About the Artist
Samuel Kiernan + Annabelle Reidy
Samuel Kiernan is a Brisbane/Meanjin-based oil painter and film photographer, often using the latter to provide reference images to paintings. His work is centred on Realism with minor influences of Impressionism. Natural themes, including landscapes, flora and fauna, are recurring subjects.
Largely self-taught in art practice, he draws upon interdisciplinary skills from a background in Veterinary Science. This includes utilising an understanding of anatomy in subject composition and radiography techniques in the exploration of film photography.
Samuel has exhibited in several group shows across Brisbane and the Gold Coast. His work was selected as a finalist in the Dean Cogle Portrait Prize 2025, taking out the Packing Room Prize, and the Lethbridge Small Scale Art Award 2025.
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Annabelle Reidy is an analogue photographer whose practice is equal parts introspective and gritty. Drawing from her time in the Navy and her enduring connection to the ocean, she documents the world around her on film while moving through diverse landscapes. Working exclusively in black and white, Reidy embraces the unpredictability and imperfection inherent to the medium, allowing moments of grit and fragility to coexist quietly, reflecting a process of self-examination.
Reidy's work marks a transition from imposed structures to openness, from rigidity to vulnerability. Photography becomes a means of both becoming and unlearning, offering space to challenge the strict and rigid ideologies inherited during her time in the services.
