Artwork: Arkie the Label, Waninti Matjurru (2020). <play/ground> exhibition, Outdoor Gallery.

Brisbane City Council's Outdoor Gallery transforms Brisbane's laneways and city streets into imaginative, curious, and engaging spaces. Comprising of light boxes, banners, vitrines, and evening projections, the Outdoor Gallery displays art outside in city streets, instead of inside on gallery walls. Recently, the Outdoor Gallery has grown to include art projections at Howard Smith Wharves and light boxes in Ann Street, Brisbane City.

Our latest Outdoor Gallery exhibition, <play/ground>, curated by @MCRT. Studio, will open on Friday 9 September 2022 and run until 16 April 2023.

Share your experience of the Outdoor Gallery exhibitions and public programs using #BNEPublicArt.

<play/ground>

From Friday 9 September 2022, explore the <play/ground> exhibition through the Outdoor Gallery. Our modern lives are busy with work and responsibilities and living a balanced and playful life, while remaining grounded, is essential to finding and maintaining joy in our day-to-day physical and digital lives. <play/ground> celebrates the existing playful charm of Brisbane as a concrete playground, while reminding us of the importance of daily routines connecting us to the planet that houses and nourishes us.

Join us for a number of activations and events as part of this exhibition.

View our map to help navigate your way around our Outdoor Gallery.

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Artist: Maxim Chikanchi

artwork: tuesday night (2022)
LOCATION: edison lane, brisbane city


 

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Artist: Maxim Chikanchi

Maxim Chikanchi creates figurative art with collage elements to convey a narrative of his experiences and the world around him. His public artworks have been featured internationally and in galleries across Australia, including the National Portrait Gallery.

Artwork statement

Tuesday Night looks at the simple experiences of bonding with those around us without the ongoing pressure of spending money and chasing the next thrill. It's a reminder to cherish what we have and to enjoy what's in our reach, managing our self-expectations and outward pressures that can rob us of inner peace. Although time will inevitably pass, Tuesday Night is a reminder to have a goal in being intentional with how we spend it and cherish the moments within.

Artist: Man & Wah

artwork: moon (2022), bee (2022), sunflower (2022), aleo (2022), cacoon (2022), kangaroo paws (2022), seashell, epiphyllum (queen of the night), mineral (2022), cosmos (2022)
location: hutton lane, brisbane city

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Artist: Man & Wah

Man & Wah produce visual works and large installations which celebrate the beauty and diversity of nature from around the world, exploring the themes of biodiversity and cosmic existence. The works invite deeper reflection on our relationship with nature and appreciation of the role it plays in sustaining a liveable planet.

Artwork statement

Each image selected shows elements of Earth and the cosmos, to represent the cycles that support and continue to create life for Brisbane - something we are all naturally connected to.

Artist: Arkie the Label

artwork: waninti matjurru  (2020)
location: giffin lane, brisbane city


 

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Artist: Arkie the Label

Arkie is a proud Kalkadungu and Bidjara woman, whose art practice draws from her Indigenous heritage to create beautiful, contemporary pieces across multiple disciplines. Arkie grew up in Meanjin, where 'Arkie the Label' was born, a platform for mainstream Australia to engage with contemporary Aboriginal culture in a creative way for all to interact with.

Artwork statement

Waninti Matjurru ​​​​​​, translated from Arkie's mob's language Kalkadoon, reflects themes of play, while also referencing the space and country where we engage with the play. This piece is created using symbolism that depicts meeting spaces and offers a bright and playful palette.

Artist: MUCHOS

artwork: Fast bananas (2022), keep cool (2022), see you soon (2022), Go OUtside (2022)
location: eagle lane, brisbane city




 

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Artist: MUCHOS

MUCHOS is an illustrator and painter whose work serves as a visual compilation of thoughts, experiences and daily observations. Embracing imperfection, he aims to maintain a childlike ignorance in his art making approach. His highly animated works are littered across Australia in locations such as Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart and Sydney.

Artwork statement

MUCHOS' artworks serve as a snapshot of the artist's time in Brisbane and the experiences had through graphics that are seen as sketches or visual diary entries made by the artist, with each graphic telling a different story or holding a different meaning. As a result of having long-term friendships and work opportunities based in Brisbane, MUCHOS has made countless trips over the years, building a strong connection to the city and the experiences it offers, shown through his playful and bold illustrations that represents his day-to-day life within the city.

