Brisbane-based artist Frida Forsberg has long attracted interest from the environmental and art communities for her stylised depictions of threatened Australian ecosystems and confronting imagery from her front line environmental campaigns. The artists first formal exhibition Town and Country will feature 31 new works at Brisbane’s Artworld Studio Gallery in Norman Park from Monday 1 to Saturday 27 October.

Frida has created a respectable following devoted to her oil and acrylic renderings of nationally iconic and often threatened landscapes and wildlife. “For my first exhibition I focused on creating wholly new works and evolving my skill as a story teller through the images in my paintings. It is really important for me that my art has currency in the environmental and social justice movements,” Frida said.

She is well-known for her environmental campaigns and among her catalogue is startling depictions of her arrest in the coal seam gas fields of the Pilliga state forest or her time in the pre-dawn blockades standing with the residents of Tara to save their homes from drilling and pollution. “I strive to incorporate political and environmental themes into my landscapes. To ignore the political and environmental threats to our iconic and special places is not an option for me. The story of these places is as important as their existence and often is critical to the survival of the landscape itself,” she said. “I have enormous respect for first Australian indigenous art — their art and stories really speak to me and inspire me to communicate cultural stories and the importance of respecting our precious places and people.”

The Town and Country exhibition will be open from 1 to 27 October. Opening night is from 6pm to 8pm, Saturday 6 October at the Artworld Studio Gallery, 28 Bodalla Street, Norman Park.

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