OCCURRENT AFFAIR: JUSTICE NOW

Venue: Court House & Mulgrave Galleries

10:00am Saturday 21st June 2025

An exhibition by the proppaNOW Collective

Exhibition: Sat 24 May - Sun 7 Sep 2025
Launch: 5:30pm, Sat 24 May

Established in 2003, proppaNOW is one of Australia’s leading cultural collectives, exploring the politics of Aboriginal art and culture, and provoking, subverting and re-thinking what it means to be a ‘contemporary Aboriginal artist’.

Conceived as a collaborative activist gesture, OCCURRENT AFFAIR addresses current socio-political, economic and environmental issues, while celebrating the strength, resilience and continuity of Aboriginal culture.

OCCURRENT AFFAIR: JUSTICE NOW embraces the slippage between language and its associated readings to probe and present new narratives. The exhibition reflects on the ongoing state of affairs affecting Aboriginal peoples and issues that are relevant to all Australians.

Free entry:
9.30am - 5.00pm Tuesday to Friday
10.00am - 5.00pm Saturday
10.00am - 2.00pm Sunday

Public Program: Coming soon

Meet the Artists:
Vernon Ah Kee
Vernon Ah Kee was born in 1967 in Innisfail, North Queensland. He lives and works in Brisbane. He belongs to the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr people. Ah Kee has risen in prominence as one of Australia’s most dynamic artists. Ah Kee investigates the mistreatment of our country’s First Nations Peoples since colonisation, focussing on lived experiences and those of his ancestors.

Tony Albert
Tony Albert was born in 1981 in Townsville, Queensland. He lives and works in Sydney. Albert is a descendant of the Girramay, Yidinji
and Kuku-Yalanji peoples. He works across a range of media, often recycling kitsch, mass-produced objects that feature stereotypical
depictions of Indigenous people.

Richard Bell
Bell was born in 1953, Charleville, Queensland. He lives and works in Brisbane. Bell is a member of the Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang communities. Bell is an artist, activist and provocateur. He harnesses his work to provoke debate about identity, place and politics, posing complex and humorous challenges to preconceived ideas about Aboriginal art.

Megan Cope
Megan Cope was born in 1982 in Brisbane. She lives and works between Miinjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) and Bundjalung Country, NSW. Cope is a Quandamooka woman. Her site-specific sculptural installations, video work and paintings investigate issues relating to identity, the environment and cartography practices. She often uses maps to challenge concepts of ownership and place, and history and time.

Jennifer Herd
Jennifer Herd is from Eumundi, Queensland. She lives and works in Brisbane. Herd is a Mbarbarrum woman whose family roots lie in far North Queensland. Herd draws on her past experiences and knowledge in costume design, often incorporating stitching and pin holes in her installations, painting, drawing and sculptural works. She creates shield designs as a way of connecting to her heritage and culture. Herd’s shield designs are presented as a reminder of speaking truth to power, frontier resistance and the aftermath of cultural identity stripped bare.

Gordon Hookey
Gordon Hookey was born in 1961, Cloncurry, Queensland. He lives and works in Brisbane. Hookey belongs to the Waanyi/Waanjiminjin peoples. Gordon Hookey is well-known for his use of humour, irony and wit to provoke and challenge the status quo. While studying at the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, he became a member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, which was founded in 1987 in Redfern by artists like Tracey Moffat, Fiona Foley, Michael Riley and Avril Quaill.

Laurie Nilsen
Born 1954, Roma, Queensland. Laurie Nilsen lived and worked in Brisbane until his passing in 2020. Nilsen was a Manadandanji artist. His practice was charged with ideas surrounding Indigenous and gender issues, emus (the artist’s totem) and introduced species, religious doctrines, and the presentation of language. His work spans sculpture, drawing, painting, and printmaking, and often incorporates barbed wires that have been used in rural Queensland to threaten native species like emus. In the early 1990s, Nilsen was a founding member of the Campfire Group that preceded proppaNOW.

