Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts

04/09/2026

SYDNEY CONTEMPORARY // Umbrella is at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair at Carriageworks 3-6 September presenting bold contemporary works on paper by North Queensland artists:
Athena Costopoulos
Ron McBurnie
Neil Binnie
Sheree Kinlyside
Rhonda Stevens
Lynn Scott-Cumming
Michona Warria
Katherine Cornwall
Anne Cole
Gail Mabo
Anne Lord

This is Umbrella's first time at Sydney Contemporary which brings together 100 galleries and over 500 artists from Australia and around the world.

Find us in our Works On Paper booth, WP08. We're here until 6 September 2026. Tickets are available online or at the door:

https://sydneycontemporary.com.au/gallery/umbrella-studio-contemporary-arts/

Image: Umbrella's booth WP08 at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair 2026. Photograph: Daniel Qualischefski. | Umbrella is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of Education, and the Visual Art, Craft and Design Framework, an initiative of the Australian, state and territory governments. | Umbrella is supported by the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. | Townsville City Council is a funding partner of Umbrella's program.
Local Government, Queensland Government
Arts Queensland
Creative Australia
Australian Government
Townsville City Council

02/09/2026

Vale Sheree Kinlyside // With great sadness, we share the news of the passing of a beautiful human who has been an integral part of the Umbrella family for many years.

Sheree was a singular artistic voice, a passionate advocate, generous mentor, collaborator and friend, as well as a deeply loved partner and mother. She brought great kindness, curiosity and generosity to her relationships with people, art and ideas. Her contribution to Umbrella, to the arts community of North Queensland, and to contemporary art more broadly has been immense. She encouraged and supported so many artists and leaves a lasting mark on the community around her.

In time, we look forward to sharing more about Sheree’s incredible work, life and contribution, and to celebrating the inspirational legacy she leaves behind.

For now, we send all our love to those who knew and loved her, especially her husband Alan, children Jorgia and Robbie, and, of course, little Tillie.

Vale Sheree. You will be deeply missed.

01/09/2026

NATURE SHRINES // Athena Costopoulos' prints and sculptures in her exhibition 'Nature Shrines' are inspired by quiet everyday encounters with the natural world and the personal memories they evoke. On display until Sunday 6 September, this is the final week to spend time with the work. We'd love to welcome you into the gallery whether visiting for the first time or the tenth!

Read more: www.umbrella.org.au/nature-shrines (link in bio)

Image: Gallery visitor engaging with Athena Costopoulos' exhibition 'Nature Shrines'. Photograph: Sonia Warrell.

31/08/2026

ORE TO EARTH // This is the final week to view Natalie Ward's exhibition 'Ore to Earth'. Through her approach to this body of work, Natalie reframes mining waste as both material resource and conceptual lens, foregrounding ceramics as an inherently extractive practice while proposing cycles of reuse, transformation and responsibility. 'Ore to Earth' is on display until Sunday 6 September 2026.

Read more: www.umbrella.org.au/ore-to-earth

Image: Natalie Ward, 'Open cut', 2026, Reduction fired stoneware clay glazed with geological waste material, 33 x 15 x 15cm. Photograph: Jacob Hickman, Suspect Studios (2026), courtesy the artist.

30/08/2026

PRESSURE SYSTEMS // Artists Yandell Walton and Jana Irmert that explore the hidden forces shaping the Gardens of Stone landscape in an immersive projection and sound installation . Combining a digitally transformed 3D scan of local sandstone with an analogue synthesiser composition informed by the rhythms and memory of longwall mining, 'Pressure Systems' reveals the entanglement of deep geological time, ancient swamp ecosystems, and the ongoing pressures of extraction that continue to reshape the landscape.

Yandell Walton is a multi-award-winning artist based on Wurundjeri Country in Melbourne. Creating site-specific installations in both public and gallery contexts, she has become recognised for immersive moving-image works that merge architectural space with technology in unexpected and unprecedented ways. Walton often repurposes technologies to create environments that blur the boundaries between physical and digital experience, exploring ideas of impermanence, ecological fragility, and human entanglement with more-than-human worlds. Her practice spans moving image, real-time systems, motion capture, and experimental digital workflows, resulting in installations in which mediated landscapes feel simultaneously embodied and ephemeral.

Jana Irmert is a Berlin-based sound artist and composer working across spatial composition, film and live performance. Her practice explores the liminal space between musical sound and noise, using extensive experimentation with field recordings to shape immersive sonic environments. Engaging with themes of temporality and impermanence - particularly in the context of ecological crisis - she creates atmospheric sound worlds that embrace dissonance and fragility as reflections of our reality.

Reserve free entry: www.umbrella.org.au/pressure-systems

Yandel LW BigCi - Bilpin international ground for Creative initiatives

Image: Yandell Walton & Jana Irmert, Pressure Systems, Installation at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery. PUNQ 2026 Commission. Photograph courtesy of the artist. | Thanks to the BigCi Environmental Art Award

29/08/2026

29/08/2026

CARETAKER // Artist Kellie O’Dempsey builds worlds, alternative realities where time refuses to be measured or contained. 'Caretaker' is a cinematic, immersive installation of projection, collage, sound and performance. Here, figures and familiar domestic objects carry traces of the hands that once held them, acknowledging the invisible labour of women whose labour and care build community. Composer Mick Dick's eerie score guides audiences into a strange, tender, temporal space.

For over two decades, Kellie has employed performance and projection across major Australian venues including The National Gallery of Australia, MONA FOMA and the Museum of Brisbane. Based on Kabi Kabi Country (Sunshine Coast) and represented by Jan Manton Gallery, Kellie merges large-scale projection, video, collage and sound into environments that transform and re-imagine space through movement and colour.

