Artist Gordon Hookey will be in conversation with curator, publisher, and historian Michael Aird to discuss the visual language of Hookey’s major new painting MURRILAND!

A commission of Frontier Imaginaries, the work is part of an ongoing series of 10-metre long canvasses that re-imagine the history of Queensland from an Indigenous perspective. Hookey has set up a studio in the gallery and is continuing to work on the ambitious painting during the exhibition.

Gordon Hookey (b. 1961, Cloncurry, Queensland) is an Indigenous artist from Queensland and belongs to the Waanyi people. He has exhibited widely in Australia, and his work has come to prominence in the last decade as an outspoken critique of racism. In 2006 he became an active member of the Brisbane-based Aboriginal arts group, ProppaNOW. Hookey’s work is held in the public collections of most major Australian galleries as well as public collections internationally. Hookey has recently completed a Master of Visual Arts at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University.

Michael Aird has worked in the area of Aboriginal arts and cultural heritage since 1985, graduating in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Queensland. He has curated over 25 exhibitions, published several academic articles and has been involved in numerous research projects. In 1996 he established Keeaira Press, an independent publishing house that has produced over 30 books. Much of what Keeaira Press has published focus on art and photography, which reflects Aird’’s interest in recording aspects of urban Aboriginal history and culture. Aird is currently a Research Fellow in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland.