Exhibition opening 'Horizons' & 'A Challenge Each Month'

Name: Exhibition opening 'Horizons' & 'A Challenge Each Month'
Start: 2026-09-26T17:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-09-26T17:00:00+10:00
Location: Dogwood Crossing, Miles

About

JOHN MULLINS MEMORIAL ART GALLERY

26 September 2026 - 21 November 2026

'Horizons'
by Joe Furlonger

"I think that artists want to record something of their place and time no matter how they go about it." - Joe Furlonger

An exhibition celebrating the work of respected Queensland artist Joe Furlonger opens at Dogwood Crossing, Miles on Saturday 26 September 2026.

Drawn from the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Collection Joe Furlonger: Horizons traces the artist’s career through a range of media from painting to ceramics, sculpture and drawing.

The exhibition also includes an artwork from the Lapunyah Art Gallery's own collection, showing it in the context of Furlonger’s broader oeuvre.

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines CNZM said the exhibition would showcase Furlonger’s expressive, painterly figures and vast Australian landscapes in all their brilliant diversity.

"No matter what medium Furlonger chooses, an uncommon, affirming and optimistic humility underscores his art", Mr Saines said.

"He has produced a body of work that flows in and out of different genres and mediums using line to give form and substance to his ideas, all of which have arisen from an intensely focused and sustained curiosity about the world".

Born in Cairns in 1952, Joe Furlonger grew up in the Samford Vallery on the outskirts of Brisbane. Working on his uncle’s farm and as a deckhand on fishing trawlers off the Queensland coast, he was instilled with a love of the outdoors from an early age.

During this time, he learned his artistic craft under leading teachers such as Roy Churcher, studied at the Queensland College of Art and refined his skills, particularly the drawing, that would become a daily practice.

Furlonger came to national prominence in the late 1980s when his large-scale figurative painting Bathers 1987 won the prestigious Moët & Chandon Fellowship, providing him with a residency in France and crystallising the trajectory of his artistic development.

Throughout Furlonger’s 40-year practice, the human figure, land and seascapes have been recurring themes, and his works are instilled with an assured spontaneous dedication to the world around him.

Joe Furlonger: Horizons was curated by Michael Hawker, former Curator, Australian Art to 1980, QAGOMA, and originally displayed at the Queenslander Art Gallery, August 2022 to January 2023.

Joe Furlonger: Horizons is on display at Dogwood Crossing, Miles until Saturday 21 November 2026.

Image: Furlonger, Joe / Australia 1952 / SE QLD landscape 2004 / 57 x 92.5cm / Woodblock print on technical vintage paper, relief print / Gift of Pamela Barnett through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2022. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / ©Joe Furlonger

CURVED WALL

26 September 2026 - 21 November 2026
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'A Challenge Each Month'
by Miles Art Group

A Challenge Each Month celebrates the creativity and growth of the Miles Art Group through a series of monthly themed challenges. With each concept drawn at random, members are encouraged to explore new mediums, techniques, and ideas beyond their usual practice.

This exhibition highlights the diversity of local talent while capturing the energy, experimentation, and connection fostered through shared creative practice. At its heart, A Challenge Each Month is a celebration of artistic play, adaptability, and the endless possibilities that emerge when artists create together.