‘Horizons’ explores Queensland artist Joe Furlonger’s practice, from his early engagement with the human figure to his more recent creative compulsion to depict the Australian landscape.

Furlonger’s early years in semi-rural Samford, on the north-west outskirts of Brisbane, profoundly influenced his career as an artist by instilling in him a love of the outdoors. In 1970, at 17 years of age, he went to work as a deckhand on commercial fishing boats, periodically returning to that ocean-going life over the subsequent 15 years. It was out there — where sea meets land and sky, forming infinite horizons — that Furlonger first learned to think in paint.

After studying art in both Brisbane and Sydney, Furlonger’s figurative work received fresh inspiration in 1988 when he won a prestigious Moët & Chandon Fellowship and travelled to Europe. On returning to Australia, Furlonger based himself on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Soon after, he was invited to become the inaugural artist-in-residence at the 1992 Gold Coast Indy and relished his role as documenter and interpreter of the adrenaline-fuelled motor-racing event. Furlonger’s chance encounter with a travelling circus inspired more European travel and numerous visits to the Winter Circus in Paris, where he enjoyed the renewed challenge of its colour, light and theatrical figures in motion.

Influenced by his travels in South-East Asia and China, Furlonger’s land and seascapes have a deceptively naive quality, characterised by a combination of sketch-like impulsivity and painterly eloquence. In contrast to his figurative works, which come more intuitively, the landscape as subject has proven a greater challenge, necessitating the slow permeation of his consciousness, through much longer engagement, to capture its many moods.

At the heart of Joe Furlonger’s 40-year practice is his assured, spontaneous expression of observations, anchored by a keen engagement with the world around him. He is a restlessly creative artist whose talent for painting and drawing extends across works on paper, linen, canvas, ceramics and in bronze, and each is represented here.

Michael Hawker (Curator, Australian Art to 1980) curated ‘Joe Furlonger: Horizons’, a free exhibition held in QAG's Gallery 3 (Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Gallery) and 14 from 27 August 2022 to 29 January 2023. This Digital Story serves as a permanent archive, supporting the exhibition publication.