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Outdoor Gallery
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Image credit: Elisha McGuckin's artwork A mixed bag No. 2 featured in the Giffin Lane banner as part of Outdoor Gallery exhibition Paradise Gloss.
Brisbane City Council's Outdoor Gallery transforms Brisbane's laneways, city streets and car parks into imaginative, curious, and engaging spaces. Comprising of light boxes, banners, vitrines, and evening projections, the Outdoor Gallery displays art outside in city streets, instead of inside on gallery walls. 2023 marked 10 years of the Outdoor Gallery program.
Share your experience of the Outdoor Gallery exhibitions and public programs on social media using #BNEPublicArt.
Exhibition 'Paradise Gloss'
From 14 June to 3 November 2024, we invite you to explore Council’s latest Outdoor Gallery exhibition, Paradise Gloss. Curated by Laura Brinin, Paradise Gloss provides the community with opportunities to engage in creative exploration and encourages play to improve mental wellbeing.
Download our 'Paradise Gloss' Making Happy | Program (PDF - 3.1Mb) to help explore this wonderful exhibition.
Historically, art creation has been used as a tool to unpack and expand upon lived experiences, and this exhibition is centred around that positive research by inviting the Brisbane community to interact with the artwork for a positive wellness outcome.
The exhibition along with the accompanying activations and public program celebrates the resilience and connectivity of our city, and the strengths of the individual making the community whole.
Join us for a number of activations, events and online engagements as part of this exhibition.
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Artist: Sunday Jemmott
ARTWORK: Details of Play (2024)
LOCATION: Fish Lane light boxes, south brisbane
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Sunday Jemmott is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist, seeking to challenge the marginalisation of play within both art history and contemporary culture.
At the core of Sunday’s art practice, lies a celebration and exploration of creative play. Their work serves as a melting pot of visually dynamic elements, combining clashing textures, unexpected colour palettes and materials. Through this approach, Sunday invites viewers to reconsider the boundaries of art and the inherent value of playfulness in the creative process.
Social media handle: @sundaysartclub
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Artist: Arabella Walker
ARTWORK: perfect chaos (2024)
LOCATION: edison lane banner, brisbane city
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Arabella Walker is an emerging artist from the maternal line of the Auburn Hawkwood Wulli Wulli people, and through her art practice explores the complexities of bridging her First Nations heritage with modern life. She interweaves Indigenous cultural wisdom into her work through mediums like paint, video projections and installations.
Perfect Chaos is Arabella's reflection on her journey as a new First Nation artist over the past year. She describes it as a mix of exciting opportunities, challenges and setbacks, embodying chaos in its perfect form. This artwork reminds us that everyone is on a journey created by a tapestry of their own unique experiences and navigating their version of perfect chaos within their lives.
Social media handle: @arabella_walker_artz
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Artist: Bonnie Hislop
ARTWORK: i need some space (2023)
LOCATION: hutton Lane light boxes, brisbane city
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Brisbane-based artist Bonnie Hislop is widely known for her expertise in ceramics, particularly hand-building and delightful illustrations. Bonnie has since shifted her focus to crafting large-scale sculptures, demonstrating her impressive technical skills. One of her stand-out pieces titled I need some space, is characterised by fun motifs, lively colours and nods to pop culture, staying true to Bonnie's distinctive style.
Displayed alongside the works of fellow artist Lindsay Stitches, Bonnie's creations stand out with detailed close-ups, offering a glimpse into the meticulous and labour-intensive process behind their artistic practices.
Social media handle: @bonnie_hislop
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Artist: Lindsay Stiches
ARTWORK: brisbane (2024)
LOCATION: hutton lane light boxes, brisbane city
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Lindsay Stitches is famous for her detailed hand embroidery of iconic buildings and quirky places from around the country. Her latest piece, which is featured in the Hutton Lane light boxes, Brisbane, shows off the city's landmarks such as the Story Bridge, Southbank's Wheel of Brisbane and even the notoriously cheeky bin chicken.
Displayed with Bonnie Hislop's work, Lindsay’s work gives us a closer look at the intricate process behind her craft. Alongside are smaller pieces from her embroidery journal, revealing more about her creative journey and style. Together, they offer a fun peek into the world of contemporary embroidery art.
Social media handle: @lindsay_stitches
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Artist: Elisha McGuckin
ARTWORK: a mixed bag no.2 (2023)
LOCATION: giffin lane banner, brisbane city
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Elisha McGuckin redefines still life painting with a vibrant pop art twist, infusing mundane objects with vivid acrylic colours. Her work captivates with bold nostalgia, evoking joy and excitement while triggering a dopamine release. In a world where sugar is a common reward, McGuckin’s art offers another, more enriching visual feast for the soul as seen in her artwork A mixed bag no.2.
Social media handle: @elishamcguckinartist
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Artist: Jessica Nothdurft
ARTWORK: wilted (2023) and purge (2024)
LOCATION: eagle Lane light boxes, brisbane city
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Jessica Nothdurft is a multimedia artist who transforms deeply personal circumstances into universal scenes. Her faux-naive style explores the existence of struggle below the surface and the many facets of shame.
