Off the Wall with Studio One Noosa
A new exhibition at Studio One Noosa invites visitors to move beyond simply viewing art and step into a deeper digital dialogue with the artists behind the works. Kathy Sundstrom reports.
Art galleries have traditionally been places of quiet observation, where visitors pause, reflect and absorb the work on the walls as one static moment in time.
Studio One Noosa’s latest exhibition gently challenges that tradition by inviting audiences to take the next step.
Running until 2 May, Clique Bait is an evolving group exhibition that blurs the boundary between physical and digital experiences, encouraging viewers to interact with artworks in a new and unexpected way.
The exhibition title plays deliberately on the dual meanings of ‘clique’ and ‘click’, hinting at both the close-knit group of artists involved and the digital action that unlocks another layer of the experience.
Each artwork in the exhibition is accompanied by a QR code, allowing visitors to instantly access the artist’s broader creative world through their phone.
With a single scan, the viewer moves beyond the wall label and into the artist’s extended practice, discovering more about the ideas, processes and influences behind the work.
The experience allows visitors to fully benefit from the layered offerings of today’s digital world while engaging in a pleasure as old as time – marvelling at an artist’s physical creation on a wall.
For curator and artist Juanita Van Den Bergh, the concept reflects the changing ways audiences encounter and engage with art today.
Rather than simply presenting a static exhibition, Clique Bait evolves over its eight-week run, with new works and additions appearing throughout the show.
Returning visitors will find something different each time, creating a sense of discovery that mirrors the fast-moving and ever-shifting digital world the exhibition quietly references.
“It’s about moving from observer to participant – that single click allows people to step deeper into the work and into the story behind it,” Juanita says.
The exhibition brings together a carefully curated group of contemporary Australian artists, each with a distinct visual language but connected through a shared curiosity about perception, attention and connection.
Among the artists featured are Rick Matear, Bronwyn Barton, Wendy Rennie, Juanita Van Den Bergh and Bill Botten, alongside a broader collective contributing to the evolving exhibition.
Rick Matear is widely known for his refined explorations of light and landscape, capturing quiet moments shaped by water, reflection and memory.
His work often sits somewhere between representation and atmosphere, inviting the viewer to pause and absorb the subtleties of the environment.
Wendy Rennie approaches painting through expressive abstraction, using colour, movement and layered surfaces to evoke the emotional rhythms of coastal landscapes.
Bronwyn Barton draws inspiration directly from Noosa’s subtropical bushland, translating natural forms and textures into richly layered, semi-abstract compositions that feel both organic and intuitive.
Juanita Van Den Bergh’s own work explores abstraction as a contemplative space, where layered gestures and shifting tones reveal emotional depth and psychological tension over time.
Bill Botten brings an expressive language that moves fluidly between abstraction and figuration, exploring themes of identity, memory and the landscapes of the mind.
Together, the artists form a thoughtful and visually compelling collective, each voice distinct yet contributing to a broader conversation about how we see, choose and connect with images.
Rather than offering a fixed narrative, Clique Bait creates what Juanita describes as ‘a liminal space’.
“It reflects the contemporary experience of navigating choice, access and curiosity in real time, where discovery often happens through interaction,” she says.
Importantly, the exhibition avoids making overt commentary about technology or digital culture.
Instead, it invites viewers to quietly become aware of their own role in the process of looking, selecting and engaging.
The relaxed yet culturally curious backdrop of Noosa provides a fitting setting for the concept.
Here, art is often encountered not just in galleries but within homes, workplaces and hospitality spaces that value creativity as part of everyday life.
Studio One Noosa has long positioned itself at the intersection of those worlds, connecting artists with collectors and interior designers; and providing a go-to community for art lovers and the art curious who might seek pieces that resonate with both place and personality.
The gallery’s curated exhibitions are known for bringing together diverse practices under a unifying theme, often encouraging visitors to look at familiar ideas from a fresh perspective.
Clique Bait continues that approach while adding a contemporary twist.
By inviting audiences to scan, explore and discover more about each artist’s practice, the exhibition expands the gallery experience beyond its physical walls.
It is a simple gesture, yet one that reflects how art is increasingly experienced across multiple platforms and spaces.
Visitors may arrive expecting a traditional gallery visit. They may leave having followed an artist’s practice online, explored a new body of work or discovered a connection they had not anticipated.
That sense of curiosity and discovery sits at the heart of the exhibition.
It also reflects the broader philosophy behind Studio One Noosa, where art is presented not as something distant or exclusive, but as something personal and accessible.
Looking ahead, the gallery will soon take its artists onto an even larger stage when it will represent five artists at the Brisbane Affordable Art Fair, presenting a curated collection built around dreamlike colour palettes and contemporary themes.
The showcase will feature works by Debra Hutton and Juanita alongside fellow Gateway Drive artists Fiona Bastow, Jo Cook and Dallas Lesley highlighting the gallery’s commitment to championing Australian artists both locally and beyond.
For now, however, the focus remains on the evolving conversations unfolding inside the gallery walls.
In Clique Bait, the act of looking becomes something more active. A pause, a scan, a click. And perhaps the beginning of a new connection. That’s SO Noosa…
