Mary Norrie (16 May 1917–2005) was an influential exponent of hard-edge abstraction and colour-field painting in Brisbane, her work Green abstract 1970 (illustrated) explores the relationship of colours in vertical stripes. The colour scheme of greens and yellows enlivened with muted reds; carefully balanced width of the stripes and their tonal variations, sets up a rhythm across the painting. Norrie consistently pursued her interest in pure abstraction, her explorations of colour evoke a strong emotional response. Mary Norrie Green abstract 1970 In Brisbane, during the late 1960s, Norrie was painting abstract work contemporary with the paintings in Sydney and Melbourne which were so acclaimed in 'The Field' exhibition of hard-edge abstraction in Australia, hosted by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968. In contemporary reviews, Brisbane critic, Dr Gertrude Langer, recognised that Norrie's work of the late 1960s–70s was about colour for its own sake, the emotional resonance it afforded, and the integrity of the painted surface. Alongside Joy Hutton and Irene Amos, Norrie was part of the Wednesday Group of women artists, who sublet a studio at St Mary's Anglican Church in Kangaroo Point every week from 1961. Joy Hutton Garden 1975 Irene Amos Frail form 1975 Delve into the QAGOMA Collection Mary Norrie Red square with stripes c.1971 Red square with stripes is reliant on the subtle gradations of related colour surrounding its border. Artist and teacher, Roy Churcher, described the painting (Telegraph [Brisbane], 19 May 1972) as 'A contained and finely balanced painting which is completely abstract in that it is not meant to look like anything except itself. It has a quiet musical quality, with a soft inner glow that makes it a painting of considerable dignity'. Mary Norrie Focal point c.1971 With its subtle gradations of closely related colours across the well-defined quadrant shapes of Focal point, Norrie allows her planes to jostle, pushing and pulling against one another. The painting has a resonance with Red square with stripes, both simple designs focussing on the elements of colour, shape, balance and harmony.

D Harding’s approach to material and process honours the artist's Bidjara, Ghungalu and Garingbal Country around the Carnarvon Ranges (Kooramindanjie) in Central Queensland. The ongoing research and connection to Carnarvon Gorge has informed many of Harding's works, which respond to ancient artistic and cultural practices while examining colonial and settlement histories through the lens of family experience. For the Asia Pacific Triennial, Harding presents Woori red 2024, an installation of woollen felt blankets, saturated with a mixture of gum acacia and earth pigments collected in a shared process with family members from two generations on a journey across Country. Embedded into the fabric by Harding with ‘Woori’ or Woorabinda red, from Ghungalu territory, the blankets embody Country and its stories. Reflecting on the significance of natural pigments as a marker and identifier of Country, Harding has said that they and their cousins can identify a specific location ‘just by pure pigment, an ochre’ and expand on their connections to and ancestral stories associated with that site and colour. The variegated hues, rigid texture and irregular shape of the blankets evoke hides or pelts of animal skin. Hand-felted by Harding in homage to ancestral possum-skin cloaks, the blankets hold a powerful presence, speaking to multiple layers of complicated histories and identities. Edited extract from the publication The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, 2024 Art that leaves a mark Asia Pacific Triennial 30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025 Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Brisbane, Australia Free entry Asia Pacific Triennial Extended View this work at QAG until 5 May

