Rithika Merchant’s distinctive paintings — on display in the Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery, the interactive project within the Children's Art Centre at the Gallery of Modern Art, or around the city streets of Brisbane — imagine otherworldly futures in which new worlds, creatures and relationships have evolved after Earth becomes uninhabitable. ‘Beings’ inhabit these future contexts as central characters, surrounded by botanical and anthropomorphic symbols, and Merchant speculates on how their values, beliefs, technologies and relationships to their new worlds might develop to shape new planets to be more habitable. Temporal Structures 2023 In The Pollinator (illustrated), a being grasps the stems of a pollen-rich plant, alluding to engineered pollination as a means of vegetative propagation and engineered cosmogony. Regolith (illustrated) is based on the idea of ant colonies and their ability to self-organise and communicate through their own ecosystem. Vimana (illustrated) shows a wondrous flying chariot based on ideas in the ancient Hindu Vedas and Jain Agamas texts. Inspired by how humpback whales sustain themselves with stored food over long migrations, Silo (illustrated) depicts a character encased in a whale-like shape filled with supplies. In offering a very different vision of what a distant future might look like, Merchant alludes to the grim reality of our current environmental state, questioning the conventions and relationships that have come to threaten it. The Pollinator 2023 Regolith 2023 Vimana 2023 Silo 2023 Children's Art Centre During Asia Pacific Triennial Kids, Rithika Merchant invites children to envision a new world in If the Seeds Chose Where to Grow 2024 (illustrated), the project builds on the idea of terraforming, also known as ‘Earth-shaping’, which is the theoretical process of changing the atmosphere and topology of a planet or celestial body to sustain human life. Merchant’s large-scale projection of a mountainous environment with a constellation-filled sky invites you to help shape a new world. By selecting small blocks printed with different motifs of plants, beings and celestial elements that can be placed onto a glass tabletop to transform this imagined landscape and its immediate environment. As the sky slowly transitions from dawn to dusk to a starry sky, the plants grow and the figures come to life. Merchant hopes that her project for children ‘plants a seed and helps them see that the future could hold many different possibilities and that they themselves could possibly have a hand in shaping it’. If the Seeds Chose Where to Grow 2024 Brisbane City Council's Outdoor Gallery Rithika Merchant's If the Seeds Chose Where to Grow Outdoor Gallery presented in collaboration with QAGOMA’s Children’s Art Centre transforms Brisbane's city streets and parks into imaginative spaces with vitrines, banners, and evening projections. Edited extract from the publication The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, 2024 Art that feels like home Asia Pacific Triennial 30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025 Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Brisbane, Australia Free entry

Looking for a free weekend outing for the family, a spot to socilaise with friends, or maybe a relaxing space to spend some 'me time'? Head to the cool confines of Brisbane's most visited galleries. The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) are both nestled beside the Brisbane River and just a short stroll along the river-front from the South Bank Parklands. QAG and GOMA are just 150 metres apart — each has a distinct artwork display focus and unique architectural personalities. QAG's characteristic concrete brutalist exterior, emerging from the modernist movement, won the most outstanding public building in Australia when it opened in 1982. GOMA, on the other hand, is defined by a dual black box/white box architectural arrangement, with a bold pavilion-style design influenced by the traditional ‘Queenslander’ home. It won both National and State awards for Public Architecture when it opened in 2006. Both buildings, in their own way, changed the face of the city’s South Bank waterfront. What they have in common, however, is together they offer a creative and cultural hub for Brisbane and Queensland — a place where people come together to relax, to be inspired and where imagination and creativity spark as visitors young and old, from different walks of life, enjoy a stunning mix of Australian, Pacific, Asian and International art. Queensland Art Gallery Gallery of Modern Art These adjacent buildings are easy to wander through, their spacious interiors exuding calm and allowing rejuvenating