Shannon Brett
Shannon Brett is a Wakka Wakka/Butchulla/Gooreng Gooreng artist and experienced researcher/writer/educator who is skilled in various areas of research, arts management, curatorial (museums and galleries), arts writing, fashion design, graphic design, public speaking, photography and arts mentorship. They are currently a PhD Candidate at the Queensland University of Technology—interrogating the construction of racial whiteness in Australia and responding to systemic racism and patriarchy from decolonial and black feminist perspectives. Brett is also Adjunct Curator at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane, and holds a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art; Photography and Fine Art via the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Brett has exhibited internationally while working in numerous arts institutions throughout Australia, maintaining their position as a curator and educator.

Warraba Weatherall
Warraba Weatherall is a Kamilaroi visual artist, Lecturer at Griffith University and PhD candidate, who is currently based in Brisbane. Weatherall’s artistic practice has a specific interest in archival repositories and structures, and the life of cultural materials and knowledges within these environments. He is also a lecturer for the Contemporary Australian Indigenous Arts (CAIA) degree at Griffith University’s, Queensland College of Art. Weatherall is passionate about shifting cultural norms within the Australian visual arts sector and contributes to the sector through artistic practice, education and curation.

Lily Eather
Lily Eather was born in 1996 in Brisbane. She is a Mandandanji woman who lives and works in Brisbane, and the daughter of the late Laurie Nilsen, an early member of proppaNOW and renowned multidisciplinary artist in his own right. Eather has a deep commitment to the upkeep of her father’s legacy, which she had demonstrated through the completion of a Graduate Diploma majoring in Art History at The University of Queensland. She is passionate about Indigenous and Australian art and recognises the need for Indigenous curatorship locally and globally. Eather also enjoys a career as a Theatre Nurse at the Mater Private Hospital.

Other upcoming events for this venue 'Court House & Mulgrave Galleries'
	Tue, 13th May 2025 Tomorrowland: Cairns Children's Festival Exhibition 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Wed, 14th May 2025 Tomorrowland: Cairns Children's Festival Exhibition 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Thu, 15th May 2025 Tomorrowland: Cairns Children's Festival Exhibition 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Thu, 15th May 2025 The Art Cases: National Gallery of Australia 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Fri, 16th May 2025 Tomorrowland: Cairns Children's Festival Exhibition 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Sat, 17th May 2025 Wonderlustful: The Art of Exploration and Awe by Stephen Eastaugh 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Sat, 17th May 2025 Cairns Children's Festival Sat 17 May 10:00AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Sat, 17th May 2025 Picnic on the Lawn: Pierce Brothers 4:30PM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Sat, 17th May 2025 Cairns Children's Festival - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 6:30PM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Sat, 24th May 2025 Wonderlustful: The Art of Exploration and Awe by Stephen Eastaugh 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Sat, 24th May 2025 OCCURRENT AFFAIR: JUSTICE NOW 10:00AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Sat, 24th May 2025 Mulgrave Twilight Films - Good One 7:00PM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Fri, 30th May 2025 Art Sounds: El Moth + Los Caracoles 5:00PM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Sat, 31st May 2025 Wonderlustful: The Art of Exploration and Awe by Stephen Eastaugh 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Sat, 31st May 2025 Mulgrave Twilight Films - Disco Boy 7:00PM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Fri, 6th Jun 2025 Art Sounds: Eddie Skiba + Driftwood + Whiskey 5:00PM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Sat, 7th Jun 2025 Wonderlustful: The Art of Exploration and Awe by Stephen Eastaugh 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Fri, 13th Jun 2025 Art Sounds: Andy Golledge + Queenie 5:00PM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Sat, 14th Jun 2025 Wonderlustful: The Art of Exploration and Awe by Stephen Eastaugh 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Fri, 20th Jun 2025 Art Sounds: Roshani 5:00PM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Sat, 21st Jun 2025 Wonderlustful: The Art of Exploration and Awe by Stephen Eastaugh 9:30AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Sat, 21st Jun 2025 Art Sounds: Tjaka 5:00PM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries
	Sat, 19th Jul 2025 OCCURRENT AFFAIR: JUSTICE NOW 10:00AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries		Sat, 16th Aug 2025 OCCURRENT AFFAIR: JUSTICE NOW 10:00AM Court House & Mulgrave Galleries