BROCK
Q.
PIPER
ABOUT*
Brock Q. Piper (b.1985) is an Australian contemporary artist whose paintings explore memory, inheritance and the strange ways stories change as they are passed from one generation to another.
At the centre of his recent work is an ongoing reflection on his late father and the lessons, stories and contradictions that remain after someone is gone. Rather than illustrating these memories directly, Piper allows them to shift into a personal mythology populated by hybrid figures, animals, oversized hands and bodies covered in elaborate patterns, feathers, jewellery and symbolic markings.
Pattern is central to Piper’s visual language. Decoration becomes skin, costume becomes armour, and the human and animal continually merge. His figures appear caught somewhere between folklore and memory — familiar enough to recognise, yet resistant to being fully understood.
Piper describes the act of painting as an attempt to “trap the beast inside the work.” The beast is not simply the creature depicted, but the instinctive and unresolved energy beneath the painting: love, grief, humour, fear, tenderness and violence held together without being explained away.
For Piper, painting is a way of transforming inheritance rather than preserving it. Memories become stories, stories become symbols, and symbols develop lives of their own.
The paintings do not attempt to explain the past. They ask what remains of the people who shaped us — and what we carry forward once their stories have become part of our own.
CV
Biography
Born: Australia 1985
Education
Masters of Psychotherapy - Art Therapy Western University
2026
Graduate Certificate of Visual Arts VCA Melbourne University 2021
Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts with a Major in painting 2006 - 2008
Awards
Winner - 2021 George Hicks Victorian Artist Society Contemporary Art Award AUS
Residencies
King Island - January 2026
Mexico City - January, February 2020
Linden House St Kilda November 2019 - November 2020
Los Angeles - Eastside International - January 2019
Reviews + Publications
Artist Interview - Cornah Willis January 2021
QANTAS Magazine June 2019
Avis - The Art of Discovery 2019
TASMANIAN EXAMINER May 12 2019
Tumut and Adelong Times May 2019
The road less travelled: The tough choices behind the art of Brock Q. Piper Feb 2019 Andrew McIlroy
LIBERAL ECLECTIC July 2018 : The Valley – Below: Acts of defiance
WISH MAGAZINE JUNE 2018
1340Art International Art Magazine Q1 2018
LIBERAL ECLECTIC Jan 2018 : BROCK Q PIPER: Caught in another realm…
VOGUE LIVING JAN-FEB 2018
EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions
2025
Rituals of illumination
OUTSIDER Gallery Sydney NSW
2024
Shore leave
Penny Contemporary Gallery Hobart Tasmania
2022
Marmalade
Twenty-Twenty Six Bondi NSW
2021
CARAVEL
Brock Q. Piper Studio Richmond Vic
2020
Levitation
Brock Q. Piper Studio Richmond Vic
Orange Slices
Melbourne Studio of Art Elsternwick Vic
2019
Nuestra SOMBRA
Melbourne Studio of Art ElsternwickVic
CARRY FIRE
Penny Contemporary Gallery Hobart Tasmania
Absolution
Melbourne Studio of Art Elsternwick Vic
Selected drawings from the American High Desert
ESXLA Los Angeles CA
2018
Valley Below
New works Metro Gallery Armadale Vic
[torrent]
Melbourne Studio of Art Elsternwick Vic
2017
AVIATION
Greedilulu Showroom Mornington Vic
Travelling Light
Piermarq Paddington NSW
2015
Opening
Stone Saint Moon Newcastle NSW
Enter:EXILE
Brunswick arts Melbourne VIC
2014
Portals + Poison
Howlin’ Wolf Wollongong NSW
While we forget to sleep
Howlin’ Wolf Wollongong NSW
Sketchbook showcase- 99
Beachart Gallery Bulli NSW
2013
One night from yesterday
Alibi Gallery Wollongong NSW
Observations from EXILE
Global Gallery Paddington NSW
EXILED
Alibi Gallery Wollongong NSW
Awkward fumbling’s of a failed relationship
Studio 19 Wollongong NSW
2012
Animals in EXILE x2
Brunswick Street Gallery Fitzroy VIC
Animals in EXILE
Gallery 9 Wollongong NSW
Group Exhibitions
Studio Gallery - Various
2025 - 2026
2021
On the Margins
Penny Contemporary - Hobart TAS
Staff Exhibition
Victorian Artist Society - Melbourne VIC
BSG 50 Squared Art Prize
Brunswick Street Gallery - Melbourne VIC
George Hicks Contemporary Artist Prize
Victorian Artist Society - Melbourne VIC
2020
Staff Exhibition
Victorian Artist Society - Melbourne VIC
2019
Anthology
Staff exhibition Melbourne Polytechnic VIC
Inhabitants
Piermarq Paddington NSW
2018
Metro Gallery Christmas Stockroom
Metro Gallery Armadale VIC
Pursuit and Denial
Balkon Art Incubator Melbourne VIC
2017
Summer Stockroom Showcase
Metro Gallery Melbourne VIC
Brock Q. Piper & Lorribelle Spirovski
Metro Gallery Melbourne VIC
2016
Rodeo Sideshow
Piermarq Paddington NSW
Peace of Art Charity auction
Fenton and Fenton Prahran VIC
Collectors showcase
19Karen contemporary gallery Mermaid Beach QLD
2015
Colours of Melbourne
Waterfront Gallery Docklands VIC
Emerging Art
Gallery 69Smith Street Melbourne VIC
Occupy
Project Gallery Wollongong NSW
2014
llawarra Showcase
ART MONTH Tortuga Gallery Sydney NSW
2013
Stock Room Showcase
Global Gallery Paddington NSW
2012
URBAN
Brunswick Street Gallery Melbourne VIC
Handwritten
Gallery 9 Wollongong NSW
Record Day
Gallery 9 Wollongong NSW
2008
Ververy - Grad show
Project Gallery Wollongong NSW
Drawn
Project Gallery Wollongong NSW
Cluster
Project Gallery Wollongong NSW
Outdoor Art Show
Old Parliament House lawn Gallery Canberra ACT
2007
In Print
Project Gallery Wollongong NSW
Outdoor Art Show
Old Parliament House lawn Gallery Canberra ACT
