Past Exhibitions

Recent Acquisitions: First Nations Artists in the City of Townsville Art Collection

Exhibition Dates: 20 September – 1 December 2024
Pinnacles Gallery

Townsville City Galleries is proud to present new works in the City of Townsville Art Collection by First Nations artists. These artworks have either been generously donated to the Collection or purchased. Visitors will have the opportunity to view paintings, sculptures, and installations that highlight the perspectives and experiences of First Nations people.

Featuring: Ada Bird Petyarre, Arone Meeks, Banduk Marika, Claude Pannka, David Jones, Ewald Namatjira, Gail Mabo, Gloria Petyarre, James Billy, Jimmy K. Thaiday, Kevin Namatjira, L. O'Chin, Oscar Namatjira, Sally Gabori, Steve Walbungara, Susan Peters Nampitjin, Tommy Pau, Tony Albert, Blak Douglas and Adam Geczy.

A Townsville City Galleries exhibition.

_{Image credit: Tony Albert, Mid Century Modern, Aboriginal Art, 2016, Pigment print on paper, 120 x 120 cm, Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Kyle Page, 2024, City of Townsville Art Collection. Accession number: 2023.0006.000}

Young Indigenous Printmakers

Exhibition Dates: 20 September – 1 December 2024
Pinnacles Gallery

Young Indigenous Printmakers is a collaboration 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.

_{Image credit: E. F., Connection to the land and sea, 2024, Linocut print on paper, 15 x 30 cm, Image courtesy the artist}

Seven + Seven: Printmaking Across Unknown Terrain

Exhibition Dates: 12 July to 15 September 2024

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 12 July 2024

Floor talk: 10:30am, 13 July 2024

Seven + Seven: Printmaking Across Unknown Terrain explores visual dialogues and contemporary ideas among 14 artists from Canada and Australia. The resulting exhibition invites audiences to regard not only the vast distances across both these national geographical and psychological landscapes, but to also consider how relative perspectives in these two hemispheres examine similar themes of colonialism, extreme weather, consequences of the impact humans have on nature (and ourselves). Through hybrid applications of printmaking and the international diversity the exhibition explores, we might find two different cultures have more in common than we think.

Exhibition Materials

• publication for Seven + Seven (Issuu)

_{Image: Judy Watson, Experimental Beds 3 2012, 3-plate etching with chine collé, 81 x 67.3 cm framed. Photo: Carl Warner}

Tate Adams: In Black & White

Exhibition Dates: 4 May to 7 July 2024

Exhibition launch and floor talk: 11am to 1pm, 4 May 2024

Tate Adams’ (1922–2018) artistic career began and ended as a painter. Only a few of his early paintings survive. Connemara Girl was the only painting he kept. The work is typical of the small-scale figurative paintings he produced in Ireland before immigrating to Australia, and speaks of his reverence for Ireland. Adams would live into his nineties, a life of continuous artistic exploration. Largely thought of as a printmaker, Adams taught the first diploma of printmaking in Australia at RMIT. His colleagues and students number among the well-known in Australian art.

Adjusting to the onset of macular degeneration in the latter half of his life, and when living almost reclusively in Townsville, Adams synthesised his artistic knowledge to create large-scale gouaches. In Black & White is a celebration of these large-scale black gouache paintings and the prints that derived from them. Produced towards the end of his life, they express Adams’ delight in exploring his Irish and broader artistic heritage and incorporating his Australian environment.

_{Image: Tate Adams, Maura 2010, etching, gouache resist sugarlift and aquatint, 70 x 48 cm (sheet), Edition 6/50. Gift of the artist, 2010. City of Townsville Art Collection. Accession number: 2010.87}

good grief, danish quapoor

Exhibition dates: 8 March to 28 April 2024

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 8 March 2024

Artist talk: 10:30am, 9 March 2024

Danish Quapoor is known for his distinctive flat-colour compositions and playful narratives. The artist's largest body of work to date features his trademark illustrative paintings, wall drawings and ceramics alongside blown glass, textile forms and stop-motion animation. Quapoor reconciles these ostensibly disparate elements of his practice with a cohesive colour palette and a consistent use of repetitive, time-consuming processes.

