Mitch Cairns: Artist's Mouth

About this event

Mitch Cairns: Artist's Mouth is on at Institute of Modern Art (420 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, Queensland, 4006) 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 lists these accessibility features for the event: https://imabrisbane.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/eblwq92ucczmoe_yttza9v8bj5ton7cdzwi-pkmd8srr4g?e=bncm89.

From the organiser

Over the last twenty years, Mitch Cairns has emerged as a major Australian painter of flair and originality. His playful work interweaves elements drawn from cubism, comics, and concrete poetry.

Artist's Mouth traces Cairns's artistic journey since graduating from the National Art School in Gadigal/Sydney twenty years ago in 2006, starting with a still life he painted in his last year at the School. Artist's Mouth is the most comprehensive presentation of his work to date. Curated by NAS Gallery Curator Lucy Latella and IMA Director Robert Leonard, the exhibition is a joint project with NAS Gallery, where it opened earlier this year.

Cairns is a cool, calculating, intellectual painter, with a sense of humour. His puzzle pictures play games with pictorial conventions and conundrums—duck/rabbit problems. He scrambles 3D forms and 2D ones, detailed forms and schematic ones. Like a classic cubist, his subject is sometimes hidden—it's not always immediately clear what we're looking at.

The venue’s recorded access

Inclusable’s venue database has an entry for Institute of Modern Art at this location. It records wheelchair access, step-free entry and accessible toilet. The venue hasn’t confirmed these details. They describe the venue in general, not this particular event.

Not yet recorded for the venue: accessible parking and communication and sensory features such as a hearing loop or quiet hours. We don’t know either way, so it’s worth checking before you go.