The NorthSite Art Market is back with an exciting 30 x 30 Edition, showcasing small-scale artwork perfect for holiday gifting.
All selected works are displayed and available for purchase from November 1st until December 24th —just in time for the perfect Christmas gift.
This exhibition invites local practicing artists to present their unique creations, encouraging the community to support local talent. Each piece reflects the rich artistic culture of Queensland, making it a wonderful opportunity to uplift local artists this festive season.
Participating Artists:
- Tia Adoberg
- Yasue Asai
- Gabye Bisset
- Sheila Brim
- Susan Cann
- Sarah Cann
- Mikyung Coates
- Jamie Cole
- Lauren Jaye Carter
- Dian Darmansjah
- Jane Dennis
- Barbara Dover
- Mum’a Nai
- Alison Goodwin
- MaharLina Gorospe-Lockie
- Kat Hall
- Leanne Hardy
- Annika Harding
- Julie Haysom
- Ian Horn
- Novella Jackson
- Eunjoo Jeong
- Hannah Murray
- Peter Morrison
- Roland Nancarrow
- Nicole Pan
- Brian Robinson
- Amanda Rowen
- Elle Sachlikidis
- Geoffrey Schmidt
- Mark Skelcher
- Helen Thrift Brooks
- Sam Tupou
- Melissa Waters
- Margarita Zorrilla
Browse the artworks available for purchase through the link below:
Spirits In The Ink – Offsite Exhibition
A collaboration between City of Moreton Bay and NorthSite Contemporary Arts, curated by Aven Noah Jr
This offsite exhibition at Caboolture Regional Art Gallery showcases the extensive archive of Djumbunji Press Kick Arts Fine Art Printmaking, a hub for print-making by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Far North Queensland that was active from 2009 to 2014. Shown alongside recent acquisitions from the Moreton Bay Art Collection and selected loans, the works in this exhibition showcase the rich and diverse cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists in the region, expressing their strong and vast cultural connection to country.
From emerging artists through to leading practitioners, the artists represented in this exhibition explore traditional and contemporary visual elements in a variety of techniques and styles, expressing their unique stories through the medium of print.These works have never been exhibited together previously, and viewed collectively tell the compelling story of First Nations print-making in Far North Queensland
Artists include Edna AMBRYM, Ruben AMBRYM, Valmai AMBRYM, Betty ANDY, Daniel BEERON, Theresa BEERON, Samual CLARMONT, Nancy COWAN, Daphne DE JERSEY, Nephi DENHAM, Carl Marun FOURMILE, Gerald FOURMILE, Lillian FOURMILE, Njrami FOURMILE, Seith ‘Gudju Guudju’ FOURMILE, Tamika GRANT IRAMU, Raymond HARRIS, Chris KENNEDY, Doris KINJUN, Glen MACKIE, Margaret MARA (nee DE JERSEY), Arone MEEKS, Billy MISSI, Alison MURRAY, Debra MURAAY, Emily MURRAY, John MURRAY, Ninney MURRAY, Sally MURRAY, Napoleon OUI, Robert Tommy PAU, Grace REID, Brian ROBINSON, Teho ROPEYARN, Joel SAM, Zane SAUNDERS, Shanoah SHEPARD, Eileen TEP, Alick TIPOTI, Brian UNDERWOOD, Philomena YEATMAN.
Image credit: Teho Ropeyarn, Ani, Ipi, Achah (land, water, sky), 2021, Vinyl-cut print on paper. Courtesy of the artist and NorthSite Contemporary Arts.
‘I, OBJECT’ INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN ART TOURS TO NORTHSITE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CAIRNS
‘I, OBJECT’ INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN ART TOURS TO NORTHSITE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CAIRNS
Audiences in Cairns can experience more than 60 contemporary and historical works from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Indigenous Australian Art collection when the exhibition ‘I, Object’ tours to NorthSite Contemporary Arts from 26 October to the 24 December 2024.
