Join Umbrella from 10am Saturday 16 August to hear from artist Barbara Pierce in conversation with Dr Anneke Silver. The pair will deliver an insightful discussion in conjunction with Barbara's exhibition Scattered. Anneke will uncover Barbara's considered approach to collecting and compiling found objects, and the ways in which she assigns or reveals inherent meaning to those objects and created artworks - individually and collectively. They will reflect upon this latest body of work as well as Barbara's broader arts practice.

Barbara Pierce (b. 1955) is a Gurambilbarra / Townsville based artist who has been exhibiting since the 1980s. She works across painting, collage, assemblage, print, photography and installation. Her work explores the connections between landscape, shelter and social fabric, acknowledging that they are essentially linked inseparable entities and unique to prevailing circumstances. Pierce holds a Diploma of Fine Art (Townsville College of TAFE, 1984) and her work is held in the collections of Townsville City Council, James Cook University and Foshan China. She was the recipient of an Australia Council Overseas Study/Travel Grant to the UK, and was an invited artist to the Foshan China Quise Festival/residency. The artist has had solo exhibitions at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, the Crafts Council of Queensland gallery and the Basin Cottage Gallery on Letteremairrener Country / Cataract Gorge, Tasmania. Pierce’s work has been exhibited in curated group, touring and prize exhibitions including Journey Through Images: 40 years of Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, The Percivals, Strand Ephemera (Townsville City Galleries) the 10^th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial, dis/PLACE (IMA) and Eight Artists in Townsville (Iwaki/Japan).

Dr. Anneke Silver was born in the Netherlands and has been based in Gurambilbarra / Townsville since 1961. She loves the tropical North as a place to live, and the diversities of subject matter to be explored, from aerial interpretations of landscape to rainforests, the vast expanses of the outback as well as the typical architecture. Most of her life has been divided between art practice and art teaching, enjoying the interaction between the two. As an artist she exhibits regularly with around 40 solo exhibitions to her name and participation in countless curated group shows. Craftsman House published a book on her work. She writes reviews and essays for various art publications. She taught from 1976-2006, at the CAE, TAFE and was Associate Professor and program leader of Visual Arts at James Cook university, as well as countless workshops with Flying Arts. She also spent a considerable amount of time exploring the North Queensland coast with her husband and two young sons on the yacht they built themselves. Anneke has painted for as long as she can remember, but received formal art training in Amsterdam, Meanjin / Brisbane and gained her PhD in Creative Arts at James Cook University in North Queensland. Her work is widely represented; in the National Gallery, Artbank, state and regional galleries as well as corporate and private collections in Australia and abroad.

Image above: Barbara Pierce speaking at the launch of her exhibition. Photograph: Amanda Galea.