National Museum photos on display
VA BIENNIAL exhibition with a pleasing additional attraction, the shifting colours of mother-of-pearl, a photographic portrait of our country and her people, plus a gallery shop offering a stunning range of art and craft contribute to rewarding viewing.
The Warwick Art Gallery is hosting the biennial Southern Downs Artists Exhibition, a showcase for artists living within the region.
Generous sponsorship has provided impressive monetary incentives attracting entries from over forty artists.
Paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and textile works vie for attention in a lively, colourful, and thoughtful presentation.
The major award was won by Gillian Knott for Innocence, a haunting portrait crafted in felted wool.
Five artists were recipients of commendation awards including Anna Irorere for her sculptural ceramic work Hear Me Roar, and Tom Benkendorff for his painting Sandbar.
Five further pieces, which include Warren Cole’s whimsical pump lamp and Imposition, a painting by Peter Osborn, received encouragement awards.
A successful and popular addition this year has been the Southern Downs Miniatures exhibition located in the Orange Wall Gallery.
It is the scale of these little treasures that makes them so appealing.
The miniature prize was won by Jayde Clacy for The Flow, a lyrical and fluid work in watercolour and gilding pen.
The Cobb and Co Museum in Toowoomba is showing two exhibitions that reflect cultural history.
Iridescent looks at exquisite and bizarre examples of ‘nacre,’ the glowing mother-ofpearl lining found inside the shells of pearl oysters, marine snails, and in the elegant Nautilus species.
Nacre has been collected and traded for millennia.
It has been used as embellishment and decoration for jewellery, musical instruments, religious artefacts and ornaments.
The exhibition’s detailed documentation offers historical and cultural insights that include fascinating glimpses into the art of collecting.
The second exhibition at the Cobb and Co Museum is A Portrait of Australia, on tour from the National Museum of Australia.
Awe-inspiring photographs by different photographers capture images that celebrate the essence of the country.
The photographs were featured in the acclaimed publication A Portrait of Australia commemorating the 30th anniversary of Australian Geographic.
The drama and diversity of this ancient land are stunningly depicted from the bush to the outback and from the coast to the cities.
The scenery and sites are given a human dimension through the ‘snap shots’ of ordinary people whose often remarkable stories create legends from unsung heroes.
Met Galleries at the Chocolate Cottage complex in Highfields offer a range of original artworks that include jewellery incorporating ancient Roman glass, silk paintings by Cecile Arndt, mosaics pieces by Margaret Shaw, and ceramics by Lindsay Muir.
Vibrantly coloured glass platters, tabletops, and magic mushrooms by Sylvia Free, and Chris Darval’s stone sculptures incised with old Irish Ogham script further attest to the versatility and skills of the artists.