‘I, Object’ features contemporary painting, sculpture, and installation by leading Queensland artists Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Michael Boiyool Anning, Fiona Foley, Danie Mellor, Christian Thompson, Warraba Weatherall and others alongside 20 historical shields, boomerangs and clubs.
QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said ‘I, Object’ was an exhibition first developed by Bruce Johnson McLean, former Curator of Indigenous Australian Art, QAGOMA and shown at the Gallery of Modern Art from August 2020 through to August 2021.
‘We’re really thrilled this iteration of ‘I, Object’ will now tour to audiences in regional Queensland from 2023-2025 and after its showing in Rockhampton travel on to Caboolture, Toowoomba, Ipswich, Cairns, and Mackay.’
‘I, Object’ considers the many complex relationships Indigenous Australian artists continue to have with objects – from the histories informing their creation to the social and cultural consequences of their collection.
The exhibition demonstrates the great pride and inspiration of inherited cultural practices and historical Indigenous objects, and reveals the difficulties posed by their collection and estrangement.
A group of contemporary shields in the exhibition by artists Michael Boiyool Anning and Danie Mellor speak back to traditional shield-making practices and the mark-making traditions they have been preserved. In conversation with the historical shields on display, these contemporary works also comment on the impact of Western aesthetics and colonial policies on Indigenous people and society,’ Ms Davidson said.
‘I, Object’ also considers the Indigenous body-as-object and critiques the continued consumption of Indigenous images and identities that range from early genealogical and scientific studies to the demeaning, romanticised images of Aboriginal people and cultures.
Works reflecting these ideas include Tony Albert’s large-scale multi-media installation whiteWASH 2018 that comprises a collection of mid-century Aboriginalia ashtrays, and Vernon Ah Kee’s compelling triptych Neither pride nor courage 2006, large, hand-drawn portraits of male members of the artist’s family that reflect the practices of anthropologist Norman B Tindale (1900–93), who recorded vast amounts of genealogical information about Indigenous communities from all over Australia in the 1920’s and 30’s.
Other highlights in the exhibition include carved sculptures by Wik-Kugu artists Craig Koomeeta and Alair Pambegan, and Fiona Foley’s large-scale, text-based sculpture DISPERSED 2008, a monument to the Aboriginal people who were driven off their land, and many of whom were killed, on the Queensland colonial frontier in the nineteenth century.
After The Monsoonal Deluge
After the Monsoonal Deluge is an artwork by Brian Robinson, directed by Craig Walsh for Cairns Regional Council public art in Cairns City.
Artist Statement: Plants, sunshine, humid nights, insects, frogs and more plants. The word ‘tropical’ conjures up images of luxuriant foliage, exotic shapes, enticing textures and bold colours. After the Monsoonal Deluge is best expressed through the tropical garden – a haven of refuge, retreat and relaxation that offers the greatest opportunities for a sense of place, both instantly recognisable and part of our landscape heritage.
After the Monsoonal Deluge references the abundance of plant life and flowers that are found grown everywhere in profusion across Tropical North Queensland, an area in the country that braces for the monsoon season year after year.
In the Eastern Torres Strait, this season, which is known as koki kerker is generally a time of heavy rain during which there is luxuriant growth. In the Western Torres Strait, it is known as kuki, when the strong winds blew intermittently from the north-west accompanied by deluges of rain. The seasonal calendar of Torres Strait life reflects the changes in the seas, the winds, the stars and the land, and moves through cycles of abundance and scarcity, renewal and harvest, wet and dry.
Star constellations are of significant importance to the Islanders who use them to encode nature’s relative predictability into mythological narratives like Usiam, a cluster of seven stars that are more commonly known as Pleiades or the Seven Sisters, a time of planting. These narratives epitomise the cosmology or sense of understanding of one’s place in the universe and as island cultures that are dependent on sedentary agriculture and fishing, hey allow the stars, the winds and the tides to set the pace.