Conceptually, good grief is an interrogation of personal identity and familial relationships. The artist reflects on his father's unexpected death in the 2020 peak of COVID-19, and the exasperation of experiences and memories in the wake of that loss. Collectively, the works illuminate and subvert concepts of grief, sexuality, and gender roles within heteronormative regional contexts. These concepts are tempered by layers of humour, wordplay, misdirection and a life-affirming levity in aesthetic and approach.

Exhibition Materials

• publication for good grief (Issuu)

_{Image 1: Danish Quapoor, stubborn forces, 2022. Baling twine on porcelain paperclay with clear gloss glaze, 24.5 x 11.5 x 11.5 cm. Photograph: Daniel Qualischefski.}

_{Image 2: View of the exhibition space. Image courtesy Townsville City Galleries. Photograph: Andrew Rankin.}

Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns)

Exhibition Dates: 24 November 2023 to 3 March 2024

Floor talk with Matt Poll: 5:30pm, 24 November 2024

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 24 November 2024

Mariw Minaral brings together some of the finest examples of Zendah Kes (Torres Strait Islands) artist Alick Tipoti’s unique and intricate linocut printmaking practice. The exhibition also contains his award-winning sculptural works, contemporary masks and film. A cultural and environmental artist, Tipoti is highly respected for his work in regenerating cultural knowledge and language. Guided by the traditional cultural practices of his people, Tipoti’s storytelling encompasses traditional cosmology, marine environments and ocean conservation – focusing on what it means to be a sea person.

_{Image: Alick Tipoti, Kisay Dhangal, 2016, bronze with mother-of-pearl inlay, ANMM Collection. Purchased with funds from the Sid Faithfull and Christine Sadler program supporting Contemporary Indigenous Maritime Heritage in Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands through the ANM Foundation. Overall: 1940 × 2020 × 1020 mm, 280 kg.}

_{This exhibition is supported by the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to the national collections for all Australian.}

_{Australian National Maritime Museum acknowledges all traditional custodians of the lands and waters throughout Australia and pay our respects to them and their cultures; and to elders both past and present.}

People, Culture & Country: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Project 2023

Exhibition Dates: 27 October to 19 November 2023

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 27 October 2023

Panel discussion: 10:30am, 11 November 2023

People, Culture and Country: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Project, is proudly supported by Townsville City Galleries and 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 (for example, weaving, printmaking, and 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.

This year Pinnacles Gallery is proud to host the People, Culture and Country: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Project exhibition.

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

_{Image: People, Culture & Country Project, Spinifex State College, Intertwined Connections [detail] 2023, Raffia, polymer clay, resin dye, elastic, emu feathers, gumnuts. Model: Rashae Strahan. Photographer: Telisha Crisp.}

Young Indigenous Printmakers 2023

Exhibition dates: 27 October to 19 November 2023

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 27 October 2023

The Young Indigenous Printmakers program is a collaborative project run in partnership between Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts and Townsville City Galleries.

Young Indigenous Printmakers is a free education program that is aimed at Indigenous Australian high school students. Students learn and experience lino carving, printing and editioning, and gain exhibition experience. The program seeks to engage, foster and promote artistic development.

Students participate in a two-day intensive printmaking workshop with a printmaking expert and an Indigenous Australian artist who introduce printmaking and explore the students’ Traditional Culture/s and identity. The first day is held at the school and the second day is spent in The Studio at Umbrella. The students’ prints are exhibited in Umbrella’s gallery or at Townsville City Galleries once a semester.

_{Image: Kesia Bob, Hammerhead [detail], 2023, Linocut print on paper, 15 x 30 cm. Photograph: Amanda Galea.}

Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Arts 2023

Exhibition dates: 6 to 22 October 2023

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 6 October 2023

The Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art 2023 recognise and promote excellence in senior visual art education throughout Queensland state and non-state schools.

Since 1990, the program has helped raise community awareness of the degree of sophistication in concepts, diversity of technical competence, and the high standard of visual art education in Queensland secondary schools.

