JP Willis

2 June - 4 July 2026

Webb Gallery, Queensland College of Art & Design

JP Willis explores the seductive tension between surface beauty and underlying threat. His use of bold, hyper-colourful motifs draws the viewer in, only to reveal sinister or discomforting imagery embedded within their structure. This dissonance between immediate visual delight and a deeper existential weight creates a contemporary memento mori. Willis’s distinctive visual language combines vivid pigments, Italian glass neon, sculptural installations, works on paper, and digitally constructed forms. This collision of materials and techniques enhances the conceptual duality in his work and reflects the fractured complexity of the modern condition.

In his work, traditionally masculine iconography—jets, weapons, helicopters—are frequently recontextualised, softened or masked by ornate design and traditionally feminine motifs, suggesting both critique and compassion. This iconography is also a reminder of our cultural fascination with violence as mediated through television and film, and over the last few years Willis worked closely with the well-known war photographer Tim Page OAM (1944-2022). Running alongside JP Willis: Love is in the air at QCAD Galleries was Tim Page: The very edge of the brightest light, at Griffith University Art Museum, Page and Willis were working on an exhibition of responses to each other’s practices at the time of Page’s death.

Originally from Llandudno in North Wales, Willis now lives and works on Gumbaynggirr Country, in the hinterland of Coffs Harbour. A past winner of Southern Cross University’s Acquisitive Artists’ Book Award and an Australia Print Council commission, his work is held in major collections internationally (e.g., Tate Britain, British Library, Columbia University), and nationally (e.g., Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Library of Australia, State Library of Queensland), and regional Australian collections. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Masters in Printmaking from the University of the West of England Bristol.

^{Image: 'JP Willis: Love is in the air', installation view, June 2026, Webb Gallery, Queensland College of Art & Design. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Carl Warner}