It’s amazing what can be the most attention grabbing artistic work in a collection. People joke about sculptures made from great heaps of rubbish, and paintings that are reminiscent of their 4-year-old niece’s artistic triumphs. But in this case, we see a quiet painting of a man who seems as if he isn’t even there, […]

Queensland Art Gallery When painter Amrita Sher-Gil died in 1941 aged 28 she was already recognised as one of India’s most important artists, though she left behind only about 150 canvasses. Born in Hungary to a Jewish opera-singer mother and an Indian Sikh father, her talent was nurtured early and at the age of 16 […]

Opera Queensland (Lyric Theatre) A strange mix of poker games, Italian, gun fights and high notes, Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West combines the cultured world of opera with the 1850s gold rush in California – and somehow does it well. The opera has a Romeo and Juliet feel to it, with Minnie, the […]

New Farm Nash Theatre Blood and butchery, swords and sorcery, tyranny and tragedy, murder and mayhem,  daggers and death are all promised in promotions for Nash Theatre’s production of Macbeth.  It’s a promise the cast are clearly driven to deliver as much as Lady Macbeth in her wanton desire for the throne. Brenda White’s decision […]

It isn’t every ballet that uses rock music and motorbikes, but Queensland Ballet’s student production of Romeo and Juliet isn’t every ballet. The young faces on stage are the only indication they are students, for their talent and professionalism make this an outstanding production. As lines from Shakespeare’s play opened the ballet, artistic director Martyn […]

Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art beat hundreds of international galleries to win the first overseas exhibit of the revered Parisian Valentino exhibit. Valentino Retrospective Past/Present/Future was unveiled in Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art last weekend in the exhibit’s first display outside Paris. It follows Valentino Garavini and the fashion powerhouse over the decades since 1959. […]

The promotional material promised a night of classic and modern Broadway songs accompanied by a dazzling orchestra. Finely groomed and in a shiny three-piece suit, David Campbell promises “an election free zone” and “no swingin’… until later.” With the coloured lights and overworked smoke machine it’s easy to imagine you are knocking heads in a […]

Fractal Theatre (Metro Arts Theatre, Brisbane) Reading between the lines of Shakespeare’s Hamlet there is little doubt that the prince of Denmark had his way with the daughter of the king’s minister, Polonius – or at least tried to. Steven Berkoff speculates about the possibilities in this clever parallelquel to Hamlet, reminiscent of Tom Stoppard’s […]

Cremorne Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre Reluctant cleaners watching this clever play will be relieved to note obsessive cleaning and too much attention to fastidious detail may blunt your passion for life! As a high achieving, clinical, busy doctor, white-clad Lane has little time for life’s pleasures. She hires a young Brazilian to clean her […]

New Farm Nash Theatre The wheels within wheels, the corruption, the bribery and the back room deals are as much a feature of modern politics as they were one hundred years ago.- Nigel Munro-Wallis, director. Set in London’s Grosvenor Square, Oscar Wilde’s classic play begins at a dinner party hosted by the wealthy and highly […]

Chances are you have never met anybody like Myles Barlow and you’ve never seen a show quite like his.

A bikini is not a bikini unless it can be pulled through a wedding ring, according to the new “Exposed” exhibit at Queensland Museum. The exhibition is a showcase of Australia’s beach identity and the development of a million dollar industry that now has its own fashion week. The development is a seductive one that […]

“A Girl” is Ron Mueck’s scuplture of a nude newborn baby complete with blood smeared on her body and a purple-blue umbilical cord still attached. The baby is quite ugly, suggesting a challenge to the idea of beautiful and innocent childhood. This sculpture is of no innocent, but of a primal force of nature. One […]

You probably would not take your parents to see her perform. In fact, she did not even let her biological parents hear any of her “funny songs”. [WARNING: strong language follows] If you did not understand English you would swear Nikki Lynn Katt (pictured) was an angel singing. But when you understand her, it’s a […]

An exhibition at the Brisbane Powerhouse captures 100 years of war through the eyes of the photojournalist. Degree South: War uses images taken over nearly 100 years to look back, forward and sideways at the events of modern war. The exhibition shows that in the human aspect of combat there is no glory or glamour […]