On the Queensland colonial frontier, everything was black and white, but nothing was straightforward. ‘marru | the unseen visible’, an exhibition of new works by Ngadjonjii/Mamu artist Danie Mellor shows historical truths — particularly those informed by colonial-era photography — in a new light, approaching history with corresponding visual tropes, and inviting viewers to see inside his Country, near the Atherton Tablelands. Artist Danie Mellor creates composites that bring together pictorial records, written archives, oral histories and personal imagination, to create compositions of cultural complexity that provoke us to question our assumptions of our historical ‘truths’. Mellor’s works are often fugitive. Richly rendered and realised but defying proscriptive readings, they pull at the loose threads of Queensland’s colonial and Indigenous histories; messy, murky, murderous and magical. Yet in his most recent works, one constant, one single immovable truth has emerged, that is of Country — the land — as witness. Mellor attempts to maintain a position of neutrality in his works, creating historical tableaux in which figures are presented together in a landscape, but rarely divulging any sense of narrative. Instead, he allows the viewer to narrate the scene in their mind. In doing so, he subtly prompts the viewer to question their own interpretation of the image by asking us how our cultural conditioning and understanding of history, both taught and learnt, has created the story we imagine. Given to us without supporting information, any stories inspired by Mellor’s images, as read by the viewer, are precisely that: stories. The invention of accessible and accurate photographic processes, following the discovery of the daguerreotype in the 1830s and the rapid popularisation of the medium, including the development of the albumen print and carte-de-visite formats in the 1850s, coincided with the expansion of the Queensland colonial frontier from 1859. Today, a rich and detailed photographic record, taken in the aftermath of the colonial frontier, leaves a rare, unique and lasting pictorial legacy. Mellor’s recent oeuvre has focused almost exclusively on these historical images taken as the waves of the frontier crashed over his Country on the Atherton Tablelands. The mining of these archives allows Mellor to make multiple transhistorical cultural and artistic connections; to history, to ancestors, and to Country. Interestingly, photography — with its images mechanically captured through light reactive chemical processes — has long been considered a source of truth. However, we now know that most historical photographic images were heavily staged — the subjects chosen, posed, often made-up — and that postproduction interventions were commonly used to highlight different aspects of the resulting image. Even in photography, the hand of the artist is always evident. Photographer Richard Daintree – whose work is often reproduced in Mellor’s paintings – is a key example of this: his depictions of the Queensland frontier were used to advertise the land to white colonists and investors from the south and overseas. The images generally feature picturesque landscapes ripe for European settlement, and heroic white pioneers at work, largely excluding any images of Aboriginal people — or the South Sea Islander, South Asian, Chinese and other non-white peoples who shared that physical and historical space — and their labour. Daintree’s body of work is a prime example of the photographic archive being as flawed as any other subjective body of knowledge involved in building a grand historical narrative. Yet the truths of the lives of the people who are pictured remain. And it’s in this juncture between historical truth and fiction that Mellor’s works often live. On the Queensland colonial frontier, everything was black and white, but nothing was straightforward. The end of certainty 2020 On the edge of darkness (the sun also sets) 2020 Wierdi/Birri-Gubba independent curator Bruce Johnson McLean MAICD is a First Nations art and culture specialist. This text is adapted from an essay first published in QAGOMA’s Members’ magazine, Artlines Collection Online: Delve deeper into the exhibition artworks. Danie Mellor: marru | the unseen visible 15 March – 3 August 2025 Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane, Australia Free entry

Dancer Elijah-Jade Bowen (Mununjali & Guugu Yimithirr) performs in the heart of the ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ exhibition. The dance performance was choreographed by Bowen and responds to the ambient exhibition soundscape, composed by artist Salvador Breed. Fashion, art, design, science and technology collide in the world of endlessly innovative and internationally acclaimed Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen. ‘Sculpting the Senses’ is an immersive sensory exploration of Iris van Herpen's practice with 130 garments and accessories in conversation with contemporary artworks, natural history specimens and cultural artefacts from which the designer draws inspiration. Created for the likes of Beyonce, Björk, Cate Blanchett, Lady Gaga and Tilda Swinton, Iris van Herpen’s sculptural silhouettes stem from a deep curiosity about the universe and a highly collaborative approach to haute couture. Her unconventional and dynamic approach to fabrics and techniques combines subtle hand-crafting with sophisticated technologies such as 3D printing to evoke the intricacy and diversity of the natural world, from marine biology to quantum physics. Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) 29 June – 7 October 2024 Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Brisbane Australia © Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees, 2024 https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au #qagoma