PUNQ transforms natural and built environments across North Queensland, bringing together contemporary art and exhibitions, public artworks, performances, installations and events.

NAFA is an annual celebration of arts, culture, inclusion and community. With world-class programming each year, NAFA enriches the local community while strengthening Townsville’s standing as a destination for artistic excellence.

PUNQ and NAFA, presented in partnership as key festivals of the North, explore transformation, cultural history and the ways we understand the world around us.

A Shifting Reality by Jill Chism examines the ongoing transformation of forms, identities, meanings and perceptions, inviting us to consider how our understanding of reality is continually shaped and reshaped.

Overthink by Justin Bishop considers how words accumulate meaning through repetition, context and circulation, and how contemporary media environments shape the ways we think, feel and respond. Drawing on the heightened anxiety associated with ‘overthinking’, the work reflects on how continuous streams of headlines, commentary and content can amplify emotionally charged material and reinforce existing beliefs and biases.

A Radical Art History: Artists, Ideas, and Cultural Exchange Across Forty Years is a new digital archive accessible across two platforms. Rather than presenting a conventional institutional history, an interactive digital archive and an in-person exhibition trace the networks of people, projects and conversations that have defined Umbrella since 1986.

Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts is a leading independent platform for contemporary and experimental arts practice on Wulgurukaba Country (Gurambilbarra / Townsville). Through artists, ideas and collaboration, Umbrella amplifies regional voices, fosters creative exchange and creates meaningful connections between North Queensland and the world

Contact the host of PUNQ + NAFA Exhibition Opening at Umbrella