R|Talks

Helena is a Kabi Kabi (Gubbi Gubbi) Traditional Custodian and Elder, living on her lands. She currently works as a consultant in Indigenous Arts and Cultural Management and ardently promotes the unique value of First Nations Arts & Cultural development. As an artist, Helena is passionate about creating innovative works that decolonise the narratives about Australian First Nations Peoples and the potential for First Nations ‘stories’ to be told by First Nations Peoples in powerful and innovative ways. Truth telling is vital for all Peoples to move forward in the future.

RMOA

Shanna has been part of the Rockhampton Museum of Art Team since 2021, currently serving as Curator, and previously as Exhibition and Production Team Leader. She has a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours, and a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies. Shanna grew up in Central Queensland and is passionate about caring for Collections and providing incredible arts experiences to regional communities.

City of Moreton Bay

Amy Wockner is the Team Leader of Exhibitions and Programs at City of Moreton Bay’s three art galleries - Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, Redcliffe Art Gallery and Pine Rivers Art Gallery. She also oversees the City's Art Collection. Amy’s experience developing contemporary gallery programming paired with her background in cultural and community development drives her passion for creating innovative and engaging exhibitions and programs that enrich, inspire and strengthen communities.

Rebecca Ross is a visual artist based on Kombumerri Country (Queensland’s Southern Gold Coast) whose practice navigates the junctures of site, situation and sensation. Her work, which she describes as ‘exercises in mapping’, combines found maps and video, text, photography, collage, mixed media and installation. Since graduating from Queensland University of Technology with a Masters of Fine Art in 2005, Rebecca has exhibited at the British School at Rome, Embassy of Australia in Washington D.C. U.S.A., University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, UniSC Art Gallery, Museum of Brisbane, HOTA Home of the Arts, Bleach Festival and Festival 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

MUNIMBA-JA

A Ngugi woman of Mulgumpin (Moreton Island), in the Quandamooka (Moreton Bay), Queensland Australia. Libby Harward creates artworks that break through the colonial overlay to connect with the cultural landscape, which always was, and remains to be there. Her practice, in a range of genres, continues this decolonising process. Libby describes her practice as a process of simultaneously listening, calling out to, knowing and understanding Country.

Libby founded Munimba-ja culture space in 2021 and is predominantly interested in creating a black spaceon the Sunshine Coast where Aboriginal people can come together to discuss, organise, collaborate, showcase and celebrate on our own terms.

NOOSA REGIONAL GALLERY

Michael is the currently Gallery Director at Noosa Regional Gallery, as well as the curator of the past four iterations of Floating Land. Before relocating to Queensland to take up these roles, he held positions as Artistic Director and Senior Curator at La Trobe University Museum of Art, Programming Manager at Footscray Community Art Centre and co-founded artist-run initiatives Trocadero Art Space and Shifted. 

Michael also has a background in making things. He has exhibited nationally and has been a finalist in major art prizes including the Brett Whitely Travelling Art Scholarship and the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. His recent show, Rocket Science, at CA Gallery saw a return to exhibiting.

Michael holds a Master of Fine Art in Painting from Monash University, as well as a Master of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne.

CALOUNDRA REGIONAL GALLERY

With over 30 years’ experience across public art galleries, community spaces, and museums, Jo is a committed advocate for the role of culture in strengthening and enriching communities. Jo has worked with leading institutions including Queensland Art Gallery/ Gallery of Modern Art and the National Museum of Australia, where she managed the First Australians Program and major exhibitions.

Jo has held senior roles with Griffith University and Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum, and I am currently Director and Curator at Caloundra Regional Art Gallery.

Founded by Petalia Humphreys and based on the Sunshine Coast, Studio 26 is an artist-run-initiative that facilitates conversations, mentored discussion and exhibitions, and professional development for artists whose practices include non-objective, geometric and reductive abstraction.

Sharing Space is a colour publication featuring twelve essays commissioned by Studio 26, documenting two years of mentored critical conversations and peer critique. Attended by emerging artists partnered with industry mentors these dialogues are captured in essays that reveal insight into abstraction, materiality, space, and the practice of art making. tion goes here