FireWorks Gallery’s winter offering presents a solo show by Indigenous painter Samantha Hobson alongside an eclectic group show. Both celebrate the night and with it, certain ideas of the ‘dark side’.

Upstairs, Lockhart Nights presents new paintings by Hobson musing on community life after dark. The paintings capture a wide spectrum of experiences including the colourful chaos of the Run amok series. Here the artist explores some of the challenging realities she sees in her community - particularly young people balancing boredom and opportunity . Expressive forms and shapes tangle and merge, mimicking the clamour of kids frolicking at night. Survival on coastal communities is centred around fishing and her new Night Fishing series has allowed the artist to experiment with a darker palette, albeit still with the artist’s distinctive expressions.

A large painting measuring 3 metres Ocean Earth demonstrates something of an equilibrium of emotions that are always clearly visible in Hobson’s paintings. Fractured lines bleed into deep marine blue voids. The artist often reflects that such opposing forces echo her own turbulent life, delicately balanced between a sense of apprehension and acceptance. Flames, coral, waves, and blood are evident in the imagery, but from that point it becomes a passage into Hobson’s emotional connection with her world.

Complimenting Hobson’s solo show, Morbid Curiosities unearths treasures from FireWorks Gallery’s vast stockroom which explores and even celebrates melancholia in a gothic inspired group show. Featuring works by David Paulson, Fiona Omeenyo, Glen Mackie, Ian Waldron, Joanne Currie Nalingu, Laurie Nilsen, Michael Eather, Michael Nelson Jagamara, Pat Hoffie, Terry Ngamandarra, Piyali Ghosh, Rod Moss, David Roy and Yvonne Mills-Stanley the exhibition indulges in a darkness and finds comfort in the night. Not surprisingly, many of the works feature skulls, including David Paulson’s ‘memento mori’ Still life & Daffodil II and three elegantly mirror-framed lino prints Kubar E (black on white) by The Torres Strait Islander artist Glen Mackie.

Adding ambient texture to the exhibition is Yvonne Mills-Stanleys mixed media work, Books I haven’t written yet which evoke visions of grand libraries in medieval castles, adorned with burgundy velvet and the faint smell of dust and old books.

Gallery Director Michael Eather comments, “There is both a light and a darkness in its many interpretations within these two shows, contrasting themes that FireWorks Gallery has been eager to investigate over our 30-year exhibition history.”

Local and visiting artists will be present at the opening.