daylight to stream inside. QAG speaks to the Brisbane River, with its spectacular cavernous interior and central Watermall parallel with the river just outside, while GOMA and it's vast central Long Galley, is about connecting with the city, every time you step out of an exhibition space you re-engage with the Brisbane skyline and its multiple river vistas. So now it’s up to you to choose your weekend escape — QAG, GOMA, or maybe both? Visit QAG to reacquaint yourself to our Collection favourites on permanent display — maybe it's the Picasso, Degas or Toulouse-Lautrec, or our best-loved Australian artists, or currently installed in both buildings until 27 April 2025 are innovative, beautiful and thought-provoking works of art from more than 30 countries as part of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Watch | Asia Pacific Triennial: Art that makes an impact Queensland Art Gallery Mit Jai Inn's Triennial Watermall installation Before installation could begin on Mit Jai Inn's Triennial installation, the Watermall needed to be drained so that our team could prepare the eights parts of the two-sided suspended canvas tunnel which will lead you through a narrow path built above water. Its immense buoyant ribbon panels that hang like warp looms inhabits a space between ground and ceiling. Watch our installation time-lapse before you visit. Collection highlight: Pablo Picasso Surrounded by works from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edgar Degas, La Belle Hollandaise (The beautiful Dutch girl) 1905 is a key painting by Pablo Picasso, the work donated to the Gallery in 1959, at the time this major work by one of the greatest living twentieth century masters set a world record price at £55,000. Watch the auction to go back in time before you visit. Collection highlight: Indigenous Australian art Artistic expressions from the world's oldest continuing culture are drawn from all regions of the country in the Gallery's holdings of Indigenous Australian artworks. Walangkura Napanangka's Untitled (Tjintjintjin) 2006 depicts the rockhole and cave site of Tjintjintjin, to the west of Walungurra (Kintore) in Western Australia. The symbols in this painting map out the area's geographical features, through which ancestor figure Kutungka Napanangka passed on her travels across the Gibson Desert during the creation time. Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa's  Goanna Story c.1973-74 is from one of the traditional dreaming stories, and this work shows four of the reptiles moving towards a waterhole. Drawing from the Collection On any day at QAG, get creative and pick up our free drawing materials and draw from your favourite works on display. Just grab a drawing board, paper and pencil, then take inspiration from the art around you in either the permanent Australian or International Art Collections. QAG Cafe If you work up an appetite on your visit, enjoy a bite to eat at the QAG Cafe. Perfect for some quiet contemplation beside the Watermall's Dandelion fountains, reflection pond and Sculpture Courtyard or head inside beside Tamika Grant-Iramu's striking landscape mural of frangipani and bougainvillea. Gallery of Modern Art Brett Graham's Triennial Long Gallery installation Five dramatic sculptures of Brett Graham Tai Moana Tai Tangata installed in GOMA's central Long Gallery speak to structures created by both the British and Māori during the New Zealand wars (1845–72). Deeply researched to ensure that they directly address Tainui and Taranaki Māoris’ experiences of British occupation, each of these works is superbly crafted, with materials carefully selected to ensure a strong physical and spiritual resonance for Māori. Collection highlight: Mele Kahalepuna Chun Mele Kahalepuna Chun is a kumu hulu — a recognised expert practitioner and teacher of Hawaiian featherwork — based on the island of O‘ahu in Hawai‘i. Chun describes her continued engagement with the artform as the fulfilment of her kuleana — her sacred responsibility to serve her community and honour the ho‘oilina (legacy) of her family through the ongoing custodianship and advancement of this artform. Watch Chun describe the featherwork on display. Collection highlight: Nomin Bold Cup of Life 2023 is an imposing curtain of grinning skulls that combines painter Nomin Bold’s use of Buddhist symbolism with sculptor Ochirbold Ayurzana’s practice as a metalworker. Of commanding scale and panoramic format, the work consists of almost 2000 cast-metal skulls suspended on taut wires, fixed floor to ceiling. Watch our installation time-lapse Free children activities Children are our future appreciation group, we welcome families with children of all ages to the Children’s Art...

