The result of a curatorial collaboration between the Cairns Art Gallery & National Gallery of Victoria, Lei it on presents a captivating collection of contemporary lei and body adornment from the Torres Strait Islands. MORE

The exhibition examines narratives of the Pacific Islands as a ‘paradise’, and the life of Pacific Islanders in relation to slavery and the sugar cane industry, and the effect on descendants’ lives in Far North Queensland, including those of Boyd’s own ancestors. MORE

Working with Coen artist Naomi Hobson, Semu has worked like a filmmaker, zeroing in on, re-enacting and upscaling as gigantic photographs the brutal evidence of Coen’s frontier wars for the purpose of remembering the past and acknowledging present injustice and discrimination. MORE

Going out brings together a range of works by Indigenous women artists that explore and interpret how native plants continue to be used for their medicinal properties, as a food source, and in traditional ceremonies.   MORE

This visually exciting exhibition reveals the staggering contribution Australian women artists have made to abstract art.  It was women artists who predominantly led the field showing confidence, curiosity and innovation as they engaged with one of the defining movements of the 20 th century, the influences of which are still strong today in contemporary art practice. All works in the exhibition are on loan from the National Gallery of Australia. Many have never been seen... MORE

STEEL: art design architecture explores innovative ways that steel is being used by artists, designers and architects in Australia in the 21st century. MORE

Other Places (Somewhere Else) offers a rare opportunity to view intimate drawings and lyrical paintings completed during Whiteley`s extensive travels. Artworks created in response to locations such as Paris, New York, Japan, Fiji, Bali and Far North Queensland is highlighted. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Brett Whiteley Studio; all works are loaned from these two institutions. MORE

Francesca Rosa is a photo-media artist based in Etty Bay, south of Cairns. Her solo exhibition Memoria, investigates the history of Italian migration, with a particular focus on the first post-World War II Italians who arrived in Cairns to work in the Far North Queensland sugarcane industry. MORE

The Art Gallery of Ballarat has an extensive holding of 19th century Australian art, including works on paper, paintings, sculpture and furniture dating from the era before the foundation of the Commonwealth.  Art historians have divided this era into a Colonial period that ended around 1880, and a Federation period that covers the last twenty years of the 19th century. This exhibition, selected from the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s holdings, celebrates the time of first... MORE

Design Directions is a group exhibition that presents each artist’s aesthetic expression of culture and identity through works on paper and related ceramic and textile designs.  Erub Erwer Meta is a small but expanding group of artists from four tribal groups in Erub (Darnley Island), which is 160km north east of Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula and one of the most remote communities in Australia.  From its beginnings twenty years ago as a craft group,... MORE

Gutchen’s works are a visual language of the culture and people of Erub, their ceremonies, rituals, market trade, music and dance performances. MORE

Land and People presents new media works by six contemporary artists from the Asia Pacific region whose works explore relationships between nature and people and the impact of natural and man-made disasters on their lives. Philippine artist Lav Diaz, explores the impact of global warming on environmental changes in the Philippines, while Song Dong looks at complex issues that underpin China’s endless urban sprawl.  For Korean artist Kira Kim, the infamous suicide... MORE

Joanna Roberts is an artist and designer whose work embraces the colour and sculptural possibilities of contemporary materials and industrial processes. Roberts grew up in Darwin, but she has also lived in Melbourne, Cairns, and Adelaide. Her work is informed by extensive artistic and environmental research, and information and experiences gathered during her visits to European and Asian galleries and museums, and meetings with other international artists. The colour, form and... MORE

On 18 November 2016, the Cairns Regional Gallery, Queensland, Australia is presenting Yuki Kihara’s new body of work entitled  ‘Der Papālagi (The White Man)’ .  Yuki Kihara is an Interdisciplinary artist whose work  engages in a variety of social, political and cultural issues. Often referencing Pacific history, her work explores the varying relationships between gender, race, culture and politics.  The title of this new series comes... MORE

Ken Thaiday Snr, Obery Sambo, Allson Edrick Tabaui, Yessie Mosby, Alick Tipoti. The practice of mask and headdress making is a long and enduring art form throughout the Torres Strait Islands.  Before the Coming of the Light in 1871, when Christianity was introduced to the Islands, the production of ceremonial objects for use in elaborate ritual was common. Masks are still created today and used as a visual intermediary, connecting the living and spirit realms during... MORE

Andrew Bonneau is a young emerging artist who lives and works in Cairns. Since his studies at the National Art School in Sydney, the Charlie Sheard Studio School and the Julian Ashton Art School, Bonneau has focussed on portraiture and figure painting.  For Bonneau, a portrait is the most interesting and challenging subject. Similar to portraits of the Renaissance period, Bonneau’s painted figures with their classical poses and subtle use of light and shadow embody... MORE