'Caretaker' is available to experience during PUNQ Festival 2026
Wednesday 23 September - Sunday 11 October
Weekdays 3-7pm, Sat 9am-1pm + 3-7pm, Sun 9am-1pm

Reserve free entry: www.umbrella.org.au/caretaker/

Kellie O'Dempsey


Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts

Images: 1. Kellie O’Dempsey, Caretaker, 2026, Installation. PUNQ 2026 Commission. Photograph: Jorge Serra. 2. Artist Kellie O'Dempsey. Photograph: Heather Faulkner.

29/08/2026

GLOW HOLES // Get ready for 'Glow Holes' - a free site-specific installation running 24/7 from 23 September - 11 October! Fissures have opened up in the Gurambilbarra / Townsville area. Glowing, primordial cracks pulsating and emanating unearthly lights. They have erupted through the earth caused by some sort of tectonic anomaly revealing unseen layers. As light fades, they glow and sounds emit from within.

In their collaboration, artists Jo Stacey and Michael Pope create large-scale, site-specific sculptural lanterns to invite wonder and delight.

Jo’s artworks express her love of community, sustainable living and concerns over the environment and about preserving a sense of place. Her art practice encompasses printmaking, book binding, drawing and experimenting with different methods, mediums and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Michael is an artist and teacher based in Gurambilbarra/Townsville. His interdisciplinary practice spans a range of mediums, including drawing, sculpture, installation and ceramics; he frequently collaborates across mediums with others.

'Glow Holes' is a free event available 24/7 23 September - 11 October 2026
Read more: www.umbrella.org.au/glow-holes

Images: 1. Jo Stacey and Michael Pope, 'Glow Holes', 2026. Mixed media installation. PUNQ 2026 Commission. Photograph: Amanda Galea 2. Jo Stacey and Michael Pope. Courtesy the artists. | PUNQ Festival is produced by Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts and presented in partnership with the North Australian Festival of Arts. Dancenorth, artisan and James Cook University are presenting partners of PUNQ. The festival is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. Townsville City Council is a funding partner of PUNQ. Paradise Outdoor Advertising and Grand Hotel and Apartments Townsville are generous sponsors of this year’s festival.



Pop-Up North Queensland - PUNQ
Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts
Dancenorth Australia
North Australian Festival of Arts
Local Government, Queensland Government
Arts Queensland
Creative Australia
Australian Government
Townsville City Council
POA Billboards

29/08/2026

'THE HOUSE OF FLOATING FLOWERS / 浮き花の家 (Ukibana no ie)' imagines the Japanese House as a living, dreaming vessel. Inspired by its architecture, gardens and layered histories, Mari Hirata's site-responsive installation explores how places gather memories, stories and people - each a floating flower drifting gently through time.

Mari Hirata is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lutruwita / Tasmania. Working across a range of mediums including photography, sculpture, installation, and silversmithing, her practice explores themes of memory, ritual, storytelling, and interpersonal narratives. Drawing together symmetry and organic forms, Hirata creates works that echo both natural and built landscapes, informed by the aesthetic sensibilities of her multicultural heritage. Unified by an interest in materiality, perception, and the quiet poetics of objects and spaces, her work considers how personal and collective histories become embedded within form, inviting moments of contemplation and connection.

Read more: www.umbrella.org.au/the-house-of-floating-flowers

Images: 1. Mari Hirata, 'King of Flowers', 2026, Artist residency at the Japanese House, Ingham. Detail. PUNQ 2026 Commission. Photograph courtesy of the artist. 2. Mari Hirata. Photograph courtesy of the artist. |'The House of Floating Flowers (Ukibana no ie)' is commissioned by Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts and artisan in partnership with The Japanese House Australia. | PUNQ Festival is produced by Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts and presented in partnership with the North Australian Festival of Arts. Dancenorth, artisan and James Cook University are presenting partners of PUNQ. The festival is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. Townsville City Council is a funding partner of PUNQ. Paradise Outdoor Advertising and Grand Hotel and Apartments Townsville are generous sponsors of this year’s festival.
hirata.artist
Pop-Up North Queensland - PUNQ Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts artisan Dancenorth AustraliaThe Japanese House Australia North Australian Festival of Arts Local Government, Queensland Government Arts Queensland Creative Australia Australian Government Townsville City Council POA Billboards

29/08/2026

PREFACE // A preface is written before the main text. In this major new performance installation, Jarrowia, Butchulla and Gunggari artist Zane Saunders explores Indigenous knowledge, spirituality and colonial narratives through live performance, sculpture, sound and video, creating an immersive experience that invites reflection long after the performance ends.

Based in Kuranda, North Queensland, Zane is an Aboriginal interdisciplinary artist and performer whose practice moves across performance, installation, sound, sculpture and moving image. His work examines the intersections of spirituality, Country, memory and the enduring impacts of colonialism.

Through this new work, Zane brings these ideas together in a powerful, immersive encounter with performance, place and story.

Book tickets now: www.umbrella.org.au/preface

Images: 1. Zane Saunders, 'Preface', 2026, Performance Installation in Old NSW Bank Building on Gurambilbarra / Townsville. PUNQ 2026 Commission. 2. Photograph: Russell Milledge.Portrait of Zane Saunders. Photo by Amber Haines, 2022 | 'Preface' is commissioned by PUNQ Festival, produced in partnership with Dancenorth, and is supported by QPAC and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

Pop-Up North Queensland - PUNQ
Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts
North Australian Festival of Arts
Dancenorth Australia
QPAC
Local Government, Queensland Government
Arts Queensland