Curator Evan Hollis has embedded his signature style on the annual Downlands Art Exhibition over the past 20 years. During that time the show has become one of the premier events of its kind in Queensland with more than 1200 pieces being selected for display from entries by hundreds of artists.
Yet Hollis’s rise to pre-eminence on the nation’s artistic scene has been anything but conventional. “Art wasn’t seen as an interest boys would have back then,” he says of the years he was growing up in the Toowoomba suburb of Harristown. Also, art was not perceived as providing very promising career opportunities. So, on leaving Harristown High, Hollis headed for Brisbane where his first foray into creative arts was drawing the blackboards at the Pancake Parlour. “They received wide acclaim for being the best chalk drawings of bacon and eggs anyone had ever seen,” he says. “And, I can tell you it’s not easy drawing scrambled eggs with a piece of chalk.”
Through his mother Mary, who was co-founder of the Toowoomba Family History Society, Hollis had a knowledge of the arts in general but his experience at the Pancake Parlour piqued his interest in his own creative ability. However, he had to concentrate on earning a living and was employed in “all manner of jobs” including being a waiter, a barista and a cook. During the 1980s, while this was happening, he returned to Toowoomba where became immersed in the arts community and in 1991 he held a solo exhibition at a gallery run by David Terauds and Patti Jenson. “By then I had started creating works, drawings, paintings and sculptures and I sold a bit of stuff there,” he says. “Then at some point it was suggested I go to USQ so I applied and in 1993 I began a Degree in Creative Arts. “I went back into hospitality, to make ends meet, for several years after completing my degree.” In 1999, Hollis was appointed curatorial assistant of the Downlands Art Exhibition and since then there have been significant additions to his curriculum vitae. In 2006, he was appointed Downlands College curator. He describes the task involved as “like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge, because it never stops”.
In 2008, he became the school’s set designer for performance arts which have featured Les Mis and Crazy For You. This led to him last year being asked to design the set for the Toowoomba Choral Society’s My Fair Lady, and Hollis’s brilliance shone through. Over the years he has continued to make “a little bit of art work in all areas” and in 2008 he had an exhibition at the Stanthorpe Regional Gallery titled Views From the Saddle featuring prints made from photographs taken on outback journeys on his BMW motorcycle. There was another milestone in 2013 when he founded the MET Galleries in Toowoomba and now he is developing a website www.downlandsart.com. “I’m hoping to turn the website into an online store, which runs year round and I think that will be a great.”
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