_{The Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Visual Art is an initiative of the Department of Education Queensland, supported by program partner Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA).}

_{Image courtesy of Queensland Department of Education.}

Wearable Art Creatives 2023

Exhibition dates: 1 September to 22 October 2023

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 1 September 2023

Artist talk with Svenja from Studio Svenja: 10:30 to 11:30am, 2 September 2023

An opportunity to see up close a selection of artworks from the 2023 POSE Performance.

Wearable art occupies an exciting and innovative space that fuses many art forms and techniques, from the use of recycled or high-tech materials and industrial design, through to millinery, sculpture and traditional craft and weaving techniques.

_{Image: Jasmine Roelser and Marli Haller, Natures Glow [detail], 2021. Jute rope, wooden pegs, wooden beads, cane, glow in the dark spray paint. Photographer: Fiona Cochrane Photography}

EMBOLDEN The courage to be

Exhibition dates: 1 September to 1 October 2023

Exhibition launch: 6pm, 1 September 2023

Floor talk: 10:30am, 16 September 2023

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.

EMBOLDEN: The courage to be will launch alongside Wearable Art Creatives on Friday 1 September at Pinnacles Gallery.

A TAFE North Queensland Graduate Exhibition.

_{Image: Emma Moore, She is Blossoming, 2023. Buff raku clay, 350 x 450 mm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

One foot on the ground, one foot in the water

Exhibition dates: 24 June to 27 August

Curator's talk: 4 to 5pm, 24 June 2023

Exhibition launch: 5pm, 24 June 2023

Artist forum: 10:30am, 26 August 2023

At a time when many are experiencing complex feelings about the frailty of life and future uncertainty, the exhibition One foot on the ground, one foot in the water turns to the subject of our own mortality. Eleven contemporary artists present paintings, sculptures, installations and sound works that invoke experiences of loss, impermanence, transience, remembrance, memorialisation and their own expressions of grief.

Each artist offers insight into the ways we let go of death, or hold it close, as a continuing living presence in the world. Artworks and other objects can reflect these kinds of present-absences, allowing the departed to continue to resonate in our memory, and in objects that outlive them.

Curated by Travis Curtin.

_{Image: Timothy Cook, Kulama 2013, natural earth pigments on linen, 200 x 220 cm, Courtesy of the artist, Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association, Milikapiti, and Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Photographer: Ian Hill.}

_{One foot on the ground, one foot in the water is a La Trobe Art Institute exhibition toured by NETS Victoria.}

Leftover Love – New Directions

Exhibition Dates: 29 April to 18 June

Leftover Love – New Directions brings together contemporary artists who use textiles or textile techniques to create sculptural forms that engage with ideas around sustainability, environment, and material culture.

This exhibition has evolved from the 2021 show Leftover Love, curated by the Australian Tapestry Workshop.

These artists are driven by a desire to have a sustainable practice; all reuse, repurpose and remake using found and discarded materials. Techniques such as stitching, knitting, weaving, and quilting are used to create textural and sculptural forms that coexist together within a shared space.

Exhibition Materials

• publication for Leftover Love – New Directions (Issuu)

_{Image: Carolyn Cardinet, Fish Trap and Dredging, 2021, found baling twine, installation view (detail). Photographer: Marie-Luise Skibbe.}

Groundswell: Recent Movements within Art and Territory

Exhibition dates: 29 January to 23 April 2022

Groundswell showcases the diversity, technical mastery and social importance of Northern Territory artists whilst foregrounding the wider role art plays in the process of mass social, political and cultural change. The stirring momentum of the exhibition’s title exudes from each of the works on display as the artists give voice to their concerns about water sustainability and its impact on our collective futures. Groundswell features over twenty works by Northern Territory artists including Jacky Green, Kelly Lee Hickey, June Mills, Aly de Groot, Patricia Phillipus Napurrula, Lee Harrop, Maicie Lalara, Mel Robson, Jennifer Taylor and Tarzan JungleQueen. The works in Groundswell extend through vast geographies, perspectives and artistic mediums to stake their claim, spanning moving image, visualised data, painting, printmaking, ceramics and sculpture. These works find commonality in their shared determination to bridge the message of each individual artist to our collectively shared concerns as Northern Territory citizens. In this way, visual culture is harnessed to agitate for the paradigm shift we so desperately need if we are to preserve our most precious resource into an uncertain future.