Artist: Loretta Lizzio

artwork: retrospect (2022), emergence (2022)
location: irish lane, brisbane city





 

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Artist: Loretta Lizzio

Loretta Lizzio is a world-renowned artist and illustrator whose work adorns walls and galleries throughout Australia and beyond. Her work explores romanticism and nature and evokes a strong sense of nostalgia, inspired by forgotten fairy tales, spectacles of cinema and fleeting glances.

Artwork statement

Loretta feels at peace when she is in nature and when she is painting. Through these experiences, they ground her and rebuild her perspective through gratitude when responding to her anxiety.

"Art is a way of preserving these experiences and reminding me daily that valuable journeys are never easy."

Artist: Kelsey Doyle

artwork: 07:20am in bloom (2019), 08:03am Mountjoy st (2021), 09:15am morning dip (2021), 12:01pm laundry day (2019), 13:15pm in the suburbs (2022), 14:44pm reservoir (2018), 17:32pm sunsets (2021), 20:04pm stargazing (2019)
location: king george square car park, brisbane city

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Artist: Kelsey Doyle

Kelsey Doyle is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based photographer working predominantly with 35 millimetre film. Kelsey captures the warmth hidden in quiet suburban scenes. Inspired by nature and the people that create the city's beauty, she draws upon the streets of her hometown as her main source of inspiration.

Artwork statement

The series of 35 millimetre film photographs depict a candid view of a typical weekend day for a Brisbanite. From morning walks and sunbaking on the beach to afternoons of laundry and catching up with friends, the artworks provide a window into playful weekend routines that reinvigorate us to once again face the concrete jungle on Monday morning.

 

Artist: Kirsten Baade

artwork: big city eyes (2022), luminous threads (2022)
location: edward street vitrines, brisbane city
 

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Artist: Kirsten Baade

Kirsten Baade is a highly-skilled creator across murals, illustrations, large-scale sculptures, electronic art and light art. Kirsten holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechatronic Engineering from the University of Queensland. She has a passion for creating beautiful and quirky objects and environments. Kirsten has created artworks for festivals and organisations including Vivid Sydney, Curiocity Brisbane, Queensland University of Technology and Queensland Children's Hospital.

Artwork statement

Kirsten's work presents an innovative combination of art and science by employing locally sourced fibre optic cables and traditional craft techniques. This artwork glimpses an insight into how modern technology can work with established traditions and create a playful sense of wonder.

Artist: Daniel Sherington

artwork: #flowers_v3.1 (2022), untitled (panoramic falsehood) (2022), #flowers_v3.2 (2022), #flowers_v3.3 (2022), untitled (fabricate landscape) (2022)
location: ann street, brisbane city

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Artist: Daniel Sherington

Daniel Sherington is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based artist whose practice filters traditional art-making processes with a digital means of production. Sherington's works are circulatory in nature, with images often iterated, reworked and dispersed amongst new contexts and materials to adopt different meanings.

Artist statement

In these artworks, Sherington depicts computer-generated spaces that challenge the traditional mode of painting often associated with Australian landscapes from the colonial era. By reframing the established art canon, these works offer a fresh digital view of the ground that houses us, presenting the idea of a landscape rather than the landscape itself.

Artist: Emily Devers

artwork: still living arrangements (2022)
location: howard smith wharves, brisbane city

 

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Artist: Emily Devers

Emily Devers is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based multidisciplinary artist and designer whose current practice is directly informed by 12 years as a commercial public artist, public arts facilitator and complementary profession as a senior graphic designer. Emily's works see the convergence of realism and abstract, using contemporary collage techniques to emulate depth, within digital planes and on two-dimensional surfaces.

Artwork statement

Emily invites viewers into her digital playground -  a space of exploration that allows her to take analogue processes into a digital future. The painted elements in this artwork originate from Emily's studio artworks, which have been fed through an artificial intelligence application programming interface, until they are no longer recognisable to be her own - existing somewhere between physical reality and Web 3.0.

Artist: Emily Devers

artwork: Still living arrangements (2022)
Location: museum of brisbane, brisbane city


 

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Artist: Emily Devers

Emily Devers is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based multidisciplinary artist and designer whose current practice is directly informed by 12 years as a commercial public artist, public arts facilitator and complementary profession as a senior graphic designer. Emily's works see the convergence of realism and abstract, using contemporary collage techniques to emulate depth, within digital planes and on two-dimensional surfaces.

Artwork statement

Emily invites viewers into her digital playground -  a space of exploration that allows her to take analogue processes into a digital future. The painted elements in this artwork originate from Emily's studio artworks, which have been fed through an artificial intelligence application programming interface, until they are no longer recognisable to be her own - existing somewhere between physical reality and Web 3.0.

