Billy Shannon's studio

Billy Shannon is a Brisbane-based artist who mostly works with acrylic on canvas. Early in 2026, he held a solo exhibition at Field Trip Gallery in Paddington, Brisbane, called The Path. In this exhibition, he considered how one event co-creates the next — reflecting on the previous six months in particular, how through kindness, fortune, illness and loss, a personal path was formed that seems to be guiding, or sometimes dragging, him forward.

Artists follow an undefined but unwavering path that seems irresistible to us. Driven by the nature of obsession, obsession becomes the path to clarity. Seeking meaning out of uncertainty, we persistently return to the same questions, scratching at the itch until it yields the light. Over time, a sequence forms, a chain of contingencies. A donation of art leads to a meeting. A meeting leads to a commission. A reference image inspires a tangential painting. Does that manifest an inspiring journey? Illness interrupts. Work stops. Attention shifts. Symbols surface. Loss occurs.

At the moment they happen, events carry no inherent meaning. They are not lessons, gifts, nor obstacles. Without labels and categories, events retain their full potential: to become constructive or destructive, clarifying or destabilising. Meaning is not embedded in the event itself, but emerges through our response to it.

In August 2026, Sona Babajanyan and Billy Shannon will hold a studio exhibition where these themes and thoughts will be further developed.