The exhibition is accompanied by an Activist Toolkit, which has been created to highlight the key issues at stake. It provides simple, concrete tactics to equip you as an active participant moving within the same currents of change.

Curated by Carmen Ansaldo, SPARK NT Curator.

Exhibition Materials

• activist toolkit for Groundswell (PDF)
• virtual tour for Groundswell

_{Image: Johnathon World Peace Bush, Bush Family Tree, 2020, ochre on canvas, 150 x 120 cm. Image courtesy of The Macquarie Group Collection.}

Cultural warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors are advised that this exhibition may contain images, names and accounts of people who have passed away. We also wish to advise that some of the topics discussed may be distressing. Pinnacles Gallery is committed to helping our audiences understand the experiences, both past and ongoing, of Australian First Nations people as part of our commitment to truth and reconciliation.

Arryn Snowball: Slack Water

Exhibition dates: 26 November to 22 January 2022

Exhibition launch: 6 to 8pm, 26 November 2021

Floor talk with poet Nathan Shepherdson: 10 to 11am, 27 November 2021

Hailing from Innisfail, Arryn Snowball’s artistic career has been hard to predict. After leaving North Queensland for study and then work in Brisbane, Snowball then undertook a sustained residency in Tokyo, before deciding to split his time between his Berlin studio, and the New South Wales hinterlands, where he is building a modest studio and living space. Slack Water is a suite of new and recent works partially inspired by the poetry of Nathan Shepherdson, a long-time friend of the artist, as well as a growing understanding of what scientists have dubbed the Anthropocene, a term used to describe the present epoch, in which the changes to climate and ecology caused by the human race are at least as significant as any other cause.

Slack Water brings together the artist’s recent paintings, gouache studies, and experimental, performance-based drawings usually executed in response to music with chalk on blackboards. The dark walls of the Pinnacles Gallery, of course, offers a far larger field for this project and promises to be a highlight of the exhibition. Slack Water will also be exhibited at the University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery in 2022.

_{Image: Arryn Snowball, Deep above, 2020 tempera on linen 190 x 190 cm.}

21: TAFE QLD Visual Art Students

Exhibition dates: 29 October to 20 November 2021

Exhibition launch: 6 to 8pm, 29 October 2021

The annual exhibition of TAFE Queensland visual art student’s works. Boasting 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: Tenielle Edmonson, Saints 2021, gouache and stencil, 53 x 73 cm. Image courtesy of the Artist.}

UP CLOSE: Wearable Art Creatives

Exhibition dates: 29 October to 20 November 2021

Exhibition launch: 6 to 8pm, 29 October 2021

Wearable Art occupies an exciting and innovative space that fuses many art forms and techniques, from the use of recycled or high-tech materials and industrial design, through to millinery, sculpture and traditional craft and weaving techniques. Wearable Art Creatives (WAC) was established in 2019 and aims to grow and promote wearable art as an innovative, vibrant, and creative art form in Townsville, its surrounding areas, and beyond. The 2021 WAC Show was presented at the inaugural POSE event as part of the North Australian Festival of Arts (NAFA) in Townsville, in August 2021. This exhibition will feature a selection of the wearable artworks presented at the POSE event, so that you can get an ‘UP CLOSE’ look at these spectacular creations.

_{Image: Alison McDonald, Ring Cycle 2021, reused plastics (from bottles) and cable ties, dimensions variable. Image Courtesy of Wearable Art Creatives. Photographer: Fiona Cochrane.}

In Cahoots: Artists Collaborate Across Country

Exhibition dates: 20 August to 22 October 2021

Exhibition launch: 6 to 8pm, 20 August 2021

Almost two years in the making and spanning the nation, In Cahoots celebrates the unique and energised artistic works that emerge when artists collaborate across cultures. The exhibition is the result of six residencies with remote and regional Aboriginal Arts Centres, undertaken by independent Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists from across Australia.

