It was great to have Uncle Alan Jenkins, Aunty Barb Cutmore, Steve Booby and Wayne Tighe onsite last week at BAMM to view a number of stones and artefacts stored at the gallery on behalf of the Moree Aboriginal community. We’re looking forward to a special exhibition of many of the stones and artefacts this June at BAMM.
#BAMM #KamilaroiCountry #regionalgallery
Image: Left to right, Steve Booby, Aunty Barb Cutmore, Uncle Alan Jenkins, Wayne Tighe
Today, we’re delighted to introduce Pip Stalley, one of two artists currently exhibiting their work at BAMM as part of our new Stairwell Gallery program – and all of their work on display is for sale.
Stalley’s ‘Enduring Ground’, hung in the Stairwell Gallery space, is a cohesive body of work developed from sustained observation of grazing land in Western New South Wales. Using restrained abstraction and natural earth pigments, the works explore landscape as surface, structure and atmosphere.
Paintings emerge from a process of slowing down and attending closely to place, finding quiet beauty within harsh conditions.
Visit BAMM to see ‘Enduring Ground’ and all of the current exhibitions in the gallery until 30 May.
Images: Pip Stalley, Enduring Ground, exhibition at BAMM, installation image Pip Stalley, ‘Claypan Rhythm I’ (detail), 2026 Pip Stalley, ‘Salt Line, Claypan’ (detail), 2026 Pip Stalley, ‘Claypan Surface’ (detail), 2026
#BAMM #KamilaroiCountry #regionalgallery
We’re proud to introduce one of two artists currently exhibiting their work at BAMM as part of our new Stairwell Gallery program – and all of their work on display is for sale.
Aaron Butt’s ‘Near Enough (Is Good Enough) IV’ is a painterly exhibition exploring Australian photographer Frank Hurley’s images of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917, seeking to critique the colonial and patriarchal goals of the expedition and its negative effects on the environment.
Interestingly, Frank Hurley’s photographs from the BAMM collection are also on display in the adjoining upstairs gallery, so it is a great time to see the inspiration behind Butt’s works.
Visit BAMM to see ‘Near Enough (Is Good Enough) IV’ and all of the current exhibitions in the gallery until 30 May.
Images:
Aaron Butt, ‘A Little Patience’ (detail), 2025 Aaron Butt, ‘Two Figures’ (detail), 2025 Aaron Butt, ‘Endurance in the Ice’ (detail), 2024
Aaron Butt, ‘Figure Climbing Ice’ (detail)
#BAMM
#KamilaroiCountry
#regionalgallery
‘Sensitised and Sentimental’ by artist Melissa Spratt @create_originate is an exhibition of tactile textile works that explore what it means to experience life as a Highly Sensitive Person.
Spratt transforms deeply personal experiences of sensory and emotional overwhelm into visually striking works. While textiles are often associated with comfort, nostalgia and softness, Spratt deliberately complicates those ideas. For many who are Highly Sensitive, texture and touch can instead provoke discomfort.
Working with richly coloured Romney-cross wool sourced from artisan dyer and rug maker Bec Andersen, Spratt creates densely textured pieces that are both alluring and confronting. Each work begins with making metres of finger-knitted chain — a repetitive and calming process — before arranging the wool into capitalised statements that reveal inner thoughts, anxieties and emotional responses.
The resulting works are both forthright and nuanced. Bright colours and tactile surfaces draw viewers in, while bold text communicates the intensity of navigating a world saturated with sensory stimuli.
The exhibition title references two intertwined ideas: sensitivity and sentimentality. Together they speak to the honesty and vulnerability at the centre of Spratt’s practice.
Text adapted from an essay by Bree Di Mattina, written for an exhibition of ‘Sensitised and Sentimental’ at Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, 2024.
‘Sensitised and Sentimental’ is on at BAMM until 30 May.
Images: 1. ‘Stream of Consciousness’, 2024 2. ‘It is daunting to make art about how existing makes me feel’, 2024; ‘I thought that everyone goes through life feeling this sensitive …’ 3. ‘Are set on high’, 2024 4. ‘I find myself needing to withdraw during busy interactions’, 2021; ‘I make a point to try and avoid confrontation and violence’, 2021 5. ‘I thought that everyone goes through life feeling this sensitive …’, 2021, detail 6. ‘I am made uncomfortable by loud noises.’, 2021
#BAMM #KamilaroiCountry #regionalgallery
Join ‘Fire as Author’ artist Jo Norton at BAMM on Tuesday 12 May, where she’ll lead visitors through the exhibition and deliver a talk commencing at 10am.
Register your interest with BAMM on [email protected] or book via the link in our bio.
@thrownbyjo is a ceramic artist working on Bundjalung Country in northern New South Wales. Her practice spans vessel, sculpture and site-responsive installation, grounded in a sustained investigation of the alchemic relationship between clay and fire.
‘Fire as Author’ is on exhibition in the downstairs gallery at BAMM until 30 May.
#BAMM #KamilaroiCountry #regionalgallery
Jo Norton is a ceramic artist working on Bundjalung Country in northern New South Wales. Her practice spans vessel, sculpture and site-responsive installation, grounded in a sustained investigation of the alchemic relationship between clay and fire.
Across porcelain, stoneware and wood-fired processes, her work unfolds in two interrelated bodies – both co-authored with fire.
Tall, pierced black clay forms recall burnt trees, their surfaces marked by charring and erosion. Fire appears here as a destructive force, revealing and reconfiguring form.
In contrast, smaller vessels are wood-fired in an anagama kiln over extended durations. Ash, heat and atmospheric traces settle slowly across their surfaces – a record of passing time.
