About Billy Shannon
In the new studio in 2011
I am a visual artist, based in Brisbane, Australia, working primarily in acrylic on canvas.
For me, creativity is an outpouring which takes a myriad of forms, with my central point of stillness and understanding being in front of my easel, painting. A stillness balanced by a lifetime of oscillating between the visual and performing arts worlds; what I’ve learnt from one has informed the other. In 2009, I decided to focus solely on my visual arts career, using skills developed through my life as a scenic artist in both my studio work and mural commissions.
On this page (via the links below) you will find a visual journey through my life and work in various arts. I hope that you enjoy the ride as much as I have!
Visual Arts
A publicity shot for ‘Subterranean Nights’ — a solo show at No. 9 artist run initiative in 2002. No 9 was set up by Niko Vuletic and Tobias de Maine; other people involved included artist Sebastian Moody and the writer Brentley Fraser.
My shopfront studio in Merthyr Rd, New Farm… I loved this place!
See some photos of the opening night
After a while in the Merthyr Rd studio, my good friend Adam Head and I decided to take over the whole building and opened the New Farm Art Stockroom! See images and the Stockroom website
The first few days of the Bowen Hills Studio!
Some lovely friends at the 2017 studio show
A poster for ‘Icarus and Other Angels’, 1991 — sculptural paintings, living in the old Target Building, Fortitude Valley.
Working in the 2001 Bardon studio. It was a great place, until it was pulled down…
The Bardon studio — I took to the wall with a circular saw and installed windows for northern light! I worked here for a couple of years around the beginning of the century.
Various manifestations of studio computers I built — one in St Kilda, one in Bardon set in a wheel barrow so I could move it around the studio. My first portable computer!
Painting in my Charles St. studio in New Farm, 2004. Many thanks to Juanita Broderick for the photos!
Other Arts
Here's me at 20 years old in the Queensland Theatre Company's design studio.
I started working in theatre in 1979 by walking into La Boite Theatre in Brisbane to help with the bump-in of ‘They Shoot Horses… Don’t They’ and basically lived there for the next 2 weeks!! I put an art exhibition on in the theatre's foyer, then was asked by the Twelfth Night Theatre Company to help paint their set for ‘The Threepenny Opera’ — my third show, and first professional gig at 18…
Then there was a pile of shows painted and built for La Boite and the Brisbane Arts Theatre. When I was 20, I was employed for a season by the Queensland Theatre Company as the design assistant, working with James Ridewood and Graham McClean. We painted with powder pigment paint in glue size and I learnt a great deal…
Painting a backdrop for the feature film, Nim's Island. I was a leading hand scenic artist in charge of murals and backdrops. I loved working on this film!
Nim's Island bathroom, 2007
When I was between 28 and 30, I became involved with Horizon Circus in Hobart, Tasmania — contact improvisation, juggling and clowning…
Rehearsing the ‘Dragon Dance’ with Debbie Rodrigues, Adam Wallace and John Campbell for ‘Horizon on Fire’, 1990
Exhausted at the end of a training session with John Campbell, Debbie Rodrigues and Prue Dudley
I designed and made 2 floats for the 2001 Australia Day parade in Brisbane — ‘Billy Cart’ and ‘Billy Tea’
Painting the doors for The Met nightclub, for Heads Up Film Services
A beautiful sculpture designed by Adam Head that we made and installed
Playing slide didgeridoo with my sister's Irish band, Banshee, in Hobart, 1994
Writings & Testimonials
On the Sleep Series — Pat Hoffie
‘…that you have but slumber’d here,
while these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
no more yielding but a dream.’
Puck, in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
Sleeping figures, wrapped around a dream. The subjects of these paintings seem caught between the very skeins of the paint; wrapped within the gauzy sheets of the image's layers.
If they are, in part, portraits, they are also evocations of states-of-being. Captured in repose, they dream in the shadowy spaces of half-realms, suspended between the here and the not-here.
The dreaming subjects in these paintings have entered this state of being willingly. In delivering themselves into the hands of the artist's other-role as a masseur, they allow themselves to be lulled into sleep — suspended into a kind of temporary trance, they become the willing subjects of the artist's other-role as a painter.
The images are evocative in two ways, for they are experienced and realized by the artist as both the solid flesh of physical bodies and as the numinous ineffable nature of a sleeping spirit. There is a sense of hypnosis at play; and with it a nod towards the role of artist as a creator of visual imagery capable of mediating between our conscious and sub-conscious awareness.
The growing public interest in the sub-conscious that emerged in the late 18th century was influenced by the experiments of Franz Mesmer, a German doctor who described the ‘invisible force’ (lebensmagntismus) that all animate beings possess. Mesmer believed that the capacity for harnessing that force could generate a range of physical effects, amongst the more positive of which was a kind of healing. Since that time, practices of ‘mesmerism’, experiments with somnambulism and treatises on vitalism were continued in hundreds of volumes of documented experience up until the 1920s, when such practices were dropped to the side in the enthusiasm for more rational approaches to understanding unconscious states.
Visual artists share, along with the mutable practices of the mesmerists, work sites that traverse the shifting grounds between material and spirit, and practices that call attention to the shifting, uncertain territories between conscious and unconscious states of awareness. Throughout art history, artists have painted dreamers — from the biblical dreamers of Marc Chagall to Henri Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy (1897) to Picasso's La Reve (1932) — and right up to the present, the subject matter of dreamers reminds us that even precious flesh is capable of melting and dissolving into a dream. Billy Shannon's ongoing experimentation with dreamers and their dreams continues the theme in this new series of paintings.
