Six Brisbane Art Exhibitions to See Before Summer Ends

Every three years since 1993, the city’s major art institutions celebrate the vast creativity brightening up the region as part of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. At the 2018 event — the fifth since GOMA opened, and one that’s free as usual — more than 80 individuals, collectives and group projects will grace the walls of the two galleries, representing over 30 countries. Understandably, the highlights are many.

View a major site-specific work by leading Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie, see Singapore-based artists Donna Ong andRobert Zhao Renhui turn QAG’s Watermall into a new landscape filled with artificial plants, or dive into the water with separate video works by Martha Atienza and Monira Al Qadiri — with the latter not only making the gallery feel like an aquarium, but also being projected onto the William Jolly Bridge for five days. When you enter the exhibition, you’ll walk beneath towering sculptures created from nassa shells from Papua New Guinea, while APT9 also features the largest contingent of First Nation artists in its history, including Australian Indigenous art.

Sports are often spoken about as a type of art form, but the Basil Sellers Art Prize took this idea to new levels. Celebrating a decade of paintings, UQ Art Museum’s latest exhibition Play On: The Art of Sport showcases the best artworks presented throughout the biennial prize’s run. Awarded for the best depiction of sport or sporting culture, many of Australia’s leading artists are represented, all offering up a different perspective on some of our favourite sporting pastimes.

Play On features Melbourne-based artist Jon Campbell — who took home the $100,000 award in 2012 — and his work Dream Team, a series of 22 paintings depicting nicknames of much-loved AFL players, while 2016 winner Richard Lewer’s work Theatre of Dreams will also be on display. Other artists include: Shaun Gladwell, Daniel Crooks, Tony Albert, Fiona McMonagle, Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont, Lauren Brincat, Gabrielle de Vietri amongst others.

With its latest exhibition, QUT Art Museum might just be taking inspiration from David Bowie. This showcase isn’t about the iconic musician, but it’s definitely taking his words to heart — and turning and facing the strange. Running until Sunday, February 3, Beyond Reason is all about pieces that throw logic, sense and all things ordinary out of the window. It’s a haven for everything that’s weird and wonderful, absurd and theatrical, and satirical and spontaneous. And, as it explores ideas of cultural identity, popular culture and sexuality, it dives deep into the mythical, the fairy tale-like and the transformative as well.

Spanning everything from sculptures to paintings — and plenty in-between as well — the exhibition also boasts a sizeable lineup of artists. There’s 29 creative folks exploring the topic, with the lineup starting with Karen Napaljarri Barnes and ending with Michael Vale. Others featured include Amber Boardman, Matthew Clarke, DC Style Fylez, Hannah Gartside, Kyoko Imazu, Sharon Muir, Tom Polo, Zoe Porter and The Ryan Sisters.

Making the leap from computer screens to gallery walls, digital art is here to stay. Tokyo has a whole museum dedicated to it, and now Brisbane Powerhouse is following suit for a month-long showcase. Displaying in the Visy Foyer and other exhibition spaces, Power to the Pixel runs from Tuesday, January 15 to Sunday, February 17, highlighting the eye-catching work of some of the world’s best artists in the medium. Australia, the US, the UK, Brazil and Israel are all represented, with Brisbane games whiz Wren Brier on curation duties. If you’ve played Jetpack Joyride or Fruit Ninja, then you’re familiar with her work.

Other featured artists include Melbourne’s Paul Robertson, who’s particularly fond of geometry and fractals; American Jubilee, who reinvents landscape images in 8- and 16-bit form; and Brazil’s Bruno Moraes, who features characters travelling through space heavily in his work. Getting up close and admiring every aspect of these pieces is highly recommended — they’ve been created one pixel at a time, after all.

Many things have graced GOMA’s walls and halls, from dots everywhere to weird and wonderful fields of not-quite-flowers. Until Sunday, April 28, 2019, so will a secret jacaranda garden of sorts. Sure, it’s easy to spot the eye-catching trees across the city at this time of year; however this creative exhibit will surround you with purple. Gary Carsley’s Purple Reign is part of the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, and it’s blooming inside the gallery for five months.

It’s designed for children, but great art can bring out the kid inside all of us. It can also make everyone want to take a whole heap of photos. The interactive piece is inspired by R Godfrey Rivers’ 1903 painting Under the jacaranda, and projects gorgeous blossoms of purple onto the space’s walls. There’s also animated video and touchscreens, letting attendees — especially the younger ones — really play with and dive into the artwork.

You are what you eat, or so the saying goes. Perhaps you are what you wear as well? That’s one of the ideas behind Dress Code, which explores the impact that fashion has on culture, gender and identity — and whether the clothes we don express our inner selves, or shape them. Displaying at the Museum of Brisbane until Monday, January 28, 2019, the sartorially focused showcase highlights the work of five artists, all of whom navigate the fields of art, design, craft and fashion to examine the making, wearing and purchasing of clothing in the Asia Pacific region.

A certain highlight is a section dedicated to Gerwyn Davies, with his signature pieces — combining both photography and costume-making — a huge feature. An installation by contemporary artist Lisa Hilli, plus newly commissioned pieces by Hannah Gartside, Emily McGuire and Grace Lillian Lee, are all also on offer. Entry to the exhibition is free, with Dress Code open every day of the week during its three-month run.