Artist: Yin Lu

artwork: fleeting happiness (2021), the red crowned crane (2020)
Location: edmonstone street, south brisbane

 

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Artist: Yin Lu

Yin Lu is a Brisbane-based, Chinese-Australian artist whose practice is significantly influenced by her Chinese heritage. Working across a range of two-dimensional media, from drawing, painting, muralism and mixed media, she uses her bold and contrasting style to amplify her cultural identity. Her interpretations of multiculturalism through combinations of Western art and Eastern aesthetics play a pivotal role in inspiring her art.

Artwork statement

Yin Lu's artworks identify with different elements of nature and render a playful and unique  place, in several instances, among such elements in Brisbane. With influences as diverse as Western art and Eastern aesthetics, new insights are synthesised with respect to both natural and historical perspectives.

Artist: Yin Lu

artwork: new form (2019), call of love (2020), Fleeting happiness (2021), the red crowned crane (2020), dream of four seasons (2021), crysanthemum porcelain (2020)
location: town square, fish lane, south brisbane - vitrines

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Artist: Yin Lu

Yin Lu is a Brisbane-based, Chinese-Australian artist whose practice is significantly influenced by her Chinese heritage. Working across a range of two-dimensional media, from drawing, painting, muralism and mixed media, she uses her bold and contrasting style to amplify her cultural identity. Her interpretations of multiculturalism, through combinations of Western art and Eastern aesthetics play a pivotal role in inspiring her art.

Artwork statement

Yin Lu's artworks identify with different elements of nature and render a playful and unique place in several instances among such elements in Brisbane. With influences as diverse as Western art and Eastern aesthetics, new insights are synthesised with respect to both natural and historical perspectives.

Artist: Gabrielle White

artwork: <play/ground> graphic




 

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The curators would like to acknowledge the local graphic designer who worked with @MCRT.Studio on creating the exhibition graphic.

Gabrielle White is a freelance designer, artist and curator whose working ideology is specifically informed by the intersection of art, design and human experience. Passionate about driving design forward through meaningful and purposeful encounters, Gabrielle's eye for design is reflective of her love and knowledge of modern and contemporary art, architecture and design.

Events list

Sun 2 Apr 2023, 10:00am

Brisbane City Council's Outdoor Gallery turns into an Art Treasure Trail <play/ground> to celebrate a highly praised exhibition. The trail starts at Edison Lane...

Edison Lane, Brisbane 4000

Mon 17 Apr 2023 5:30pm to Sun 21 May 2023 11:30pm
Free

Since 2019, Council has commissioned digital artworks for the city’s growing public art collection by living contemporary artists working across diverse...

Howard Smith Wharves Precinct, Brisbane City

APT10 Kids

Brisbane City Council in collaboration with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), presents Outdoor Gallery exhibition APT10 Kids: Outdoors  currently on display on the Cordelia Street banner.

Featured artworks have been created by Australian and international artists (and in some instances in collaboration with young people) that celebrate love, inclusion, and diversity, acknowledging the importance of collaboration and community.

Cordelia Street - banner

ARTIST: SHANNON NOVAK IN COLLABORATION WITH MATTHIAS BUTCHER
ARTWORK: MAKE VISIBLE: BRISBANE — A PLACE FOR ALL (2021)

Shannon Novak (Aotearoa New Zealand b.1979) creates socially engaged artworks that aim to inspire positive change for the LGBTQI+ community. He is passionate about creating safe spaces that acknowledge, celebrate and support diversity. He achieves this through his art practice and is also the director of a global LGBTQI+ led non-profit called the Safe Space Alliance, an organisation that helps people identify, navigate, and create safe space for the LGBTQI+ community worldwide.

Make Visible: Brisbane – A Place for All  (2021) features illustrations of different LGBTQI+ family groups. The work reflects the artists’ belief that we can work together to create a more loving and accepting world.  

Future Outdoor Gallery exhibitions

Brisbane City Council's Outdoor Gallery exhibition, Indigenous Art Program 2023, will be on display from May 2023.

Creative opportunities

For future exhibition and creative sector opportunities with Council, join the Creative Register.

Outdoor gallery map

Last updated: 28 February 2023
Topics: public art

Brisbane City Council acknowledges this Country and its Traditional Custodians. We pay our respects to the Elders, those who have passed into the dreaming; those here today; those of tomorrow.