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Monday 10am - 4pm Tuesday 10am - 4pm Wednesday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Friday 10am - 4pm Saturday 10am - 1pm

University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery

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University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery

Located at the UniSC Sunshine Coast campus, the University of the Sunshine Coast Art Gallery is a space where art, ideas and community come together.

CRICOS Provider Number: 01595D

16/06/2026

Sigmund Freud's collection of antiquities numbered nearly three thousand, and his consulting room was filled with vases and figurines from the ancient world. ⚱️🏺

He viewed archaeology as a metaphor for exploring the layers of the mind, and the stories of mythology often provided shared narratives he used to illustrate his theories. 'The Interior' recreates some of these objects, though with a slight twist.

For example, in mythology, Eros is the Greek god of love, passion, and desire. In Freud's work, Eros represents the 'life drive'—the human imperative to survive, seek pleasure, and reproduce. Hughes has feminised Eros; her representation of him becomes more animated and vibrant, reflecting a more fecund and less-binary image.

'The Interior' continues until 18 July and is a travelling exhibition organised by the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) and toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland.

📍UniSC Art Gallery, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs
🕐 Opening hours
Monday to Friday, 10 am - 4 pm
Saturday, 10 am - 1 pm
🎟️ Free admission

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1,2. Installation views of 'The Interior' at UniSC Art Gallery. Photos: Carl Warner.
3,4. Installation views. Photos: Laura Brinin

14/06/2026

What a wonderfully crafty morning! 🪡

A big thank you to everyone who joined Natalya Hughes last Saturday for her punch needle tufting workshop. Inspired by the hand-tufted rugs in 'The Interior', participants designed and crafted their very own textile motifs to take home.

A huge thanks to Natalya for sharing her knowledge so generously, and to all of you who keep showing up for our programs and exhibitions. 💙

Keep an eye on our upcoming events! We have plenty more ways to get involved before our current exhibitions close on 18 July.

📍UniSC Art Gallery, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs
🕐 Opening hours
Monday to Friday, 10 am - 4 pm
Saturday, 10 am - 1 pm
🎟️ Free admission

〰️

📸 Laura Brinin

11/06/2026

What happens in the space between your body and your data?

Tracing an undersea cable from data centre to shoreline, the 9-minute video work 'Latency + Lacerations' by Amanda Bennetts asks how algorithmic systems measure, predict, and impose time onto bodies, and what gets lost in translation.

Now showing in 'Amanda Bennetts: Fragmented, divided—yet whole' until 18 July.

Latency + Lacerations
2025
colour video, sound; 9:00 min
galvanised steel, electrical conduit
Videography: Timothy Birch
Composer and Sound Design: Joseph Burgess, Finley Wegener
Second Camera: Ryan Jones
Assistant: Odessa Mahony-de Vries
Movement Coach: Courtney Scheu
Editor: Amanda Bennetts

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1, 3, 4. Stills from 'Latency + Lacerations' 2025. Photo: Tim Birch
2. Installation view of 'Amanda Bennetts: Fragmented, divided—yet whole'. Photo: Carl Warner

09/06/2026

Throughout 'The Interior,' recurring images drawn from Sigmund Freud's case studies of his patients during the development of psychoanalysis can be observed.

The motifs on the fabrics and rugs designed by Hughes reflect the key images that appeared in the symptoms of these individuals and the dreams they recalled during their analysis sessions. In Freudian psychoanalysis, dreams and their content serve as keys to our unconscious, exposing our 'inner selves' and capturing our desires, repressions, and conflicts.

Freud published details of his patients' therapy in the early twentieth century under pseudonyms. For instance, the repeated images of rats are inspired by a patient nicknamed 'the rat man' because of his nightmarish preoccupation with rats. Another patient, Dora, was diagnosed with hysteria by Freud. One of the key dreams that Freud interprets in assessing Dora is the dream of a burning house, which also appears within the fabrics.

If you look closely, you will find a variety of images woven into the fabric of this exhibition: 🐍 🐀 🔥 🏠 💀 🐺

'The Interior' runs until 18 July and is a travelling exhibition organised by the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) and toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland.

📍UniSC Art Gallery, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs
🕐 Opening hours
Monday to Friday, 10 am - 4 pm
Saturday, 10 am - 1 pm
🎟️ Free admission

〰️
📸
1. Installation view, 'Natalya Hughes: The Interior' 2022. Institute of Modern Art. Photo: Charlie Hillhouse.
2, 4, 5. Natalya Hughes Fabric design (detail) from 'The Interior' 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
3, 6. Installation view of 'The Interior' at UniSC Art Gallery. Photo: Carl Warner.

05/06/2026

What does it mean to labour toward no defined outcome?

