Justene Williams' Riotous World Takes Over QAGOMA This October

Brisbane-based artist Justene Williams is about to take over two of Queensland Art Gallery's biggest rooms — and if her own work is anything to go by, it won't be a quiet one.

Justene Williams: Once We Were Mudskippers opens at QAGOMA on 3 October, running through to 7 March 2027. It's the largest survey of Williams' three-decade practice to date, spanning sculpture, performance, video and installation across the Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Gallery and Gallery 4. Entry is free.

QAGOMA Director Chris Saines calls her work "as visually spectacular as it is intellectually layered." "Influenced by punk, feminism and improvisation, her practice encompasses performance, sculpture, video and installation to comment on popular culture via the echoes of art history," he said. "Williams draws from the visual language of Futurism, Dada, Bauhaus and avant-garde opera to subvert contemporary retail, fitness culture and digital environments to take the audience on a journey not for the faint of heart."

The exhibition's title carries a deliberate metaphor, says Ellie Buttrose, QAGOMA's Curator of Contemporary Australian Art.

"The exhibition's title, 'Once We Were Mudskippers', refers to the small swamp-dwelling fish that can live on both land and in the water, pulling itself from the muddy water to skip across mudflats using its specially shaped fins as legs," Buttrose said. "For Williams, the metaphor places us all in the primordial swamp together, looking for our own way out with daring adaptability. It captures the desire to escape, but also an acceptance of a sometimes-messy, swamp-dwelling life."

Above: a detail from Williams' studio ahead of the show. Image courtesy QAGOMA.

Born in Sydney in 1970 and now based in Brisbane, Williams is a Senior Lecturer in Sculpture at Griffith University's Queensland College of Art and Design. Her work already sits in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, London's Tate, and QAGOMA itself, and she's behind Sheila, the public artwork commissioned for Brisbane's Queen's Wharf.

The show pulls together significant works from major Australian collections alongside new, large-scale installations, building on Williams' habit of pulling apart and reassembling her own earlier work into something new. A companion publication will accompany the exhibition, featuring a conversation between Williams and Buttrose alongside essays from art historian Susan Best, philosopher Stephen Zepke and critic Victoria Perin.

Justene Williams: Once We Were Mudskippers opens 3 October 2026 at Queensland Art Gallery, Stanley Place, South Brisbane, and runs until 7 March 2027. Entry is free.