Fun and interactive, families and children across Queensland can experience free hands-on art-making activities with the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial Kids on Tour, presented during the eleventh edition of QAGOMA’s flagship Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, including Asia Pacific Triennial Kids in the Children’s Art Centre, Gallery of Modern Art. Beginning 16 December 2024 in Cairns Art Gallery and Croydon Shire Library, then from 1 January 2025 in more than 180 communities from all 77 Queensland Council areas over 220 venues throughout the state. Seven different artist-designed activities connect young visitors and families with cultures from across Asia and the Pacific, offering younger audiences firsthand experiences with the ideas of artists. The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial Kids on Tour brings together a range of activities that celebrate the rich diversity of customs from across the region and includes activities developed in collaboration with artists Dana Awartani (Saudi Arabia/Palestine), Etson Caminha (Timor‑Leste), Harold ‘Egn’ Eswar (Malaysia), Brett Graham (Aotearoa New Zealand), Okui Lala (Malaysia), Yim Maline (Cambodia) and Rithika Merchant (India). Dana Awartani Unity within Multiplicity is an activity based on Zellij tile designs — a style of mosaic traditionally found in North African and Spanish architecture and created by arranging small pieces of coloured tile into geometric patterns — in this activity children can create repeating patterns using coloured pencils and geometric templates. Download Unity within Multiplicity activity Go behind-the-scenes as we install Dana Awartani's intricate floor installation at the Queensland Art Gallery Etson Caminha My Kitchen Sounds invites children to experiment with their own sound composition and make music with materials found in the home. When the artist was a child, making music using recycled materials was a source of happiness and fun. Today, he creates sound-based artworks using natural elements, Timorese instruments and electronic equipment. Play My Kitchen Sounds Harold ‘Egn’ Eswar Monster of Wants invites children to create a drawing of a monster that expresses the things they most desire. The artist often draws inspiration from street art to explore personal stories and memories through drawing. Yim Maline A Dream for the Future prompts children to make a drawing that reflects what they dream for the future. The artist creates sculptures from found fabrics which explore her connection with nature. Rithika Merchant If the seeds chose where to grow encourages children to shape a new world by adding elements such as living beings, plants and celestial bodies to a digital or drawn landscape. The artist creates paintings and collages that explore the idea of ‘terraformation’, or ‘Earth-shaping’ — the theoretical process of making a planet fit for human life. Brett Graham In Wakuwaku, children are asked to consider the natural environment where they live and to be inspired by it when designing their own pattern to apply to the surface of two custom template shapes. The artist creates large-scale sculptures and installations that feature traditional Māori patterns. Okui Lala Children can also enjoy two video works featuring bilingual and multilingual students from Brisbane’s West End State School. The artist creates video works exploring language and what is lost or changed when words are translated from one language to another. Participating Venues: 1 January – 30 June 2025 Visit our website for the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial Kids on Tour for a list of venues or the participating location for further details: Aurukun Shire Balonne Shire Council Banana Shire Barcaldine Regional Council Barcoo Shire Council Blackall Tambo Regional Council Boulia Shire Council Bulloo Shire Council Bundaberg Regional Council Burdekin Regional Council Burke Shire Council Cairns Regional Council Camooweal State School Carpentaria Council Cassowary Coast Region Central Highlands Regional Council Charters Towers Regional Council Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Cloncurry Shire Council Cook Shire Croydon Shire Council Diamantina Shire Council Doomadgee Aboriginal Council Doomadgee State School Douglas Shire Council Etheridge Shire Flinders Shire Council Fraser Coast Regional Council Gladstone Regional Council Gold Coast City Council Goondiwindi Regional Council Gympie Regional Council Hinchinbrook Shire Council Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire Council Ipswich City Council Isaac Regional Council Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council Livingston Shire Council Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Council Lockyer Valley Regional Council Logan City Council Longreach Regional Council Mackay Regional Council Mapoon Aboriginal Council Maranoa Regional Council Mareeba Shire Council Moreton Bay Regional Council Mornington Shire Mount Isa City Mount Isa City Library Murweh Shire Council Napranum Aboriginal Shire Council Noosa Regional Council North Burnett Regional Council Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council Paroo Shire Council Pormpuraaw Aboriginal Shire Council Quilpie Shire Council Redland City Council Library Services Richmond Shire Council Rockhampton Regional Council Scenic Rim Region Somerset Regional Council South Burnett Regional Council Southern Downs Regional Council Sunshine Coast Regional Council Tablelands Regional Council Toowoomba Regional Council Torres Shire Council Torres Strait Island Regional Council Townsville City Council Western Downs Regional Council Whitsundays Region Council Winton Shire Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire Council Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council Asia Pacific Triennial Kids on Tour is supported by APT Kids Principal Benefactor, the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation. Art that goes everywhere Asia Pacific Triennial Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art 30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025

