The Condensery Somerset Regional Art Gallery

31/08/2026

‘Snarm’ is the accumulation of a participatory project led by artist Nataly Lee with families currently living in displacement camps along the Thai/Cambodian border. Here, Nataly Lee shares their stories:

'When I first arrived at one of the displacement camps along the Thai-Cambodian border, I immediately noticed this mother and child. They reminded me of my own childhood and of my mother, who, only forty years earlier, made the difficult decision to flee Cambodia and seek safety at the Khao I Dang refugee camp.

The child pictured here is around the same age I was when my family made that journey. Only one or two photographs remain from that period of my own life, and that absence has shaped the way I think about images, memory, and archives.

As part of Snarm, I return printed portraits to the families I photograph. In places where personal documentation is often limited, these images can become important records of family, memory, and everyday life, preserving moments that might otherwise be lost.’ – Nataly Lee

Visit Snarm now at The Condensery, on display to 20 September.

28/08/2026

Recently, The Condensery was thrilled to welcome Visual Arts students from Toogoolawah State High School for a special engagement session with exhibiting artist Darren Blackman.

Students learned about the stories and cultural practice that informed his exhibition ‘Absence’ and learnt principles of artwork concept development.

Thank you to Darren for this incredible session and to all the students who joined us! ☀

Image: Naomi McKenzie

27/08/2026

Featured as part of برزخ Liminal, Silent conversation is an installation and ongoing participatory artwork by Sha Sarwari that explores public attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers while examining the complexities of social engagement.

The project emerged from the artist's desire to understand the contrast between public discourse presented in the media and his own interactions with members of the public on the subject of asylum seekers.

Experience برزخ Liminal now at The Condensery.

Open Wed – Sun.
10am – 4pm

26/08/2026

Last week The Condensery was delighted to welcome artist-in-residence Kuweni Dias Mendis to lead a special two-day earth pigment workshop. 🌱

Over the two days participants considered how to collect earth ethically and sustainably, taking only what was needed while observing and recording the qualities of place. Through gathering, grinding, sieving and refining local soils, they transformed earth pigments into natural paints for use on paper and fabric.

The workshop encouraged a deeper relationship with land grounded in care, reciprocity and respect.

Thank you to Kuweni and to those who joined us for this truly memorable experience. 🌞

Images 1-3: Naomi McKenzie

25/08/2026

Looking forward to it!

Our Annual Market Day on Saturday 5 September 2026 is supported by terrific installations and ‘open venues’ around town. Our wonderful contemporary art gallery,housed in one of the original Nestles Condensed Milk Factory buildings, offers free entry and guided tours at 10.30am and 11.30am on the Saturday morning.

Explore the gallery’s current exhibitions alongside the history of this unique building and its origins as the former Nestlé condensed milk factory. Discover the artists, ideas and stories behind the exhibition artworks while learning more about the site’s important place in Toogoolawah’s history.

21/08/2026

Presented in The Condensery’s Creation Station, ‘Beyond the rhetoric’ is an interactive artwork by Sha Sawari about migration, identity, belonging, and finding connection through language.

Inspired by the beauty of Persian Nastaliq calligraphy, it features words of hope, kindness, and unity that encourage us to think about the experiences of war, displacement, and prejudice.

Visitors can create their own rubbing artwork using the calligraphy, becoming part of the artwork themselves. By taking their rubbing home, they help share its message beyond the gallery.

‘Beyond the rhetoric’ shows how art and language can bring people together, and help everyone feel a greater sense of compassion and unity.

Open Wed – Sun.
10am – 4pm

21/08/2026

JOIN US! The Condensery is seeking volunteers. If you have a passion for art and good conversation please get in touch.

Volunteering is a great way to become actively involved in your community, enhance and continue skills development, meet and interact with people of all ages and interests, build your confidence, learn new skills and, most of all, experience art.

More information is on our website, or email [email protected]

SANDI HOOK, ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG – LAYERS OF MEANING (DETAIL) 2024. LITHOGRAPH PRINT AND TEXTILE ON PAPER. PHOTO: LOUIS LIM.

19/08/2026

‘Snarm’ is the accumulation of a participatory project led by artist Nataly Lee with families currently living in displacement camps in Cambodia. Here Nataly Lee shares their stories:

‘Over the past several months, I have visited Yay (the Khmer word for grandmother) regularly in the displacement camp where she has been living since fleeing her village during the recent Thai–Cambodian border conflict.

Like many residents, she does not know when, or if, she will be able to return home. Among the few belongings she carried with her is a small Buddha figure that continues to play an important role in her daily rituals.

Despite the uncertainty of camp life, she maintains the routines and practices that have shaped her life for decades. When I returned with a printed portrait, she placed it amongst the objects she values most.’

View this incredible exhibition now on display at The Condensery.

Open Wed – Sun.
10am – 4pm

Images by Nataly Lee

18/08/2026

'Historically, newspapers have been critical to the development of modern nations, binding populations together under a single temporality and language and helping to create a sense of belonging to the ‘imagined community’ of a nation.

In this context, newspapers are an important focus for a range of works by Sarwari. In برزخ Liminal at the Condensery, this includes the work Now (2016) which assembles numerous newspaper articles from the early 2000s.

Many of these articles demonised and ‘othered’ refugees and the places from which they fled. Sarwari prints these articles onto large, draping pieces of silk fabric.

Written in Farsi across the fabric is the word ‘refugee’, the letters of which can be reassembled in Farsi to create the word ‘crimes’. These newspaper articles were part of the process that created, against international law, an association of refugees with criminality and deeply affected their experience of, and reception in, Australia.’

Except from exhibition essay by Kyle Weise

Experience
برزخ Liminal now at The Condensery.

Open Wed – Sun.
10am – 4pm

Image by Phil Lister

14/08/2026

Recently, The Condensery was excited to host a concept development workshop led by artist Darren Blackman. Held as part of the New Horizons project delivered by Somerset Art Society Inc, this session was the first in a series of professional development and mentorship opportunities for local artists.

A big thanks to Darren Blackman for an amazing day! ✨

New Horizons is funded by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.