Art.

This education kit created in conjunction exhibition is intended to aid Gallery patrons, teachers, and students in their interpretation of the touring exhibition Julie Fragar: Biograph. It can be used as a means of encouraging individual and group responses to the art on display. Included are discussion points, engaging activities and ideas for further research. It can be used to prepare for your gallery visit, during your gallery visit, or after your gallery visit at home or in the classroom.

Exhibition Materials

• Education Kit (PDF)
• Education Kit (Issuu)
• Publication (Issuu)

Image: Cutler Footway, Delta after a Flood [detail], 2020-21, Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm. Image courtesy of the Artist.

Exhibition dates: 16 September to 27 November 2022

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 16 September 2022

Exhibition floor talk: 11am to 12noon, 17 September 2022

Cutler Footway’s Facing North comprises of three bodies of work reframing the artist’s last two decades of practice into a compelling and cohesive whole. These series include a clutch of small, erotically charged images recording the painter’s attempt to resume the natural and psychological environs of his birthplace after an absence of many decades.

The second section of the show explores the gradual maturing of Footway’s picture-making. Despite once describing himself as "a Sunday painter who paints every day", a conspicuous authority in conception and handling is discernible in the landscapes, still life and figure subjects finessed by Footway in this period.

The concluding section of the exhibition introduces a miscellany of life drawings, all in the medium of oil crayon on paper. These transcriptions of models posed in Footway’s verandah studio attest to an ongoing campaign of graphic home-schooling. Enlisting sitters from his family and friends, and from Ayr’s backpacking community, his viewpoint is close-up and therefore fragmentary.

In showcasing the life and work of a late-blooming regional painter in Queensland, this exhibition contends that compelling art is not infallibly the product of Australia’s cities and urban centres. It can and does emerge remotely from them, and at no disadvantage either to itself or to that wider cosmopolitanism whose features it reflects - and interrogates - in its mirror of truth.

Curated by Gitte Weise.

Image: Doomadgee State School, Ngida gamu Nguguwa Marrangurra [detail], 2022. Photography: Kaitlin Waterson.

Exhibition dates: 28 October to 13 November 2022

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 28 October 2022

Panel discussion: 10:30 to 11:30am, 5 November 2022

People, Culture & Country: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Project is proudly supported by Townsville City Galleries, Townsville City Council. In this program, small groups of Upper Primary and Junior Secondary students from schools across the North Queensland region, work collaboratively (in their own school) to produce contemporary wearable artworks to be showcased to the wider community. Students are taught traditional and contemporary skills and techniques (e.g. weaving, printmaking, painting) by First Nations artists in order to create the wearable artworks. They then prepare for a photoshoot experience where one student models the outfit and other students help with hair and makeup design and application. This project supports the linking of emerging First Nations artists with professionals in the Creative Arts Industries, and offers the wider community an insight into First Nations history, traditions, and culture through new works of art.

_{The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Project: People, Culture & Country is an initiative of the Department of Education - North Queensland Region, is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, and is also supported by Townsville City Galleries, Townsville City Council.}

Image: Jared Goodburn, Animal Collage 2022. Digital Art, various dimensions. Image courtesy of the artist.

Exhibition dates: 28 October to 13 November 2022

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 28 October 2022

The annual exhibition of TAFE North Queensland visual art student’s works boasts an array of approaches and media. This year’s exhibition once again promises to be an exciting glimpse into the future of Townsville’s emerging artists.

_{Image: Jared Goodburn, Animal Collage 2022. Digital Art, various dimensions. Image courtesy of the artist.}

Image: Margaret Crawford, Banksia Life After Fire 2021, Ceramic, 16.5 x 17.5 cm diam, 23 x 11.5 cm diam, 21 x 12.5 cm diam. Major acquisitive prize winner of the 66th Townsville Art Awards 2021. City of Townsville Art Collection. Image courtesy of Townsville City Galleries. Accession number: 2022.0045.000

Exhibition dates: 30 September to 23 October 2022

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 30 September 2022

Judge's talk: 10:30am, 1 October 2022

The Townsville Art Society Inc proudly presents the 67^th Townsville Art Society Awards.

The Townsville Art Society has held an annual or biennial arts exhibition since its inception, and the Townsville Art Society Awards exhibition is now a major exhibition in the cultural life of the city.

Held in Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, it provides an opportunity for North Queensland artists, who are affiliated with an Art Society, to display their work in a major gallery and to compete for prizes.

Judge of the 67^th Townsville Art Society Awards

Donald James Waters is an established Australian artist with an illustrious career spanning over three decades. While best described as a contemporary artist, Donald’s artwork transcends many genres to create a truly unique yet ever evolving and eclectic style. Donald has relaxed the confines of his initial beginnings in botanical art now using stylised strokes, overemphasised characters and bold blocks of colour to shift his primary focus to that of a storyteller rather than a technically correct traditional artist.