If you’re a local or visiting Brisbane, whether you have a spare 30 minutes to drop in for a dose of art at either of our neighbouring buildings — the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art — or a leisurely 3 hours to wander both sites, here are some suggestions to make the most of your visit. Pick and choose your preferences from the range of contemporary and historical Australian, Asian, Pacific and international art on display.There’s something for everyone, whether you’re aged 3 or 103. Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery building opened in 1982 as part of the first stage of the Queensland Cultural Centre at South Bank; until then, the Gallery never had a purpose-built permanent home. Designed around the Brisbane River, the spectacular Watermall’s cavernous interior runs parallel to the waterway threading its way through the ‘River City’. Collection highlight: Australian art The work of Australian artists have been collected by the Queensland Art Gallery since its foundation in 1895, however few works in our Collection have enjoyed as much popularity as Under the jacaranda 1903 by R Godfrey Rivers (illustrated). Considered a quintessential image of Brisbane, the clouds of purple blooms capture the attention of Gallery visitors and has ensured the painting’s enduring appeal. Hanging alongside is Monday morning 1912 by Vida Lahey (illustrated), another of the Gallery’s most loved works. The painting of two young women doing the family wash, once a common sight in Australian households, now a recording of a by-gone era. Interesting facts: Under the jacaranda depicts the first jacaranda tree grown in Australia, planted in Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens in 1864; while the laundry room depicted in Monday morning was located in the artist’s home, at the time piped water and built-in concrete troughs were considered modern conveniences! Location: Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13) R Godfrey Rivers Under the jacaranda 1903 Vida Lahey Monday morning 1912 Collection highlight: Contemporary Australian art The jewellery-like intimacy of Fiona Hall’s Australian set (from ‘Paradisus Terrestris Entitled’ series) 1998–99 (illustrated) is a juxtaposition between culture and nature; human body parts combine with native botanical species. Interesting fact: The artist has transformed humble disposal sardine-tins by engraving, chasing and burnishing in the tradition of the colonial silversmith. Location: Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13) Fiona Hall Australian set 1998–99 Collection highlight: Indigenous Australian art Artistic expressions from the world's oldest continuing culture are drawn from all regions of the country in the Gallery's holdings of Indigenous Australian artworks. Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa was a well-known artist and respected Elder of Anmatyerre/Arrernte heritage. Goanna Story c.1973-74 is from one of the traditional dreaming stories, and this work shows four of the reptiles moving towards a waterhole. Interesting fact: The artwork has a strong sense of symmetry; one half is a mirror image of the other. Location: Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13) Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa Goanna Story c.1973–74 Collection highlight: International art Surrounded by works from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (illustrated) and Edgar Degas (illustrated), La Belle Hollandaise (The beautiful Dutch girl) 1905 (illustrated) is a key painting that marks a transition from the subdued hues and emaciated figures of Pablo Picasso’s ‘blue period’ to the serenity and warmth of the ‘rose period’. Picasso must have been pleased with the result — he inscribed the work at the top left as a gift to Paco Durio, his dear friend and neighbour in the Parisian suburb of Montmartre. Interesting fact: Pablo Picasso's La belle Hollandaise was donated to the Gallery in 1959; at the time this major work by one of the greatest living twentieth century masters; set a world record price at £55,000. Location: International Art Collection, Philip Bacon Galleries (7-9) Pablo Picasso La Belle Hollandaise 1905 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Tete de fille (Head of a girl) 1892 Edgar Degas Three dancers at a dance class c.1888-90 Exhibition highlight: The Asia Pacific Triennial For more than three decades, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art has showcased an evolving mix of the most exciting and important developments in contemporary art from across Australia, Asia and the Pacific. During the 11th chapter, wander through Thai artist Mit Jai Inn’s suspended canvas tunnel in the Watermall (illustrated), its immense hanging ribbon panels inhabit a space between ground and ceiling; then onto Papua New Guinea’s display by collective Haus Yuriyal (illustrated). Interesting fact: The inaugural Asia Pacific Triennial in 1993 was the first project of its kind in the world to focus on the contemporary art of Asia and the Pacific. ‘The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ which features the work of 70 artists, collectives and projects from 30 countries is at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art until 27 April 2025. Location: Queensland Art Gallery Mit Jai Inn Tunnel #APT 2024 Haus Yuriyal 2024 Roy and Matilda For those visiting with children of all ages, drop by the home of Roy and Matilda, two mice who one day decided to visit the Queensland Art Gallery, loved it so much, they decided to say. Just look for the letters 'R' and 'M' carved into their beautiful wooden front door. Interesting fact: One day, a man who worked in the Galley’s workshop restoring and carving frames found they were living here and decided to make them a special little front door. Location: Australian Art Collection, Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Galleries (10-13) Watermall & Sculpture Courtyard The Queensland Art Gallery’s grand Watermall — a visitor favourite for both regular art lovers and tourists — extends far beyond the Gallery’s interior; past the Dandelion fountains (illustrated) through to the reflection pond and Sculpture Courtyard. Why not relax and enjoy a quiet moment of contemplation at the adjoining QAG Cafe. Interesting facts:...