Beyond the Surface: New Textiles and Ceramics explores the diverse ways in which images and designs are applied to contemporary ceramics, textiles and furniture as an aesthetic expression of culture and identity. A new initiative of the Gallery, Beyond the Surface brings together recent works produced by a selection of outstanding Indigenous and non-Indigenous ceramists, textile artists and designers across Queensland and northern Australia. Works in the exhibition... MORE

Brian Robinson: Pacific Crosscurrents  presents an artist’s view of how his Torres Strait Island homeland intersects with ancient traditions and modern histories of the Pacific.   The crosscurrents reflect an exchange of ideas, beliefs, and cultural practices.  They also represent ancient traditions of sea voyaging occurring across the geographically vast region of the Pacific islands and Southeast Asia. These voyages occurred centuries before European... MORE

Claudia Moodoonuthi was born in 1995 on Bentinck Island off the Queensland Gulf coastline. As the great granddaughter of the late Kaiadilt senior law man, King Alfred, Claudia was raised by her great grandmother, ‘May May’ Moodoonuthi, and her Kaiadilt aunties, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori and Netta Loogatha on the neighbouring Mornington Island, land of the Lardil people. Through regular trips to their country on Bentinck Island, the ‘old girls’... MORE

This exhibition brings together a body of new works created by Cairns-based artist, Grace Lillian Lee. Vivid colours and striking sculptural forms explore how contemporary fashion and performance intersect with traditional artistic and cultural practices to create a new cultural dialogue. Lee is a descendant of the Doolah family from Darnley Island and her parents come from multicultural backgrounds including Torres Strait Islander, Chinese, English, German and Danish. At an early age... MORE

The visually mesmerising new media works in IMPACT examine the ramifications of colonisation on Indigenous communities in Queensland and the Pacific region through the work of four acclaimed new media artists - Michael Cook, Taloi Havini, Angela Tiatia and Fiona Foley. Michael Cook explores the untold consequences on members of the Stolen Generations, of the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families from the 1870s until the 1970s. Cook creates a 1960s vignette in... MORE

Toby Cedar is a Torres Strait Islander with bloodline connections to Erub, Mer and Moa Islands. Growing up on mainland Australia, Cedar was taught traditional stories from the Islands, through song and dance. Like his ancestors, Cedar is an innovative, self-taught craftsman who uses the materials available to him to realise his works. Respected Elders mentor him in traditional craft practices. This is the artist’s first major solo exhibition and his most ambitious artistic... MORE

This is the first exhibition to bring together a collection of the artist’s imaginary landscapes relating to Far North Queensland and Papua New Guinea. In writing about the exhibition Julia Powles has described his paintings and drawings as showing us “the world constructed as a sequence of impossible histories, one in which fragmentary moments from time coincide in fictionalised landscapes, the like of which can only exist in art. For Morrison history occurs as a... MORE

Greg Semu has a 20-year career that includes numerous international residencies and exhibitions. Born in 1971 in New Zealand, Semu now lives and works in Sydney and has recently returned from a residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien studio in Berlin. His work will be the subject of a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria later this year. “12”  brings together recent works by Semu that have been acclaimed for their excellent production values,... MORE

Cairns Regional Gallery’s  Out of Queensland: New Indigenous Textiles  exhibition exemplifies the fusion of digital technology and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contemporary art practice and is presented in partnership with the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. The exhibition explores exciting new directions in the work of Vernon Ah Kee, Naomi Hobson, Gordon Hookey, Heather Koowootha, Claudia Moodoonuthi, Ryan Presley, Brian Robinson, Teho Ropeyarn and Arthur... MORE

Alick Tipoti is recognised as one of the Torres Strait Islands’ most dynamic contemporary artists. Growing up on Badu Island, he learnt the traditional stories and Kala Lagaw Ya language from his parents. Tipoti is a passionate ambassador for his culture, language and the traditions of his people and Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait Islands). This powerful exhibition includes complex and intricately carved prints, ceremonial masks and large carved sculptures. The title for the exhibition... MORE

Segar Passi: Bakei – 1960s to the Present  is the first ever major exhibition of works by senior Torres Strait Island artist Segar Passi. Passi, who as a child taught himself to paint, has been making art for over six decades. In the 1960s he was one of eight Torres Strait Island artists asked by anthropologist Margaret Lawrie to record, in paintings and drawings, the history, culture, flora and fauna of the Torres Strait. The young Passi made more than 135... MORE

Ken Thaiday Snr: Erub Kebe Le , the first-ever major survey exhibition of works by internationally recognised senior Torres Strait Island artist Ken Thaiday Snr, brings together thirty-six sculptural pieces created by Thaiday over the past thirty years. Thaiday’s articulated dance headdresses and other ‘mobilised artefacts’, with their inventive integration of traditional and non-traditional materials, have attracted worldwide attention, not only as deeply... MORE