Jessica is a strong advocate around using art to process one’s struggles, with the selected artworks striking a balance between a sense of burden and the hopeful lightness of being.
Social media handle: @jessicanothdurft.art
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Artist: Rachel Burke
ARTWORK: a growing girl (2024)
LOCATION: irish Lane banner, brisbane city
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Combining functionality with whimsy, Rachel Burke’s creations are a captivating blend of fashion-forward designs and dopamine-inducing artistry. Her work serves as a cathartic and labour-intensive exploration of colour, vibrancy and duality.
Not merely kitschy or crafty, Rachel’s practice embodies evidence of creative play and consideration. From wearable art to functional items, Rachel’s creations offer a recipe for heightened serotonin levels and reduced cortisol, all in the name of fun.
Social media handle: @imakestagram
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Artist: Melanie Brady
ARTWORK: The loved ones (2024)
LOCATION: irish lanE banner, brisbane city
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Melanie specialises in creating symbolic still life paintings, with a particular emphasis on textiles, attire and the expressive language and memory of fabrics.
In The Loved Ones, Melanie created this new artwork in her distinctive style of acrylic and ink painting that depicts the wardrobe of Brisbane fashion icon Rachel Burke (also featured in Irish Lane). This piece vividly captures the colours and exuberance of Rachel's clothing collection in a semi-realistic manner, emphasising the concept of dopamine dressing.
Social media handle: @melanieshmelanie
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Artist: Col Mac
ARTWORK: easier done than said (2024)
LOCATION: king george square car park light boxes, brisbane city
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Col Mac is an emerging multidisciplinary artist from Brisbane. By drawing from both art history and language, Col’s work explores how our relationships with text and image create connections over time, allowing us to view something as both static and alive, present and past.
Col's selected artworks are currently displayed alongside pieces by fellow artist Alice Lang in the King George Square Carpark light boxes. Together, these collections strike a delicate balance: while Lang's smiley-face masks evoke mental well-being connotations, Col's illustrated poetry acts as a reflective prompt, akin to journal entries commonly used in wellness practices, offering a counterbalance to the mental well-being connotations of the mask-like smileys. By engaging in journaling, individuals find calm amidst chaos, transforming the act into a mindfulness activity that helps quiet the noise of everyday life.
Social media handle: @mucho_okay
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Artist: Alice Lang
ARTWORK: flowah powah (2021) and flowah powah (blue) (2021)
LOCATION: king george sqaure car park light boxes, brisbane city
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Alice Lang, an Australian artist currently residing in Los Angeles, explores the influence of existing power structures on the interpretation of objects, text and imagery. Her intricate and detail-rich works delve into the complex interplay between value and meaning.
Originally designed to boost employee morale, the smiley face has evolved into a symbol representing various counter-cultural movements, subcultures and emojis.
Alice's artworks are displayed alongside text pieces by fellow artist Col Mac in the King George Square Carpark light boxes. Together, these collections strike a delicate balance: Col's illustrated poetry acts as a reflective prompt, akin to journal entries commonly used in wellness practices, offering a counterbalance to the mental well-being connotations of the mask-like smileys. By engaging in journaling, individuals find calm amidst chaos, transforming the act into a mindfulness activity that helps quiet the noise of everyday life.
Social media handle: @alicemlang
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Artist: Samuel Leighton-Dore
ARTWORK: cloud-based fantasy (2024)
LOCATION: edward street (corner queen street) vitrine, brisbane city
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Samuel Leighton-Dore is a multidisciplinary artist, screenwriter and author based on the Gold Coast. Working predominantly across ceramics, illustration and animation, his art brings colour and levity to themes of mental health, identity and sexuality. His work has appeared on the cover of the Journal of Australian Ceramics, been acquired into the Gold Coast City collection and the Tweed Regional Gallery collection, and twice selected for the biennial North Queensland Ceramic Awards. In 2019 he was named Visual Artist of the Year at ACON’s Honour Awards, recognising his creative contribution to the LGBTIQ+ arts community. He has released two books, How To Be A Big Strong Man (2019, Smith Street Books) and Wow It’s All A Lot (HarperCollins, 2023). He and his husband run Sad Man Studio, a production company focused on boutique animation, and have a coming-of-age animated series in development with Ludo Studio, the producers of Bluey.
"With Cloud-Based Fantasy I wanted to capture the potential joy of free-falling — the idea that irreverence and connection are possible alongside the deep discomfort of uncertainty. After all, nothing symbolises the simultaneous beauty and fragility of life quite like suspended ceramics encased in glass on a busy Brisbane street." Samuel Leighton-Dore
Social media handle: @samleightondore
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Artist: Susan Lincoln
ARTWORK: in light we trust (paradise 2424ad) (2024)
LOCATION: edward street (corner elizabeth street) vitrine, brisbane city
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Susan Lincoln is an established Meanjin/Brisbane artist working with form and light within space. Her practice explores experimental 2D and 3D artworks in a broad range of reflective materials which are used to attain a highly refined aesthetic.