Donald’s career has taken his art to every corner of the globe and his distinctive style has made its way into the catalogues of many private and corporate collectors alike, including that of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s art collection. More recently Donald has concentrated his efforts closer to home completing several commissioned government art projects and participating in community programs within Queensland. In 2016, Donald was awarded with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to the community and the Arts and has been previously recognised as Gold Coast Citizen of the Year.

_{Image: Artist Donald James Waters at work. Image courtesy of The Courier Mail, Logan author explains mind in latest book Earth: the toughest bootcamp in the universe, March 28, 2017.}

Image: Pat Hoffie, Hi Vis (home building #1), 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 107 x 107 cm. Image photography: Louis Lim.

Exhibition dates: 16 July to 11 September 2022

Under the ongoing series Fully Exploited Labour, the subject of work has been an important theme within Pat Hoffie’s practice for some decades.

The exhibition Hi-Vis is part of that series. The large paintings feature construction workers building frameworks across and within the Australian landscape. The idea of ‘landscape’ or ‘country’ is a contested topic in Australia; nowhere more passionately fought over than in North Queensland, where battles over the rights to mine for coal, coal seam gas, fossil fuels, uranium and minerals have repeatedly divided the nation. Yet the rising interest in environmental consciousness has tended to ignore the problems of continuing to separate the idea of landscape as a ‘constructed site’ from the idea of an untouched ‘wilderness’, even though writer-scientists like Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage have reasoned that nothing could be further from the truth. The Australian landscape, they argue, is the product of thousands of years of cultural belief systems based on Indigenous agricultural practices. That is, they argue that mankind creates what we call landscape, and always has done.

This body of work situates working men and women in the process of actively re-constructing and re-structuring their environment; it raises questions about the ongoing interactions between people and place, and the outcomes and consequences of their endeavours.

Exhibition Materials

• Publication (Issuu)
• Artist Talk (YouTube)
• Virtual Tour

Exhibition dates: 12 February to 10 April 2022

Disintegration: Metadrawing and Expanded Drawing explores drawing as an autonomous artistic discipline, as opposed to its previous contingent uses, such as preparatory drawing, commercial art, design and architecture. While drawing remains associated with traditions of preparatory process or as a pedagogical tool, it is no longer limited to these discourses.

Disintegration investigates drawing’s integral role within contemporary art and responds to a renaissance of the discipline. Remarkably, given the ubiquity of drawing in art practice, little attempt has been made to consolidate drawing’s role in light of technological change, a discourse that this exhibition attempts to settle. The neologism of metadrawing (the principles and philosophies of the drawing discipline applied via technologies far outside the traditional), or, as others sometimes refer to it in practical terms, expanded drawing, directly informing rationale behind this exhibition. Disintegration will bring together ten artists whose work explores this rich terrain.

Featuring Madeleine Joy Dawes, Justin Garnsworthy, Miles Hall, Drew Connor Holland, Jumaadi, Jess Johnson, Claudine Marzik, Helena Papageorgiou, Phoebe Paradise and Grant C. Stewart.

Curated by Jonathan McBurnie.

Exhibition Materials

• Virtual Tour
• Publication (Issuu)

_{Image: Jess Johnson, Dumuzor, 2021, Pen, fibre tipped markers, acrylic paint, and gouache on paper, 43.8 x 33.7 cm (framed). Image courtesy of the Artist.}

Exhibition dates: 19 February to 10 April 2022

Risographomania brings together ninety local, national and international artists to explore the unpredictable, bright and exciting printmaking process, risography. Invented in Japan in 1980 by the Riso Kagaku company as an affordable alternative to screen printing and offset printing, the risograph is a medium capable of incredible accuracy and coherence, or anarchic misregistration, depending on the whims of the artist. Since this time, the Riso print has become a popular medium in its own right, with its trademark bright colours and ‘happy accidents’ making it a fascinating addition to contemporary printmaking.

Curated by Ashley Ronning and Jonathan McBurnie.

Exhibition Materials

• Price List (PDF)
• Video (YouTube)
• Virtual Tour
• Publication (Issuu)

_{Image: Christopher Sperandio, Person, woman, man, camera, TV, 2020, Risograph, 29.7 x 42 cm. Image courtesy of the Artist.}

Image: Carole Howlett, Saunders Swagger [detail], 2020, Oil on canvas, 52 x 62 cm. Winner of the Townsville City Council Acquisitive Award, 65th Townsville Art Awards 2020, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville. City of Townsville Art Collection. Photo: Townsville City Galleries.

Exhibition dates: 10 December 2021 to13 February 2022

Exhibition launch: 6 to 8pm, Friday 10 December 2021

The Townsville Art Society Inc proudly presents the 66^th Townsville Art Society 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 Society Awards exhibition has continued over the years with many notable artist judges providing their expertise.

