Seventy artists, collectives and projects from more than 30 countries will feature in the eleventh chapter of the flagship Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) exhibition series, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.

Bringing compelling new art to Brisbane, the Triennial is a gateway to the rapidly evolving artistic expression of Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Alongside artists and makers whose work has not been previously seen in Australia are a raft of new co-curated projects investigating artforms and cultural contexts rarely encountered outside their home localities.///

For the Asia Pacific Triennial, Shahla Hosseini presents a group of materially gentle and softly rendered paintings that express the fragility of life. Muted pinks, blues and yellows infuse colour into the predominantly white, geometrically reduced compositions. These tonal changes are complemented by delicate material shifts as Hosseini incorporates fraying fabrics and cracking plaster. This emphasises the limited lifespan of the materials and, in doing so, implies the mortality of all life forms.

With the red wooden screen Fāsel 2022, Abolfazl Harouni invites visitors to step into the space of a Persian miniature painting. Harouni’s design is taken from an illustration in the Shāhnāma (The Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp (1524–76), by Abu’l Qasim Firdausi. Fāsel serves a similar function in the Asia Pacific Triennial. In front of the red screen, the artist places Imperfect Perfection 2020, a silk carpet depicting a paradaida (paradise, or walled garden). Behind Fāsel, he displays the abstract painting Silver Howz 2024 and the representational painting Archive 2024. Like the Shāhnāma miniature painters before him, Harouni places nature and human creations in dialogue.