The art and culture of our nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, has turned heads at the Queensland Art Gallery.

It was a feast for the eyes and highlighted the importance of the relationship between the two countries.

Eilish Massie reports.

TRANSCRIPT

It was a special occasion.

Pasria, Visitor: “I feel close and you know, very close to my culture and I think it’s amazing with all these different artwork.”

Sue, Visitor: “You become part of the culture and its also very important as you don’t lose your culture.”

Many of the artists are displaying traditional works.

Others are more contemporary, and they’ve all come together for an exhibition called ‘number one neighbour’.

Lisah Hill, Artist: “It’s such a great celebration of contemporary Papua New Guinea Art, and I feel really, really honoured to be a part of the show.”

Joyce Mary Aresepa Gole ML, Artist: “Very pleased to display my bowls, I used to go all over the world. I never came across Brisbane, and this is my first time to display my artwork or pottery.”

The arts curator, Ruth McDougall took more than three years to create the exhibition.

She says it hasn’t been done on this scale before.

Ruth McDougall, Pacific Art Curator: “It really struck me that we’d only really scratched the surface so we needed to do something bigger, so it was really the impetus to develop this show.”

Many of these artists are world renowned with their art hanging in galleries all around the world.

But not many Australians know about the art from our nearest neighbour.

The exhibition closes next January.

Eilish Massie, QUT News.