24/08/2026
That’s right, the Foyer Gallery is back! 20 years ago, the Foyer Gallery was one of our most dynamic spaces, featuring artists such as Guan Wei and Jacques Pasquier. Now it’s playing host to some little seen but much-loved works from the Griffith University Art Collection, making this incredible resource more accessible for QCAD students and visitors to the Art Museum!
Currently on display until 7 November are two works that explore themes which overlap with our current exhibition ‘Undying: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’.
Described by the artist as a contemporary memento mori, QCAD alum Kirra Jamison’s ‘My Wilde Rozen’ (2007) captures Jamison’s use of negative space and layering, as ghostly skeletal forms and falling leaves swirl together, suspended in a deep black void.
‘Wild Rozen’ is Dutch for ‘wild roses’, which are often a symbol for perseverance, or uncultivated beauty and love. Wild roses are also an enduring reference in art history, such as signifying the purity of the Virgin Mary or featuring in Vincent Van Gogh’s work painted while a patient at the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence psychiatric clinic, where he purportedly found peace in the garden.
And in ‘The Alcove’…Harry J. Wedge ‘Dirty Animals’ 1995.
Wiradjuri artist Harry Wedge (1957-2012) grew up on Erambie Mission at Cowra, Central New South Wales. Wedge’s works draw on his experiences of mission life, racism and injustice, as well as record and critique contemporary political issues and events.
‘Dirty Animals’ comments on the damage done to the Australian landscape by imported species. Agricultural livestock are ecologically destructive because of their hooved feet, which destroy fragile soil surfaces and ecosystems across the country. The lines radiating from the Wiradjuri Spirit Man are characteristic of Wedge’s ongoing depiction of this figure, who was central to Wedge’s 1992 major solo exhibition and 1996 illustrated monograph, both titled Wiradjuri Spirit Man.