Featured in the vitrine, In Light We Trust (Paradise 2424AD), is a sculptural, light-reflecting artwork exploring the simplicity and nostalgia of light through glass, crystal and reflective material. The outcome is a portal of shimmering light that transcends the physical constraints of the vitrine, creating a renewable and changing visual dialogue between the passerby and the space.
“Stop, listen, breathe, feel.” - Susan Lincoln
Social media handle: @susanlincolnart
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Artist: Frances Powell
ARTWORK: still life fizz (2024)
LOCATION: heritage lanes light boxes, brisbane city
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Frances Powell is a Meanjin/Brisbane still life and collage artist, drawing inspiration from figure drawing, abstract shapes and colour associations in her work, which primarily focuses on paper.
Her latest works, exhibited in Heritage Lane, reflect on the significance of slowing down and cherishing moments shared over a meal with loved ones, celebrating the individual elements that make up the sum of the experience.
Social media handle: @byfrances_
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Artist: Michelle Xen
ARTWORK: mnemonic (2024)
LOCATION: howard smith wharves (projection) and museum of brisbane foyer (screen), brisbane city
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Within the domain of Michelle Xen’s practice, sound, object, saturated colour and environmental immersion are crushed together to form a new, highly compressed system of experimental engagements with sensory data.
Michelle’s artwork Mnemonic featured in the Museum Of Brisbane foyer and Howard Smith Wharves’ displays text onto the screens and rock walls, showcasing a vibrant and dynamic projection.
Mnemonic is a video series remixing abstracted music videos and text. The words are selected from a list of 2048 words utilised by the original BIP39 protocol, an encryption used for early Bitcoin wallets. These randomly selected mnemonic phrases were originally composed of 12 words and referred to as a seed phrase.
For this artwork words were selected based on their poetic resonance within the video. As a whole the phrase also forms a hidden acronym.
Social media handle:@michellexen
From 14 June to 3 November 2024, we invite you to explore Council’s latest Outdoor Gallery exhibition, Paradise Gloss. Curated by Laura Brinin, Paradise Gloss...
Michelle Xen’s artwork Mnemonic will be projected at Howard Smith Wharves from 14 June to 3 November 2024, 5.30pm-11.30pm, as part of Brisbane City Council’s...
Join Outdoor Gallery exhibition ‘Paradise Gloss’ curator, Laura Brinin, for an insightful and thoughtful walking tour through the city’s streets during...
Join Sunday Jemmott for an interactive and fun workshop exploring the joys of creativity and the therapeutic benefits of play. During this session, participants...
Online tutorials
Experience the benefits of arts participation anywhere with these free artist-led online tutorials. With clear instructions and minimal materials needed, you can easily recreate the artworks at home.
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced artist, these tutorials aim to make the process accessible and enjoyable for all.
DIY - Bin chicken embroidery
Artist Lindsay Stiches shares her creative process and teaches basic embroidery stitches. It’s a great opportunity for beginners and experienced embroiderers alike to dive into a fun and rewarding crafting project.
Download the bin chicken design outline (PDF - 16kb).
DIY - Still life and collage
Artist Frances Powell guides you through her creative process, offering simple techniques for capturing moments through still life and collage.
DIY – Pinch pot and blob dog: clay basics
This video serves a dual purpose: first, to offer a glimpse into the creation process of the featured artwork, and secondly, to impart fundamental clay techniques to viewers.
Artist Bonnie Hislop will empower you to try your hand at recreating a clay pot at home.
DIY – Scribble drawings: the art of play
Artist Sunday Jemmott explores the joys of creativity and the therapeutic benefits of play. You will have the opportunity to experiment with various art materials and techniques while learning to appreciate the journey of creation rather than focusing solely on the end product.
Discover how engaging in creative play can enhance your overall well-being.
APT10 Kids
Brisbane City Council, in collaboration with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), presents the Outdoor Gallery exhibition, APT10 Kids: Outdoors at Cordelia Street, South Brisbane.
Featured artworks have been created by Australian and international artists (and in some instances in collaboration with young people) that celebrate love, inclusion, and diversity, acknowledging the importance of collaboration and community.
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Cordelia Street - banner
ARTIST: SHANNON NOVAK IN COLLABORATION WITH MATTHIAS BUTCHER
ARTWORK: MAKE VISIBLE: BRISBANE — A PLACE FOR ALL (2021)
Shannon Novak (Aotearoa New Zealand b.1979) creates socially engaged artworks that aim to inspire positive change for the LGBTQI+ community. He is passionate about creating safe spaces that acknowledge, celebrate and support diversity. He achieves this through his art practice and is also the director of a global LGBTQI+ led non-profit called the Safe Space Alliance, an organisation that helps people identify, navigate, and create safe space for the LGBTQI+ community worldwide.
Make Visible: Brisbane – A Place for All (2021) features illustrations of different LGBTQI+ family groups. The work reflects the artists’ belief that we can work together to create a more loving and accepting world.
Outdoor Gallery map
Future exhibition
Our next exhibition in the Outdoor Gallery is APT11 Kids: Outdoors presented in partnership with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA).
Creative opportunities
For future exhibition and creative sector opportunities with Council, join the Creative Register.