Our Garden of Tropical Delights - Jamie Cole and Gabrielle Cooney

Venue: Tanks Arts Centre

Fri 7 Nov 2025 - Sun 7 Dec 2025

Launch: 6pm, Fri 7 Nov
All welcome!

Once a storehouse of oil and industry, the Tanks Arts Centre now blooms with new life. In Our Garden of Tropical Delights, artists Jamie Cole and Gabrielle Cooney (aka Flintstone Designs) explore the fertile meeting point between the natural world and the industrial past.

Gabrielle’s ceramics embrace the philosophy of wabi-sabi — finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and transformation. Her tree trunks, seed pods, and pipe-like forms echo both the resilience of nature and the remnants of human structures.

In vivid contrast, Jamie’s paintings pulse with fluorescent colour, gold leaf, and graffiti-like layers. Drawing on foliage, camouflage, architecture, and pop motifs, his works channel the dynamism and spectacle of the urban environment.

Together, their practices form a landscape of tension and harmony: fragility beside force, ruin beside renewal, silence beside riotous colour. This exhibition is a garden of contradictions — a space where art, nature, and history entwine to reveal the beauty of transformation.

Words by Bruce Ferguson

Venue: Tank 4
Price:Free
When:Fri 7 Nov 2025 - Sun 7 Dec 2025
Venue Opens:Mon-Fri 9.00am - 4.30pm, Sat-Sun 10.00am - 2.00pm

Other upcoming events for this venue 'Tanks Arts Centre'
	Fri, 12th Jun 2026 Receive Respond 9:00AM Tanks Arts Centre		Fri, 12th Jun 2026 Flickers of Time: Stories from Living Spaces 9:00AM Tanks Arts Centre
	Sat, 13th Jun 2026 Yoga + Live Music 9:00AM Tanks Arts Centre		Sun, 14th Jun 2026 Yoga + Live Music 9:00AM Tanks Arts Centre
	Thu, 18th Jun 2026 Design Futures Forum: Living Tropical 12:30PM Tanks Arts Centre		Fri, 19th Jun 2026 Receive Respond 9:00AM Tanks Arts Centre
	Fri, 19th Jun 2026 Flickers of Time: Stories from Living Spaces 9:00AM Tanks Arts Centre		Fri, 19th Jun 2026 Kingswood 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Sat, 4th Jul 2026 Tanks Blues - Ray Beadle Ray Beadle 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre		Tue, 7th Jul 2026 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) 2026: The Boy Who Found His Way Home 6:30PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Thu, 9th Jul 2026 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) 2026: Opening Night 4:00PM Tanks Arts Centre		Thu, 9th Jul 2026 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair Djawarray (World / Rock / Reggae Band) 9:15PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Fri, 10th Jul 2026 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) 2026 Mark Makers Keynote: Blak Douglas 11:00AM Tanks Arts Centre		Sat, 11th Jul 2026 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) 2026 Mark Makers Keynote: Luke Currie-Richardson 11:00AM Tanks Arts Centre
	Sun, 12th Jul 2026 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) 2026 Mark Makers Keynote: Elverina Johnson 11:00AM Tanks Arts Centre		Thu, 23rd Jul 2026 Paul Dempsey - 'Shotgun Karaoke II' Paul Dempsey 7:30PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Sat, 25th Jul 2026 Driftwood EP Launch Driftwood 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre		Fri, 31st Jul 2026 Emma Memma's Jungle Picnic Tour Emma Memma's Jungle Picnic Tour 10:00AM Tanks Arts Centre
	Fri, 31st Jul 2026 Emma Memma's Jungle Picnic Tour Emma Memma 12:30PM Tanks Arts Centre		Sat, 1st Aug 2026 19-Twenty 19-Twenty 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Fri, 7th Aug 2026 Sub-Tribe Sub-Tribe 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre		Sat, 8th Aug 2026 Brad Cox Multiple Dimensions Tour Brad Cox 7:30PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Wed, 12th Aug 2026 The Living End 'I Only Trust Rock N Roll' The Living End 7:30PM Tanks Arts Centre		Thu, 13th Aug 2026 The Living End 'I Only Trust Rock N Roll' The Living End 7:30PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Sun, 16th Aug 2026 DICE | Altitude Tour DICE 6:30PM Tanks Arts Centre		Sun, 30th Aug 2026 Em Rusciano: Addicted To Love 7:30PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Thu, 3rd Sep 2026 One Hour Wedding 6:00PM Tanks Arts Centre		Thu, 3rd Sep 2026 One Hour Wedding 8:30PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Fri, 4th Sep 2026 One Hour Wedding 6:00PM Tanks Arts Centre		Fri, 4th Sep 2026 Casey Barnes - Made For This Tour CASEY BARNES 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Fri, 4th Sep 2026 One Hour Wedding 8:30PM Tanks Arts Centre		Sat, 5th Sep 2026 One Hour Wedding 6:00PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Sat, 5th Sep 2026 One Hour Wedding 8:30PM Tanks Arts Centre		Thu, 10th Sep 2026 Phil Jamieson Phil Jamieson 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Fri, 18th Sep 2026 Vika & Linda "Where Do You Come From?" 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre		Sun, 27th Sep 2026 Sunny Coast Rude Boys Sunny Coast Rude Boys 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Tue, 6th Oct 2026 Sydney Comedy Festival Showcase 2026 Sydney Comedy Festival 7:30PM Tanks Arts Centre		Fri, 16th Oct 2026 Lior with Camerata Lior with Camerata 7:15PM Tanks Arts Centre
	Sat, 24th Oct 2026 Melbourne Ska Orchestra: Monte Loco Rides Again MELBOURNE SKA ORCHESTRA 7:00PM Tanks Arts Centre