Discover your Gallery


Throughout August and September the focus of the Cairns Art Gallery’s exhibition program is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture.

Lei It On, a stunning collection of contemporary lei and body adornment made by communities in the Torres Strait Islands, is the result of a partnership between the Cairns Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria and Gab Titui.

The exhibition explores the cultural production of the lei as a symbol of identity and cultural meaning.

Works in the exhibition range from small delicate wearable pieces to lei that have been transformed into large-scale innovative sculptural works incorporating both customary and contemporary materials.

Bitter Sweet is a major exhibition that features the work of Daniel Boyd, one of Australia’s most innovative and exciting contemporary artists who was born and grew up in Cairns.

Daniel Boyd has achieved international acclaim for his work and is represented in major public and private collections both in Australia and overseas.

The Gallery is thrilled that Daniel has selected the Cairns Art Gallery for his first solo exhibition in a public gallery in Australia.

Bitter Sweet features a major work from the Gallery’s Permanent Collection, together with works from public and private collections across Australia.

Bitter Sweet examines narratives of the Pacific Islands as a ‘paradise’, and the life of Pacific Islanders in relation to slavery and the sugarcane industry, and their effect on descendants’ lives in Far North Queensland, including on the artist’s own ancestors.

Greg Semu’s monumental photographic exhibition, BLOOD RED, is another major exhibition and it brings together new works produced by the artist on location in Coen, a remote Indigenous community in Cape York.

Following on from his successful exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, Semu an interdisciplinary artist of Samoan heritage, began a collaboration with Coen based artist Naomi Hobson and traditional owners to re-enact and photograph an alternative history relating to Coen’s frontier wars including reversing the roles of the black and white protagonists to play with notions of historical truth and construction.

We look forward to welcoming you at the Gallery and hope you enjoy these stimulating and diverse exhibitions.

And don’t forget that a visit to the Gallery is not complete without exploring the Gallery Shop that is renowned for its extensive range of imaginative hand-made jewellery, ceramics, glassware and home wares, as well as an extensive range of children’s toys, art books and postcards.