Ecstatic Threads brings together a dynamic new series of paintings by Rae Haynes that continue their ongoing investigation into the rich intersections of textiles and painting, and the historically gendered ways these practices have been interpreted.
This body of work marks a return to painterly ideas that have occupied the artist since the early stages of their practice: the relationship between limits and excess, order and abandon, structure and sensation.
Revisiting these concerns through the lens of genderqueer abstraction, Haynes embraces exuberance, pleasure and intensity, deploying radiant colour, rhythmic pattern and optical vibration to create works that pulse with joyful energy.
The paintings weave together multiple art historical lineages. Echoes of Marlow Moss and Agnes Martin’s geometric precision sit alongside the luminous chromatic relationships of Sonia Delaunay and the perceptual dynamism of Bridget Riley.
Yet Haynes does not simply reference these precedents; they are threaded through a distinctive visual language, producing works that are at once disciplined and excessive, contemplative and sensuous.
In Ecstatic Threads, painting becomes a space of connection, transformation and joy, where historical influences, material traditions and genderqueer possibilities intertwine in shimmering, expansive fields of colour and form.
Artist Talk: Thursday 10 September, 5:30pm
Opening: Thursday 10 September, 6–8pm
Rae Haynes (she/ they) is a contemporary artist and educator who lives and works in Magadjin/ Brisbane, Australia. Rae has exhibited widely in independent spaces and art museums, most recently with projects for Outer Space (2025), The Brisbane Festival (2023), the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York (2021), Institute of Modern Art (IMA) (2020), and the Museum of Brisbane (2019).
Rae completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Visual Arts (2009) with the support of an Australian Postgraduate Award for research and is a Senior Lecturer (Visual Arts) at QUT.
Committed to gender ethics and social practices in the arts, Rae actively contributes to arts and advocacy organisations and artist-led communities of practice. Rae was a founding member of the feminist art collective LEVEL (2010 — 2018) and is a current member of the CoUNTESS.Report.
Rae’s writing on feminism and art has been published internationally in leading journals including Feminist Review, Journal of Australian Studies, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Feminist Encounters, and featured in the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminism.
Image Details: Rae Haynes, Candy Pink Lozenge II, 2026. Acrylic on canvas, 60 × 60 × 4 cm, orientation variable.