In 'Carved Crevice from Grace', Amanda Bennetts places herself inside a constructed worksite, breaking sandstone in a task that is repetitive, accumulative, and deliberately futile, and interrogates how productivity has become a measure of human worth and whose bodies that measure leave behind.

Now showing in 'Amanda Bennetts: Fragmented, divided—yet whole' until 18 July.

Carved Crevice from Grace
2024
colour video, sound; 11:00 mins
engine crane, sandstone, galvanised steel wire
Videography: Timothy Birch
Second Camera: Ryan Jones
Assistant: Odessa Mahony-de Vries
Editors: Timothy Birch, Ryan Jones, Amanda Bennetts
An Accessible Arts and Sydney Opera House screen commission
Winner of Girra: Fraser Coast National Art Prize, 2025

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1. Installation view. Photo by Carl Warner
2. Installation view. Photo by Laura Brinin
3, 4. Still from 'Carve Crevice from Grace' 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
5. Installation view. Photo by Laura Brinin

25/05/2026

Tufting workshop with Natalya Hughes 🪡
Saturday 6 June, 10 am
UniSC Art Gallery

In this workshop, participants will create their own textile work to take home using the punch needle tufting technique. Natalya will lead participants through some of the techniques and processes she has employed to create custom textile works in The Interior. Participants will design their own motif to tuft, drawing on their experiences in conversation with the artist.

Free, but places are limited, and booking is essential. Head to the link in our bio to register.

📸
Punch needle workshop with Natalya Hughes. Photos: Meg Keene.

22/05/2026

🏺 Natalya Hughes: The Interior
🪨 Amanda Bennetts: Fragmented, divided—yet whole

These two exhibitions invite audiences into immersive and deeply introspective worlds, moving between the theatrical and the intimate, the psychological and the physical.

From richly patterned interiors and sculptural forms to fragmented explorations of memory and identity, the exhibitions encourage visitors to reflect on how we experience ourselves, our bodies and our minds.

'Natalya Hughes: The Interior' and 'Amanda Bennetts: Fragmented, divided—yet whole' are showing now until July 18.

📍UniSC Art Gallery, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs
🕐 Opening hours
Monday to Friday, 10 am - 4 pm
Saturday, 10 am - 1 pm
🎟️ Free admission

〰️

📸 Laura Brinin.

15/05/2026

Looking for something to do on the Sunshine Coast this weekend?

Make a trip to UniSC Art Gallery on Saturday to see two major contemporary art exhibitions.

🏠 Natalya Hughes: The Interior
🪨 Amanda Bennetts: Fragmented, divided—yet whole

Together, the exhibitions explore the body psychologically, emotionally, and physically through immersive installations, sculptural forms, and layered visual language.

'The Interior' is a travelling exhibition organised by the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) and toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland.

📍Free entry
🕙 Sat 10 am – 1 pm
🚙 Parking free
🎟 Admission is free, all welcome!

The exhibitions continue to 18 July.

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1-2: Installation views of 'Amanda Bennetts: Fragmented, divided—yet whole'.
3-4: Installation views of 'Natalya Hughes: The Interior'.
Photos: Carl Warner

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australia

14/05/2026

30 YEARS, 30 ARTWORKS

During 2026, we're sharing stories and standout pieces from the Art Collection to celebrate 30 years of UniSC.

This pair of gold leaf folding screens is the oldest artwork in our collection, dating back to 18th-century Japan. The screens were created by Ōoka Shunboku, a master of the prestigious Kano school, Japan's longest-running and most influential painting tradition, favoured by emperors, shoguns, and nobility alike. Shunboku's skill earned him the title of Hōgen, one of the highest honours the Japanese Imperial Court could bestow upon an artist.

The screens depict a family of monkeys at play among the trees. In Japanese culture, monkeys represent luck, fate, and long life, appearing everywhere from ancient folktales to divine mythology.

In Japan, folding screens serve both as furniture and as decoration. Screens divide large open spaces into intimate private areas, often for dressing or sleeping. Beyond its beauty, the gold leaf isn't just decorative; it reflects light to cast a warm, ambient glow, making these screens both breathtaking and functional.

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Ōoka Shunboku
1680–1763, Japan
Monkeys
1715, Edo (Tokugawa) period (1615–1868)
pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, pigment and gold leaf on paper
University of the Sunshine Coast Art Collection
Arija and Richard Austin Bequest, 2015
UniSC 1225

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2-5: Carl Warner
6: Installation view of An Acquisitive Instinct at UniSC Art Gallery 2022. Photo: Carl Warner

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australia

Address

90 Sippy Downs Drive
Sippy Downs, QLD
4556

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 4pm
Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm
Saturday	10am - 1pm

Telephone

+61754594645

Website

http://www.usc.edu.au/art-gallery

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