PUNQ + NAFA Exhibition Opening at Umbrella

Join Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts for a historic celebration of North Queensland art, archives and culture - launching:

·       PUNQ Festival: Pop Up North Queensland, presented in partnership with the North Australian Festival of Arts (NAFA)

·       A Radical Art History: Artists, Ideas and Cultural Exchange Across Forty Years, produced by Umbrella in partnership with James Cook University

·       A Shifting Reality - Jill Chism, presented by Umbrella as part of NAFA.

·       Overthink - Justin Bishop, presented as part of PUNQ in The Vault, as well as a public artwork on Umbrella’s Ogden Street side of Umbrella’s building.

Connect with artists and audiences at this opening event to discover contemporary art from North Queensland and beyond.

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