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Last Updated: Friday, 23 May 2025 07:54

Published: Friday, 23 May 2025 07:54

The Third International Art Textile Biennale 2025 (IATB25) is one of six new exhibitions that will be on display as part of Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery’s 2025 Winter Season exhibition schedule.

IATB25 showcases innovative practices within contemporary textile art.

The exhibition aims to highlight the finest examples of modern art textiles, featuring submissions from Australian and international artists.

The pieces in this Biennale challenge conventional ideas, revealing surprising connections between textiles and other artistic disciplines.

This year’s Biennale features 42 artworks by 39 artists, including 22 from Australia and 20 international participants from 10 different countries

IATB25 is proudly produced and managed by Fibre Arts Australia.

On tour from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, Mīal is an abstract, conceptual self portrait that continues Archie Moore’s practice exploring the politics of identity, racism and language systems.

The monumental self portrait is composed of multiple geometric paintings, each representing a part of the artist’s body and replicating shades of his skin colour.

To create the work, Moore used the same technology that makes commercial paint samples to convert scans of his skin into the Pantone colour scale.

Supported by the National Portrait Gallery, this is the first exhibition of the Mīal tour, and it is fitting that it is in Moore’s hometown of Toowoomba.

Complementing Archie Moore’s Mīal, is Intersections: Changing Views of Old and New.

The exhibition draws together contemporary art from the Toowoomba City Collection and historical materials from the Lionel Lindsay Gallery and Library Collection and The Fred and Lucy Gould Art Collection.

Featured artists include Tony Albert, Gordon Bennett and his alter ego John Citizen, Rew Hanks, Norman Lindsay, B. E. Minns, Margaret Preston, Christian Thompson and Judy Watson.

On the 75th anniversary of the gifting of The Fred and Lucy Gould Art Collection to the people of Toowoomba, the Gallery celebrates the artistic talent of the woman behind the collection with, In Her Honour: Celebrating Lucy.

Prior to her marriage to Fred, Lucy enjoyed drawing and painting, demonstrating her talent at both.

Curiously, among the finished artworks, the Gallery was also gifted incomplete and damaged pieces.

Normally such items are quickly deaccessioned. However, the Gallery is fortunate to have retained these gems, and they help paint a picture of a woman who was adept at whatever medium she attempted.

Dust Country regards the empire of dust and the dust of empire.

It features works about how imperial processes, such as the introduction of hooved animals, motorised vehicles and extractive industries, rather than treading softly, turned the ancient lands of Australia into dust country.

English Rose, Australian Thorn, inspired by Norman Lindsay’s thorny relationship with England, explores how Australian culture has transplanted, pruned or uprooted its English heritage.

The official opening of the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery’s Winter Season exhibitions will be held from 5.30pm on Friday, May 30.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, May 28 by calling 131 872 or email info@tr.qld.gov.au

The evening’s guest speaker will be Dr Emma Kindred, who is a curator, art historian and writer.

Dr Kindred is Curator at the National Portrait Gallery and Honorary Research Associate at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

She is also an Honorary Research Fellow in Art History at the University of Sydney

Winter Season schedule:
IATB25: May 31 – August 3, 2025.

Archie Moore’s Mīal: May 31 – August 3, 2025.

Intersections: Changing Views of Old and New: May 31 – August 3, 2025.

In Her Honour: Celebrating Lucy: May 10 – August 17, 2025.

Dust Country: May 24 – August 17, 2025.

English Rose, Australian Thorn: May 10 – November 23, 2025.

Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery at 531 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, is open Wednesday to Sunday 10.30am – 3.30pm. Entry is free.

Images:

1. From the exhibition IATB25 - Helen MACRITCHIE / Gaseous exchange 2024 / merino wool, jute hessian / 150 x 75cm / © Helen MacRitchie (top)

2. From the exhibition Mīal - Archie Moore Mīal, 2022/23 (detail). Purchased 2023 © Archie Moore

3. From the exhibition Intersections: Changing Views of Old and New - Christian THOMPSON / Bidjara/Irish/Chinese – Australian / Untitled #2 2010 / from the King Billy series / C-type print on fuji lustre paper edition 2/10 / 100 x 100 cm / Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery – Toowoomba City Collection 1872 / © courtesy the Artist and Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin

4. From the exhibition In Her Honour: Celebrating Lucy - Lucy Emily WILCOX (1875 - 1948) / Miniature landscape 1904 / oil on board / 10.2 x 13.6cm / Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery - The Fred and Lucy Gould Collection 230

5. From the exhibition Dust Country - Ivor HELE / Through ranges, where at racing speed, old Kiley used to wheel the lead 1958 / after Banjo Paterson, On Kiley’s Run 1895 / oil on board / 106 x 126cm (frame) / Lionel Lindsay Gallery and Library Collection 009 / © Estate of Ivor Hele

6. From the exhibition English Rose, Australian Thorn - Deborah KLEIN 1951 / Anon 1998 / linocut / 56.5 x 38.0cm / Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery – Toowoomba City Collection 501 / © Deborah Klein (bottom)