Pat Hoffie — www.pat-hoffie.com
From Polycentrica
A great article about the Sleep series by Carol Schwarzman in the arts blog Polycentrica — or download the PDF in case the link breaks.
Some Happy Collectors
"Billy Shannon's works have an aliveness which is most beautiful when standing in front
of the work, though you can see the depth of texture even in the photos of his work on
his website. In recent years, I have purchased several of his pictures, including a
commission, and the works are always delivered with great care by Billy. It is a joy to
hang his paintings in our home.
My husband and I experience ongoing pleasure, pondering and reflecting on his work,
especially pictures from the Sleep series. We also have a large landscape by Billy which
absolutely lights up our living space."
Eloise O'Toole — June 2023
"We have a number of Billy Shannon's works in our home and have always had prompt delivery to Tasmania. It is a joy to have his beautiful paintings in the house."
Peter Rice — Hobart, 2023
"I purchased my first painting from Billy 7 years ago now, and still love it as much
now as I did then. Shortly thereafter I purchased a second painting which Billy took
great pride in delivering and installing in my house. We struck up a conversation which
led to Billy completing a mural on one of my walls — a labour of love for both
Billy and I.
I would highly recommend the quality of artwork Billy continues to create. They are
true pieces of inspiration and beauty."
Angus Eagle — Brisbane, 2023
Curriculum Vitae
Billy Shannon is a Brisbane based artist whose work is deeply influenced by his experience as a scenic artist for theatre and film since 1979. His work explores light, movement, and perception through layered acrylic glazes, inspired by his interests in literature, meditation, and contemporary physics. Since 2009, he has focused solely on studio art, creating works that shift with lighting and perspective, reflecting our transient, ever-shifting world and perception.
Download PDF version — [email protected]
Representation
- 2020–24
- Plexus Gallery, Brisbane QLD
- 2004
- Celestial Gallery, Fortitude Valley QLD
- 2000–01
- Sui Generis Gallery, Abbotsford VIC
Art Associates, Collingwood VIC - 1997–98
- Jackman Gallery, St Kilda VIC
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- 2026
- Field Trip Gallery, Brisbane — The Path
- 2025
- Richard Randall Studio, Brisbane — Studio Residency
- 2024
- Field Trip Gallery, Brisbane — Intersections
Plexus Gallery, Brisbane — Sleepers Awake (online exhibition) - 2018
- Cross Gallery, Bundaberg — Nocturne
- 2006
- New Farm Art Stockroom, Brisbane — Painting Life
- 2005
- New Farm Studio, Brisbane — Flowers for Fibonacci
- 2003
- SoapBox Gallery, Brisbane — Inner Workings
- 2002
- No 9 Chinatown Mall, Brisbane — Subterranean Night
- 1997
- 69 Smith St., Melbourne — The Divine Stratagem, Melbourne Fringe Festival
- 1992
- McWhirter's Artspace, Brisbane — Icarus and Other Angels
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 2015–24
- Downlands Art Exhibition, Toowoomba
- 2024
- Field Trip Gallery, Brisbane — Holiday Popup
Field Trip Gallery, Brisbane — Eclectica - 2022
- Plexus Gallery, Brisbane — Small Works Show
- 2021
- Plexus Gallery, Brisbane — Second Bloom
- 2020
- Plexus Gallery, Brisbane — Virtually Live (online & 3D virtual exhibition)
- 2018
- Cross Gallery, Bundaberg — Icon
- 2017
- Bowen Hills Studio — From Our Dreams
- 2016
- Bowen Hills Studio — Sleep
Jugglers Artspace, Brisbane — Thoughts made Visible - 2004
- New Farm Art Stockroom, Fortitude Valley — Loading Bay
Celestial Gallery, Fortitude Valley — Decade - 2003
- The Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane — Fluid, action painting with Collusions quintet
- 2000
- Sui Generis, Melbourne — Passion
- 1997
- The Jackman Gallery, Melbourne — Really Recent Works
Selected Performing Arts Involvements
- 2008
- K9, TV Series — Scenic Artist (Art Director: Adam Head)
Three to Tango, Short Film — Art Director (Director: Rosetta Cook) - 2007
- Nim's Island, Feature Film — Leading Hand Scenic Artist (murals & backdrops)
- 1996–97
- Scenic Studios, Melbourne — Scenic Artist for: Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, Swan Lake & Cinderella for The Hong Kong Ballet; The Deep End & The Red Shoes for The Australian Ballet; The King & I for Dodger Productions, New York; Hey Hey, It's Cinderella
- 1986–87
- La Boîte Theatre, Brisbane — Production Manager; Set Designer for As You Like It, Not Exactly Paradise
Grin & Tonic Theatre Troupe — Set Designer & Mask Maker for Desdemona and Othello - 1984–86
- Grin & Tonic Theatre Troupe — Set Designer, Set and Props Maker
- 1981
- Queensland Theatre Company — Design Assistant & Scenic Artist
- 1979
- TN! Theatre Company, Brisbane — Scenic Artist for Threepenny Opera
- 1979–81
- La Boîte Theatre, Brisbane — Set Designer & Scenic Artist