Intimate Worlds
(GROUP EXHIBITION) ARTISTS Kim Nolan / Danish Quapoor / Lois Hayes / Bunda Art / Malki Studio / Anne Jillett : Intimate Worlds – (Foyer Wall)
This exhibition will showcase artists that display a dedication to process, and respect + deep curiosity for materials. This is where art meet design, by providing artists with an opportunity to showcase their expanded practice. These makers tend to work away quietly away from the outside world, in more intimate spaces. They re-emerge from their studios with refined bodies of work; reflections of their own INTIMATE WORLDS.
Cristina Bevilacqua: SKIN
SKIN is a photographic project which celebrates bodily imperfections and promotes self-acceptance and worth in an era of unrealistic beauty standards and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Working with Cairns residents as her subjects, SKIN reflects artist Cristina Bevilacqua’s commitment to using art as a catalyst for meaningful dialogue and societal transformation.
SKIN is supported by the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF), a partnership between the Queensland Government and Cairns Shire Council.
View works here
Luke Aleksandrow: The Break Collection: Sounds of the Tropics
In the third instalment of The Break Collection: Sounds of the Tropics, Topaz based artist Luke Aleksandrow presents an installation documenting the breakage of ceramics made by far north Queensland artists within the rainforest soundscape. An accompanying ambient track composed by Tom Allum (WA) in response to the breaks, sounds and silences of Aleksandrow’s recordings is played back into the landscape.
The vinyl record featuring all the recorded ceramic breaks and the ambient track Tension Expanded by Tom Allum can be purchased HERE.
This project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, provided through Regional Arts Australia and administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance. NorthSite Contemporary Arts is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. The organisation is also supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
Jill Chism : Remnants
Remnants is an exhibition of installation, assemblage and mixed media works by Oak Beach artist Jill Chism. Selected existing works will be presented in dialogue with new works, contextualising Jill’s career as an artist working in Far North Queensland since the early 1990s. Rather than a dystopian view of the planet, Chism’s material investigations question our inevitable relationship with what remains of the natural world. Chism offers another, existential possibility of moving away from the cultural trance of separateness and materialism, towards an understanding of our connectedness, to each other and the cosmos.
The exhibition publication is available to purchase on our store here
This project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, provided through Regional Arts Australia and administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance. Additionally it received support from the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) with Douglas Shire Council.
Women’s Business – CIAF Booth 1
NorthSite at CIAF 2024 Women’s Business – Booth 1, Cairns Convention Centre.
During the annual Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (Thursday 25 July – Sunday 28 July), NorthSite presents an exhibition of new prints and weaving by artist Ivy Minniecon (Kuku Yalanji, Kabi Kabi, Gooreng Gooreng and Vanuatu) developed with Dian Darmansjah at NorthSite Art Studios, alongside paintings by her Aunty and mentor, Karen Gibson. The display at CIAF STALL 1 titled ‘Women’s Business’ reflects the importance of women staying strong and connected to Country, family, and community.
A number of other artworks by female Aboriginal artists from Western Cape York have been selected in response to the concept of women’s business, put forward by Ivy Minniecon and Karen Gibson. Additional independent artists showing paintings and weavings on the NorthSite Booth at CIAF 2024 include Heather Koowootha, Rhonda Woolla, Jean Wallembeng & Daphne De Jersey.
Check out NorthSite at CIAF 2024 Women’s Business exhibition and the full Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, CIAF 2024 Program.
Buy artworks
Text by Nicola Hooper
“Women’s Business” is a collaboration between two formidable First Nations artists, Karen Gibson and Ivy Minniecon. Their works combine their artistic voices, steeped in cultural heritage, and incorporate narratives that echo through generations. Presented at CIAF by NorthSite, this exhibition invites viewers on a journey where traditional and personal stories are interwoven with their exceptional skills.
The title “Women’s Business” reflects on ceremonial Indigenous traditional practices. It refers to the sacred knowledge and obligations that First Nations women typically hold within their communities.