Image: Jenny Watson, Sunshine of your love, 2020, Acrylic on French cotton and tapestry template, 140 x 137 cm; 39 x 31 cm. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.

Exhibition dates: 10 December 2021 to 6 February 2022

Exhibition launch: 6 to 8pm, Friday 17 December 2021

Textile-based art has been enjoying a renaissance after decades of being derided, ignored or ghettoised for being ‘craft’ or ‘Women’s work’, both terms of which are dismissive artworld shorthand for ‘not art’. Contemporary artists have been reinstating the importance of textiles by way of incredible force and ingenuity, and perhaps most importantly, an intelligent and methodical dismantling of established art world ‘rules’, as clung to by the boy’s club of 20^th century painting. Thus textile-based art becomes a powerful and accessible agent in the examination of identity, society and politics. Textiles have grown to command a significant following, offering its own complex and distinctive lexicon, as capable of expression, nuance and polemic as any other media. This exhibition begins by taking textiles’ artistic legitimacy for granted, a point proven many times over throughout its long history, bringing together some of the best and brightest artists working in Australia today.

Featuring the work of Julie Bradley, Regi Cherini, Leah Emery, Marion Gaemers & Lynnette Griffiths, Emma Gardner, Hannah Gartside, Julia Gutman, Vivien Haley, Michelle Hamer, Talitha Kennedy, Sheree Kinlyside, Nicole O’Loughlin, Susan Peters Nampitjin, Ema Shin, Hiromi Tango, Sonia Ward, Jenny Watson, Paul Yore, Troy-Anthony Baylis and India Collins.

Curated by Jonathan McBurnie.

Exhibition Materials

• Publication (Issuu)

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.

Exhibition dates: 3 September to 28 November 2021

Exhibition launch: 6-8pm, Friday 3 September 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.

Thank you to all of our speakers who appear in the celebratory video, 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!

Exhibition Materials

• Virtual Tour
• Celebratory Video (YouTube)
• Publication featuring reflections from staff, artists, and community members (Issuu)

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

Exhibition dates: 18 June to 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.

Exhibition Materials

• 1989 Robert Preston Survey Exhibition publication (PDF)

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

Exhibition dates: 6 April to 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: Damian Dillon, (Dis)integration #5, 2019, unique C-Type print on Alupanel, 100 x 90 cm.

Exhibition dates: 16 April to 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: Lauren Jaye Carter, Closer / Further, 2020. Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata Warm.

Exhibition dates: 12 February to 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.

Exhibition Materials

• Artist Talk (YouTube)

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

Exhibition dates: 12 February to 11 April 2021

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

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.

Above selection written by Kate O’Hara, from her exhibition essay.

Exhibition Materials

• Artist Talk (YouTube)

Exhibition dates: 12 February to 11 April 2021

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

"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."

Above selection written by Louise Martin-Chew, from her exhibition essay.

Exhibition Materials

• Artist Talk (YouTube)

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

Exhibition dates: 22 January to 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: Andrea Huelin, Man with Canvas 2020, gouache on paper, 35 x 28 cm

Exhibition dates: 27 November 2020 to 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-practised 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.

Exhibition Materials

• Artist Talk (YouTube)

Image: Leonie Wood, Repose 2020, artist pen on paper, framed, 50 x 41 cm.

Exhibition dates: 27 November 2020 to 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.

Exhibition Materials

• Artist Talk (YouTube)

Image: Regi Cherini, Saturday Night In 2019, embroidery floss on cotton, 38 x 27.5 cm.

Exhibition dates: 27 November 2020 to 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: Anton Hasell (1994), The Investigator (maquette), JCU Art Collection. Photography: Michael Marzik. ©Anton Hasell, 2020. Reproduced with permission.

Exhibition dates: 30 October 2020 to 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.

Exhibition Materials

• Virtual Tour
• Catalogue (Issuu)

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.

Exhibition dates: 25 September to 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.

Exhibition Materials

• Catalogue (Issuu)
• Price List (PDF)

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.

Exhibition dates: 25 September to 25 October 2020

The Townsville Art Society Inc proudly presents the 65^th 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: Elijah Clarke, Stories from Bwgcolman (8) 2019, printed scan from 4x5 negative, framed, 40.64 x 50.8 cm.

Exhibition dates: 3 April to 17 May 2020

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 digitisation 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.

Exhibition Materials

• Virtual Tour
• Publication (PDF)
• Price List (PDF)

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

Exhibition dates: 3 April to 17 May 2020

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.

Exhibition Materials

• Virtual Tour
• Exhibition Price List (PDF)
• Artist Talk (YouTube)
• Colouring-in pages adapted from Stewart MacFarlane’s artworks (PDF)