In the spirit of artists working together and under the radar, In Cahoots is an apt, if slightly mischievous banner for these partnerships. Such camaraderie was vital in the face of challenges such as washed out roads, flat tyres and extreme weather – in addition to the immense personal and creative energy and logistical efforts that have gone into these collaborative projects. At the heart of these collaborations is an exceptional willingness to explore, experiment, learn and share across cultures.

Participating Artists and Arts Centres: Tony Albert & Warakurna Artists, Neil Aldum & Baluk Arts, Louise Haselton & Papulankutja Artists, Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro & Martumili Artists, Trent Jansen & Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency, Curtis Taylor & Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre.

Curated by Erin Coates, Fremantle Arts Centre.

Presented by Fremantle Arts Centre.

_{Image: Tony Albert, Kieran Lawson and David C Collins, Warakurna Superhero #1 (detail), 2017, C-type print, 100 x 150 cm. Image courtesy of the artists, Sullivan & Strumpf and Warakurna Artists}

Graphic Tendencies: Works from the City of Townsville Art Collection

Exhibition dates: 30 April auto 8 August 2021

Exhibition launch: 6 to 8pm, 30 April 2021

The Townsville region has long been the home of many artists deeply invested in graphic practices, art which uses the visual elements for immediate and satisfying results. With a strong commitment to drawing, which has been translated into disciplines such as printmaking, painting and photography, Townsville and North Queensland artists and collectors have helped shape the City of Townsville Art Collection to include a range of visually dynamic works. a selection of which are presented here. Graphic Tendencies includes works by Davida Allen, Garry Andrews, Vincent Bray, George Baldessin, Barbara Cheshire, John Firth-Smith, Christian Flynn, George Gittoes, Robert Jacks, Scott Redford, Margaret Wilson and many more.

Curated by Jonathan McBurnie.

_{Image: Ian Smith, The Meaning Beyond the Sign – The Truth Behind the Ad, 2002, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 107 x 144cm. Collection of the City of Townsville. Purchased from Heiser Gallery, 2011. Image courtesy of the artist.}

Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection on Tour

Exhibition dates: 19 February to 16 April 2021

Exhibition launch: 6 to 8pm, 19 February 2021

Patricia Piccinini (b.1965) invites audiences to think about their place in a world where advances in biotechnology and digital technologies blur the lines between human, nature and the artificial world. The artist’s fascination with these boundaries and relationships led The New York Times to describe her creations as ‘sculptures of life forms that don’t exist’ – her lifelike hybrid creatures seamlessly blend human, animal and machine elements to reveal life forms that are extraordinarily familiar.

Piccinini said, "I am interested in relations: the relationship between the artificial and the natural, between humans and the environment. The relationships between beings, within families and between strangers. And the relationship between the audience and the artwork".

Influenced by science, nature, Surrealism and the unconscious, Piccinini’s collisions of forms are sometimes startling but rarely fearsome. While her artwork explores the implications of new technological developments, her fantastic creations also engage audiences on an emotional level, eliciting empathy and challenging conventional notions of beauty, perfection and ideal forms.

Piccinini said, "over the years, I have built up a sort of alternative world that exists just beyond the real world we live in. It is strange, but familiar at the same time. It exists as moments, objects and images that overlap with the real world in the gallery space".

_{Image: Patricia Piccinini, Teenage Metamorphosis (detail) 2017. Silicone, fibreglass, human hair, found objects, 25 x 137 x 75 cm. Purchased 2018 Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery}

MAKE, an exhibition of TAFE students

Exhibition dates: 6 November to 4 December 2020

Exhibition launch: 4 to 6pm, 6 November 2020

Townsville City Galleries is happy to be reopening Pinnacles Gallery to the public, in time for MAKE, an exhibition of TAFE students. Boasting an array of approaches and media, MAKE promises to be a wonderful return to the long-missed gallery space, and an exciting glimpse into the future of Townsville’s emerging artists.

_{Image: Jamie Banks, Out of the Box [detail] 2020, charcoal on cartridge paper, 59 x 42 cm. Courtesy of the Artist.}