Art on James | Justene Williams

When the Institute of Modern Art asked to occupy a temporarily unoccupied shop for a show of Justene Williams’s whimsical sculptures, we said: Yes, we’re in. Occupy James St (with art).
 
Justene Williams is a celebrated artist and a mainstay of Brisbane’s contemporary art scene. She heads up the sculpture department at the Queensland College of Art and Design. Her work—which spans sculpture, performance, video, and costume design—has been described as ‘baroque grunge’. You may have seen her new five-metre-high public sculpture Sheila. Proudly dominating its riverside position at Queens Wharf, this rustic goddess has been catching attention and grabbing headlines.
 
At first glance, passers-by on James Street might assume Williams’s show is another fashion pop-up. Her figurative sculptures often play with the traditional idealisation of the female form. Some look like sleek mannequins—as one might already expect to find in a shop window—albeit absurdly attenuated and coloured, attired and posed. Others are pop-primitive—roughly hewn, but more polystyrene than rock. Either way, there’s something fetishistic and totemic about them. 
 
Be sure to check out this fleeting exhibit on the ground floor of The Calile (old Dion Lee space) on display from Tuesday 4 to Saturday 15 February – and if you are in the neighbourhood from 5 to 7pm on Tuesday 4 February, drop in to have a drink and chat with Williams in person.
 
Justene Williams for Art on James is presented in partnership with the Institute of Modern Art (IMA).
 
JUSTENE WILLIAMS
Justene Williams was born in Sydney in 1970 and lives in Brisbane. Many of her projects have been inspired by early twentieth-century modernism, channelling dada cabaret, futurist operas, and Bauhaus ballet through a lens of suburban Australia. She has shown at the National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, and Buxton Contemporary. She is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.
 
ART ON JAMES
Since 2011, James St has explored the intersection of art and commerce via its Art on James platform. Art on James offers the James Street community opportunities to enjoy works outside the gallery, on the street and in retail spaces. To date, it has featured works by Ben Quilty, Richard Bell, Vernon Ah Kee, Helga Groves, Pope Alice, Jonathan Zawada, Jon Cattapan, Gerwyn Davies, Sam Cranstoun, Dale Harding, Sebastian Moody, Jemima Wyman, Ghost Patrol, Ross Manning, and Zac Langdon-Pole. James St thanks IMA and Hutchinson Builders for their support.
 
IMA
Founded in 1975, Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art is Australia’s oldest independent contemporary art gallery and a hub for art life in Queensland. It champions art and artists and creates a space to explore ideas, connecting local voices to global dialogues.