'Poetry of an Empire '
Ben Frost & Josh Lord
Ben Frost - What a Stupid Time to be Alive
Poetry of an Empire brings together Australian contemporary artists Ben Frost and Bendigo artist Josh Lord in an exhibition that examines the visual language of consumer culture at a moment of quiet uncertainty.
Having recently relocated from Melbourne to Queensland's Sunshine Coast, Frost joins Lord in exploring the myths, symbols and commodities that shape contemporary life, where nostalgia collides with anxiety and beauty is inseparable from branding.
Alongside a highly anticipated series of dual-signed collaborative works, the exhibition features Frost's iconic pharmaceutical/mash-up paintings and Lord's richly layered cut-out works.
Artist: Josh Lord
The exhibition confronts the visual culture of the twenty-first century—where advertising has become mythology, corporations have become belief systems, and identity is assembled from brands, pharmaceuticals, entertainment and endless streams of manufactured desire.
Working across painting, appropriation and contemporary pop iconography, Frost and Lord dismantle the familiar language of consumer culture and rebuild it into something both seductive and unsettling. Cartoon characters become modern saints. Corporate logos become relics of a fading civilisation. Fairy tales, comic books and pharmaceutical packaging collide with symbols of power, faith and consumption to expose a culture increasingly unable to distinguish between memory, advertising and belief.
Artist: Ben Frost
These are not images of escape. They are portraits of the world we have built—beautiful, excessive, absurd and quietly collapsing beneath the weight of its own mythology.
Artist: Josh Lord
Poetry of an Empire is an exhibition that is at once seductive, confrontational and darkly humorous.
Opening Reception: Saturday 1st August 2026
5:00pm – 8:00pm
Superwow Gallery, 6/30 Ulm Street, Moffat Beach, Queensland
www.superwowgallery.com