‘Fire as Author’ is on exhibition in the downstairs gallery at BAMM until 30 May.
Jo Norton will be at BAMM on Tuesday 12 May to lead visitors through the exhibition. The talk will commence at 10am. Register your interest with BAMM on [email protected]@thrownbyjo
#BAMM #KamilaroiCountry #regionalgallery
Born in Scotland and based in Sydney, Joan Ross is known for her sharp, often darkly humorous interrogations of Australia’s colonial past and enduring legacies.
Working across artforms, including painting, animation, installation and virtual reality, Ross challenges constructed narratives and systems of possession by disrupting familiar images, such as tranquil pastoral scenes and historical tableaux. Landscapes are invaded and objects animated, producing strange, unstable worlds in which histories are unsettled, rather than preserved.
Ross has described colonisation as a slow-motion car crash: something witnessed, yet unchecked, with consequences still unfolding. This tension runs through her practice. Beneath the playfulness and beauty lies a pointed critique of ownership, environmental disregard and the myth of “discovery”.
Often inserted into naturalistic landscapes, her signature acid-bright, fluourescent yellow signals intrusion. Like high-vis vests marking authority and control, the persistent use of the colour becomes a metaphor for colonial imposition – loud, entitled, sanctioned and impossible to ignore.
In ‘Let’s party like it’s 1815’ (2022), Ross constructs a chaotic, hypnotic world where excess unravels. Colonial figures feast, celebrate and consume, suspended in a surreal theatre of abundance and decay. Mansions sink, objects spin, insects swarm and the land itself seems to resist. It’s absurd, dazzling and deeply uncomfortable.
‘Let’s party like it’s 1815’, an eight-minute animation, is on exhibition at BAMM until 30 May. (Animation and sound by Josh Raymond)
Images: Stills from ‘Let’s party like it’s 1815’ (2022) at BAMM, 2026.
Thanks to @lismoreregionalgallery for the projector.
#BAMM #KamilaroiCountry #regionalgallery
Went on a little (6hr+) road trip out to Moree, regional NSW in @artythevan to deliver my ‘SENSITISED & SENTIMENTAL’ exhibition, which will be shown @bammoree until May 30th 🩷
I feel extremely grateful that I was able to hand deliver the works and attend the opening event on Thursday night. To have this body of work exhibited in such a beautiful heritage building amongst so much talent, culture and sentiment really means more to me than I can put into words.
I must say a very big thank you to Rosie Dennis now former director at Bank Art Museum Moree for her unwavering belief in my work and support in curating it into this collection of exhibitions. The whole team at the gallery have been so lovely and I’m truly honored to show this work in a regional community.
Check out the artists also showing work for the next 6 weeks: @thrownbyjo@penny___evans@pipstalley@aaron.butt 👏
I was also super thrilled to have finished my first ever sewing project (that I’d completed all by myself!) from @theboldone_ Gracie wrap dress pattern in time to wear on opening night! 💫
Last, but not least — Thank you to @craigmcquinn for your love, support, care and willingness to come along on my wild adventures! I couldn’t do it without you ❤️
#BAMM #Moree #melissaspratt #textileart #fingerknitting
Opening tonight 5.30pm @bammoree Bank Art Museum in Moree. Unk cuz Fred McGrady is gonna give a talk. Good to catch up with mob whilst setting the show up and looking forward to the opening tonight. This work is all about truth telling and great to have it showing in a town that my great grandfather helped to start and on the country of our Gomeroi Great grandmother #gomeroicountry #truthtelling #mob #australianhistory #decolonise
Our BAMM team with some of the exhibiting artists have been busy in the gallery, installing a suite of exhibitions to be launched tomorrow night. Everyone is welcome to join us at 5:30pm for a 6pm opening, just let us know you’re coming – contact details in bio.
Exhibitions include:
‘Fire as Author’ by Jo Norton
‘IN Black and White’ by Penny Evans
‘Let’s party like it’s 1815’ by Joan Ross
‘Sensitised and Sentimental’ by Melissa Spratt
‘The Bleakley Collection’, part of BAMM’s Collection
‘Near Enough (Is Good Enough) IV’ by Aaron Butt
‘Enduring Ground’ by Pip Stalley
Take a look at our website to find out more about each of the exhibitions.
Opening: Thursday 23 April 5:30pm for 6pm
Exhibition: 24 April–30 May 2026Where: BAMM Gallery
#BAMM #KamilaroiCountry #artaustralia #regionalgallery
It’s the final week of three of the four exhibitions currently on display at BAMM: ‘From This Place’, ‘Elsewhere: Beyond the Moree Plains’ and ‘Attitudes (Revisited)’.
‘Attitudes (Revisited)’ by John A. Williams, who grew up in Moree, presents intimate photographic portraits of well-known local residents in the familiar surrounds of their homes. Each of the 16 portraits is accompanied by a short autobiographical reflection on attitudes, inter-racial relationships and the town’s social history, capturing both the milestones and ongoing challenges of rural life.
Originally created in 2001, ‘Attitudes’ was shown in a 2016 exhibition titled ‘The Moree Portraits’, as part of the then Moree Plains Gallery’s mission to record the history of Moree and its residents. The exhibition featured three series of photographs of predominantly Kamilaroi people by artists John A. Williams, Michael Riley and Greg Weight, each of whom used their unique connections to Moree and the Gallery to preserve images of local residents.
Cultural warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors to the gallery are advised that this exhibition contains images and text of deceased persons.
‘Attitudes (Revisited)’ closes this Saturday 18 April.
#BAMM
#KamilaroiCountry
#ArtAustralia
#RegionalArtGallery
#ContemporaryGallery
