HOTA Gallery's Second Birthday

Overview

It was back in 2021 that the Gold Coast gained another impressive attraction: the largest public gallery outside a capital city in Australia. When HOTA, Home of the Arts opened its new six-level space dedicated to creativity, it became a new hub for southeast Queensland's art lovers — and, in 2023, it's now celebrating two years of lining its walls with stunning artworks.

With Pop Masters: Art from the Mugrabi Collection, New York currently on display, showcasing work by iconic artists Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, HOTA is marking its birthday by inviting everyone in. Sure, you've got until Sunday, June 4 to take a gander anyway; however, head by between Saturday, April 29–Sunday, May 14 and a ticket will only cost you $15.

Even better: on Monday, May 8, entry is free. That said, expect those tickets to get snapped up ASAP. Either way, you'll need to book online to either enter for nothing or score a discount.

Pop Masters pairs the three artists' pieces for a world-first celebration of pop art masters, including featuring 40-plus works never before seen Down Under. The exhibition is wholly drawn from the private collection of prominent art collector Jose Mugrabi, surveying the 60s, 70s and 80s art scene through the output of these legends of the pop art and street art movements.

There are more than ten pieces by Warhol, acting as the showcase's introduction, with 1964's Sixteen Jackies and 1982's Cross among them. As for Haring, one of his earliest-ever works from 1979 features alongside others such as Untitled (Dancing Dogs), while the range of Basquiat pieces includes 1981's New York, New York and — fittingly — a Warhol-Basquiat collaboration.

Although art by the three icons provides Pop Masters with its huge drawcard, the exhibition also seeks to celebrate the ongoing legacy of pop art alongside its origins. That means that you can peer at pieces by Katherine Bernhardt, Kwesi Botchway, George Condo, Damien Hirst, KAWS, Barbara Kruger, Joel Mesler, Richard Prince, Tom Sachs, Julian Schnabel, Mickalene Thomas and Tom Wesselmann — such as KAWS' 2.8-metre-tall 2018 sculpture What Party, plus Barbara Kruger's If it sees, blind it, from a section of her 2009 installation Between being born and dying in New York's Lever House.