Karen Gibson is from the Kuku Yalanji and Kuku Nyungkul tribe. She brings a captivating approach to “Women’s Business”. Her vibrant and evocative acrylic paintings capture the essence of traditional practices and her family’s stories. Her whimsical paintings such as Mukirr Dance, were inspired by memories of her mum and aunties, swimming in the Daintree River, feeling the bottom with their feet, and gathering mussels into their brilliantly coloured dresses. Wait for Tide explores the ebb and flow of tidal changes and the vital role of water in her Community. These narratives resonate with joy and reflect a deep respect for her family and Country.
“I believe God has given me this gift to transform art into a story that only comes from the mind, heart, and life experiences.”
Fellow Kuku Yalanji artist Ivy Minniecon is also a descendant of Kabi Kabi, Gooreng Gooreng and South Sea Islander peoples and anchors her artistic practice in a deep reverence for her ancestral lands. Born in Lowmead, Queensland, and later drawn to her Mother’s Country at Mossman. Ivy’s journey is reflected in her mastery of the Kuku Yalanji weave. Her traditional skirts were created under the guidance of knowledge keeper Romona Baird, using fibres from Country in a plaited weave. Ivy has taken these skirts through a complex process of indexically mono-printing onto paper, in each unique print the skirt dances on the paper. The grass mirrors that of vessels and veins running through the work as if they were touched by her ancestors who would have worn them. These skirts and accompanying prints act as a conduit that speaks to their ceremonial applications and the wearer’s role as a knowledge keeper within their community.
“The heart of my practice looks at holistic ideas of art and culture being intrinsically linked to our identity. Creating the skirt and then experimenting in the print studio with differing techniques has invigorated and extended my studio practice, and it is an honour to have relocated home and to be mentored by a key Yalanji knowledge keeper. Aunty Karen was my inspiration as a young artist. Her extensive studio diversity inspired my practice. I am also grateful to collaborative printmaker Dian Darmansjah, who graciously shared his expertise and knowledge in the print studio.”
Gibson and Minniecon preserve and revitalise cultural practices and stories to ensure they are never lost. “Women’s business” reiterates what women’s business is all about, the sharing of knowledge and skills. Their collaboration is not only a tribute to their heritage but also a powerful testament to the resilience and creativity of Indigenous art and traditional cultural practices today. Visitors are encouraged to reflect on how contemporary First Nations artists navigate the complexities of balancing the preservation of traditional practices. Karen and Ivy demonstrate how art can act as a bridge between the past, present, and future and the sharing of knowledge and collaboration is central to their views on reciprocation. Their works invite us to appreciate the enduring significance of ‘Women’s Business’ in today’s world.
With thanks to Regional Arts Fund through Flying Arts Alliance that supported Ivy to produce new monotypes for CIAF 2024, working at NorthSite studios with collaborative printmaker Dian Darmansjah.
This project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, provided through Regional Arts Australia, administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance.
ALL COME UNDER – CIAF Satellite Exhibition at Cairns Court House Gallery
A CIAF satellite Independent Exhibition at Cairns Court House Gallery
Exhibition: Thursday 18 July – Saturday 17 August
Launch: 2pm, Wednesday 24 July
Performance: 3.30pm, Wednesday 24 July
All Come Under is an exhibition by a collaboration of artists. Their friendship and respect for each other are collegial and affirm the power of creative expression to communicate.
When listening to Country, we all come under the relevance and currency of Indigenous cultural authority. Deep-seated governance systems established by Aboriginal people allow the respectful inhabitation of environments, land, water, and sky. It is essential that an ongoing connection and relationship to the Country, as experienced by the ancestors of this land, is again allowed to flourish. It is an opportunity to allow Country to speak to us.
Zane Saunders lives in Kuranda, Far North Queensland and is an Indigenous visual artist and performer, a descendant of Butchulla, Gunggari and Jarrowia People. Darren Blackman is an Gureng Gureng/Gangalu visual and sound artist. Bonemap’s Rebecca Youdell and Russell Milledge are partners who collaborate in producing dance, visual arts, and media arts.
The artists acknowledge the support of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, Cairns Regional Council and NorthSite Contemporary Arts. This project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, provided through Regional Arts Australia, administered in Queensland by Flying Arts Alliance
