Eight majestic rings of Tutana and Loloi commissioned for APT9

Following years of collaboration and building relationships, the Gallery recently commissioned and acquired eight majestic rings of Tutana of Loloi created by a group of Gunantuna (Tolai) men from Nangananga village in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Designed to mesmerise their viewer, the spectacular rings are banks of shell money and objects of social value. The…

Watch our time-lapse as Qiu Zhijie creates his enormous wall painting

Internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie’s enormous five-storey wall painting Map of Technological Ethics 2018, has its origins in Chinese ink painting and calligraphy. Inspired while gazing across the Brisbane River, the map is influenced by Brisbane’s combination of ecological paradise and its technological integration. Painted directly on to the gallery wall, 18 metres in…

The creation of black somo

A curator with a deep belief in the ability of art to transform, Jennifer Phipps envisaged a fund that would enable women artists working in the Pacific to engage in projects and learning opportunities, and ensured its existence with a significant bequest. Oceania Women’s Fund Visitors to the Queensland Art Gallery’s first exhibition profiling contemporary…

Connecting with Pacific nations

As part of their research for The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9), QAGOMA curators have been building relationships with artists and curators in small and often remote communities across the region. In the second of a series of articles leading up to the Triennial, Ruth McDougall and Ruha Fifita visited the Pacific…

APT9 supporting new media and voices in the Pacific

Over the past two years the Gallery and co-curator Sana Balai have been working with artists and communities in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and neighbours in the Solomon Islands archipelago, and four artists from Australia on a major project focused on women’s contemporary creative practice for the upcoming ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary…

Gideon Kakabin with commissioned Loloi of Tutana’s for APT9, 19 July 2018

Vale: Gideon Kakabin

We are deeply saddened at the passing of beloved artist, historian and elder of Gunantuna (Tolai peoples) Gideon Kakabin (1956 – 20 August 2018) at 62. Known to many in Australia through his passions for culture and history, Gideon began his career as one of Papua New Guinea’s leading software programmers. His story is included…