AN EXHIBITION of humorous cartoons, created by local artist and business owner Dan Boermans, is currently on view at the Phoenix Art Gallery in Bowraville.
The free exhibition is called “Laughing Matters” and features 30 of Mr Boermans’ original cartoons and captions.
It opened to the public on Saturday 24 January and will run until 19 February, in line with the gallery’s opening hours.
The displayed works present a light-hearted and irreverent take on the everyday and the mythical, dealing with such topics as mermaids, activism, the moon landing and everything in-between.
Mr Boermans has a history of professional cartooning, having worked for almost two decades with Queensland Newspapers where his work was published in The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail.
The exhibition features cartoons created over his career and most have been printed publicly before, though they have never been in a collection like this.
“With serious events always happening, it’s important to break the stress cycle with laughter,” Mr Boermans told News Of The Area.
He takes his inspiration from daily life and ideas that just occur to him in quiet moments, literally, out of the blue.
“Living and breathing – just life’s everyday circumstances give me ideas.
“But you can’t force yourself to think of things – they just don’t come.”
Although the displayed works are prints, his original pieces were completed in the traditional mediums of ink and watercolour.
Creating an exhibition has always been on his bucket list.
Mr Boermans is also the curator and owner of the collectables shop Bowra Emporium, which is located just across from the Phoenix Gallery.
“It was a convenient place to show them [as] this gallery, (the Phoenix) always welcomes and supports different works by local artists.”
By Ned COWIE
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