At Lismore Regional Gallery in The Quad, there’s art, sunshine and a public space for the whole community to enjoy.

Lismore Regional Gallery administrator Sarah Harvey is excited about the exhibitions and programs and regular events on offer this springtime.

“It’s great that we have beautiful gallery in Lismore,” Sarah said. “It’s a great space where we can have a diversity of shows, as well as being a place for other things to happen where the community can be involved and schools can tour.

“It’s a nice time to come and enjoy the grassy space in the Quad, maybe have a picnic and then come inside and look at the art,” she said.

“Every Wednesday we have the Hannah Cabinet opening from 10.30-11.30am. 

“If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a masterpiece created over six and a half years master craftsman Geoff Hannah. It is more than a cabinet – it’s a masterpiece made of wood and inlay and people are in awe of it when then they come in to see it.

“Geoff Hannah will also be doing a show here with one of his students in October.

“There’s also the Friends of the Gallery morning teas held once a month on the first Tuesday of the month. 

“Then we have a Thursday night live talk with panellists coming up soon on September 12 looking at the future of food - can we fix the food system? 

“Peggy Popart will do her regular free tour on the second Sunday of the month (the next one will be this Sunday, September 8).

“It’s a fun tour aimed at kids, but adults love to come and tour the shows too, and there’s an art activity at the end.

Exhibitions on at the moment include:

Until September 8: Gesture of Balance by Grant Vaughan

Taking inspiration from the organic forms of natural objects, Grant’s work belies our expectations of worked timber. Characterised by a gestural interplay of smooth, rolling forms and juxtaposed with sharp flowing lines and edges, the work is made using a meticulous reductive process, it offers an impression of growth and honours the inherent beauty of wood.

Until September 15: Gunyah by Melody Popple

Gunyah is a performance artwork that explores concepts of belonging to the natural environment as well as the personification of an innate feminine presence within the Australian landscape.

Unveiling the interplay of her Indigenous and non-Indigenous heritage, Melody uses the art making process as a way to understand current feminine cultural identities and connections to Country, manifested as intuitive expressions of collaborative dance, site specific installation, ochre painting, natural dying/eco-printing, film production and the shared therapeutic experience. 

Until October 13: Idle Worship

Idle Worship explores contemporary notions of reverence, worship and idolisation.

The exhibition, curated by Natalie Bull & Zoë Robinson-Kennedy, focuses on personal manifestations and our need to look beyond the celestial and seek comfort in everyday deities and new-age idols. 

Worship presents itself in many forms. The artists feel it, know it, interpret it, challenge it, give in to it and subvert it. These idols are real and imagined, they come from the past and the future, yet are being made right now, taking their power from the present.

Until October 20: The Dark Sublime by Emma Walker

Northern Rivers based artist Emma Walker's exhibition is an ode to the shadowed beauty and crucial relevance of forests and what lies beneath the surface.

Emma’s abstracted landscapes are multi-layered, and as much about the medium of paint and the process of painting as with an experience of nature.

They explore the connections between the natural world, memory and the subconscious through texture and the interplay of light and dark.

September 14 until November 17: Comes from the shadow by Jumaadi

Jumaadi’s exhibition, Comes from the shadow, brings together a collection of works that are about birth and death. Life is there too, frail and fluid between these absolutes. The artist’s reference to “shadow” is metaphoric, through his exploration of the struggles of human existence, but it is also literal. 

The Dark Sublime and Comes from the shadow will be officially opened by Art Gallery of NSW curator Anne Ryan on Friday, September 13 at 6pm

Until October 20: Open Air 

Open Air by media artist Grayson Cooke in collaboration with painter Emma Walker, and with the music of The Necks. 

Through a partnership with Geoscience Australia, the project also uses Landsat satellite images of Australia from Digital Earth Australia.

This project seeks to creatively image the forces that shape the Earth. It uses aerial imaging on two vastly divergent scales to produce two different material manifestations of these forces. Firstly, the project features motion-controlled aerial photography of the paintings and processes of Emma Walker. Secondly, set against these painted landscapes are time-lapse images of Australia as seen by Landsat satellites.

For more information about Lismore Regional Gallery, visit https://www.lismoregallery.org/cp_themes/default/home.asp