'Something Borrowed' explores appropriation in contemporary Australian art. This Collection display (Jun 2025 – Jan 2026) focuses on artists who have borrowed pre-existing images and use them within their own artworks. These recontextualised images are drawn from a wide variety of sources, with an emphasis on art history.

The canon of art history is fertile ground for appropriation. Peter Tyndall uses Christian symbols to deconstruct the 'sacred' process of a person viewing a painting in a museum. Vivienne Binns is also interested in how people relate to the art around them, choosing to elevate found textiles not typically granted the status of 'art' by painstakingly replicating their patterns in paint on canvas. Natalya Hughes reconfigures a nineteenth-century Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print to explore the symbolism of its ornate details.

For some artists, appropriation is not only a method they employ but also the subject of their artworks. Gordon Bennett and Richard Bell interrogate the appropriation of First Australian visual cultures by non-Indigenous artists. Bennett repaints motifs from Margaret Preston's prints to query her appropriation of Indigenous Australian art, while Bell uses imagery from Central and Western Desert painting traditions as well as from North American Pop art. The legacy of Pop is also seen in Janet Burchill's clever alteration of an Andy Warhol image – one that Warhol himself originally appropriated.

Spanning four decades of contemporary Australian art, the paintings in this display show how appropriation reshapes our understanding of the visual cultures around us.

‘Something Borrowed: Appropriation in Australian Art’ is on display until January 2026 on GOMA's Pavilion Walk. To make the most of your visit, check what's on at the Gallery, find out about getting here, parking and Gallery accessibility.

Feature image: Richard Bell's (Kamilaroi/Kooma/Jiman/Gurang Gurang people / Australia QLD b.1953) Bell's Theorem (Trikky Dikky and friends) 2005, installed for 'Something Borrowed', GOMA, July 2025 / Synthetic polymer paint on canvas / The James C. Sourris AM Collection. Gift of James C. Sourris through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2007. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program / © Richard Bell / Photograph: J Ruckli, QAGOMA