Tassie Artist’s Abstract Works Make Solo Debut

After more than 30 years of teaching senior high school art, Tasmanian artist Joy Mackey is holding her first solo exhibition, ‘There is No Out There Out There’, at the recently opened Marion Bay Art Gallery.

Running from 18 April to 16 May 2026, the exhibition features a selection of Mackey’s abstract paintings that explore the interconnectedness of all things.

“Some paintings focus on play and the paint itself,” Mackey told Tasmanian Times.

“Words are also important, either as puns in the titles or as a way to infuse the work with energy.”

She added that, as the title of the exhibition suggests, she is interested in broader questions about who and what we are, and our place in the universe.

“These are the same sort of questions Gauguin* was asking back in 1897 – ‘Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?’ – now considered alongside our current knowledge of quantum physics.”

Despite this, Mackey explained that she had recently been in a hurry to name a few of her paintings and had asked her 12-year-old nephew for a suggestion.

“He said, ‘I don’t know what to call a painting, call it ‘Harry’’. So I did. […] I enjoy a bit of humour.”

Time has been the biggest challenge for Mackey in putting ‘There is No Out There Out There’ together because she “only decided to do [it] seven weeks ago.”

“It has been a little crazy deciding which paintings to put in, which to paint over, the layout, the naming of works, making a website, and more.”

But she explained that now was the right time to hold the exhibition.

“I have a couple of friends from art school who come over to my studio regularly and we paint alongside each other, so we get to create and catch up at the same time,” she said.

“For a long time, they have been saying I need to show my work. I’d been hesitant, wondering if the work was ready. Then Cheri, along with her husband Dave Allanby, opened the Marion Bay Art Gallery at the end of 2025. Finally, the time was right!”

Beneath the surface

Mackey told Tasmanian Times that her paintings can be a dialogue with herself.

“I love starting paintings with the freedom to play and quickly cover the white canvas,” she said.

Sometimes she adds collage; other times she adds layers of words, or a single word, as a focal point. The words are generally covered in layers, though in some paintings they are used more explicitly.

“You might find the word ‘joy’ in one or two if you look,” she said.

While there are private stories behind some of the paintings, Mackey does not think it is important for people to know about them.

“I’m happy for them to be interpreted in many ways,” she said.

“I really like it when people see things I have not considered in the work. My daughter sees Sponge Bob in one of the works, so to her it will always be the Sponge Bob painting, certainly a far cry from anything I intended.”

Tasmania inspires the palette

Some of Tasmania’s coastal colours have found their way into Mackey’s artwork.

“I’m interested in the colours and textures found in the landscape, and a series of paintings, all playing on the word ore (‘awe’, ‘oar’, ‘or’, ‘ore’, ‘aww’), are inspired by textures and colours found on the west coast,” she told Tasmanian Times.

It was in Queenstown, specifically, that Mackey participated in Press West’s workshops organised by artists Helena Demczuk and Raymond Arnold.

Mackey added that she is also fascinated by the beauty of Tasmania’s sandstone surfaces and the patterns and marks formed over time.

“Some of my more recent paintings explore this, though not so much in this exhibition.”

* Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French artist who worked in painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, and writing. He is best known for his work in the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist styles.

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Callum J. Jones studied English, History, and Journalism at the University of Tasmania. He lived in Western Sydney from 2022 to 2024 while working as a journalist for Professional Planner, a leading online publication for financial planners. He has written for Tasmanian Times since 2018 and has also been published in a range of other outlets, including Quadrant and the BAD Western Sydney anthologies.