22.96│Overflow

3 July — 8 August 2026

Date

3 July — 8 August 2026
Start Date Raw: 2026/07/03
End Date Raw: 

Opening Hours

Monday to Friday, 9.30am – 1pm & 2pm – 4.30pm
Closed for lunch: 1pm – 2pm

About Miriam Innes

Miriam Innes (b.1979, Mayo, Ireland) is an international award-winning artist now based in Queensland, Australia. Her practice, rooted in themes of heritage, place and memory, reflects the connections between her Irish upbringing and her life abroad. Working almost exclusively in charcoal, Innes creates both intimate works and monumental installations that invite viewers to step inside sprawling urban landscapes.

Her choice of medium draws on her childhood in Ireland’s peatlands, where she likens charcoal to the ancient “bog oak” embedded in the land. This grounding in Irish heritage is central to her work, even as she turns her focus to global cities. By stripping colour away, Innes removes distraction and highlights the details of architecture; windows, pavements, fire escapes, transforming familiar streets into meditative spaces.

Innes has exhibited widely across Australia and internationally, including the United States, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Republic of Korea. Her work is represented in a number of private collections in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Australia.

Touring projects include New York Rambling (2019), a 27-metre charcoal installation that took over two years to complete, and 22.96 Overflow (2025), a major new work continuing her exploration of scale, immersion and memory. Through these projects, Innes builds a dialogue between Irish heritage and contemporary urban experience, offering viewers a sense of both intimacy and vastness.

She was winner of the Bendigo Bank local Artist Award at the Du Rietz Art Award with her work ‘Where were you when…’ in 2020. Innes was also award the Lyn McCrea Memorial Drawing Award, people’s choice at Noosa Art Gallery for her large scale, internationally acclaimed New York Rambling in 2020. She was invited to participate as a judge in the International Boynes Emerging Artist award in 2021 and frequently conducts workshops and give talks on her creative process.

About Joolie Gibbs

My career spans over 40 years in arts related industries from making the models for Playschool (NZ), tombstone art, graphic design, paste up artist, tutor, set design, community artist, desktop publisher, papermaking and basketmaking to Director of the Gympie Regional Gallery for 23 years. I completed my Masters of Art in Fine Art (MAVA) at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, in 2013.

I use my artwork to gently agitate and advocate for the environment I live in (Mary River and Wallum). Using strong drawing skills and very time consuming, controlled, deliberate and mindful processes from the integrity of making my own botanical inks and handmade paper to the final mark making.

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This exhibit will be on display in Ballina Civic Offices, opening 3rd July at 5pm

22.96│Overflow is presented in Ballina, County Mayo, in recognition of the shared histories of water that connect this Irish river town with Gympie, Queensland. In 2022, the Mary River in Gympie rose to 22.96 metres during a nationally declared disaster, inundating homes, businesses and civic spaces. Ballina, shaped by the River Moy, carries its own lived memory of flood and tidal force.

Through large-scale paper works, Miriam Innes and Joolie Gibbs examine water as both destructive event and connective presence. The artworks trace sediment lines, debris patterns and altered architectures. Through videography, Leeroy Todd reflects on how communities endure, rebuild and remain bound to their rivers. In this context, 22.96│Overflow becomes a dialogue between places, linked by vulnerability, resilience and the persistent movement of water.