Entombed in Joy | Damien Shen

About this event

Entombed in Joy | Damien Shen is on at Adelaide Railway Station, Historic Phone Booths (King William Road, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000) on Sun 8 Nov 2026.

Tickets and details are on the organiser’s website, linked on this page. Prices listed by the organiser: Price Free. They’re indicative, so check the final price when you book.

The organiser hasn’t published accessibility details for this event that we hold, so check with them if you need specifics.

From the organiser

Entombed in Joy is Damien Shen's most buoyant body of work, bringing together the visual languages that shaped him across childhood, culture and adulthood.

Familiar 1980s cartoon characters and pop-culture symbols adorn bold, shield-like forms patterned with references to Shen's Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna heritage. These paintings consider identity as something both inherited and customised: an accumulation of cultural memory, personal affiliation, protection and play.

Created after Shen stepped away from art during the COVID-19 pandemic, while working in South Australia's emergency response, the exhibition marks a deliberate return to creativity through joy. Yet the title retains an undertone of mortality. To be "entombed in joy" suggests being surrounded by the images, stories and symbols that gave life meaning. Through energetic colour and precise illustration, Shen transforms nostalgia into a meditation on belonging, resilience, and the enduring armour of identity through time itself.

The venue’s recorded access

We couldn’t match this event to a venue in the Inclusable database, so no venue access details are recorded here yet.