Event Quarter One Exhibition Opening

Quarter One Exhibition Opening

Platform, John Stezaker, Superstudio and Archigram

30 January 2026
6pm

  • Location:
    Ground Floor Gallery
  • Event Cost:
    Free
  • Registration:

Celebrate the opening of the first quarter of the IMA’s 2026 artistic program, featuring a sound activation by Platform artist, Dean Ansell.

Platform 2026 is the third iteration of our annual commissioning project for emerging Queensland artists. Dean Ansell is of Melanesian (Riḡorabana, Balawaia, Papua Niugini), Maltese, and Anglo-Celtic descent. They interpret Melanesian mythologies and rituals in their installations, soundscapes, and performances. Spencer Harvie explores dark, surreal, nonsensical aspects of online and fan subcultures. Processing the slop of found, AI-generated, and imagined imagery within an elaborate cartoon logic, he unleashes the psychosexual horrors bubbling beneath. Seren Wagstaff works in installation and performance. They explore working‑class cultures and the queer innuendoes embedded within them.

John Stezaker is known for his witty, surrealist collages, made from found images. He also makes flicker films, presenting collections of found images of similar subjects. The IMA presents Train (2012-21) and Kiss (2019-20), two archetypal films that nod to the early days of cinema, jittery eroticism, and a scrambled collage of time.

Our screening room will host Archigram and Superstudio—two collectives of paper architects that responded to the pop-art, space-age zeitgeist. Here we present a television program from 1967 outlining Archigram’s philosophy and two manifesto films by Superstudio: Supersurface: An Alternative Model of Life on Earth (1972) and Ceremony (1973).

The Institute of Modern Art acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the IMA now stands, the Jagera, Yuggera, Yugarapul, and Turrbal people. We offer our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first artists of this country. In the spirit of allyship, the IMA will continue to work with First Nations people to celebrate, support, and present their immense past, present, and future contribution to artistic practice and cultural expression.

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