ECSTATIC THREADS, 2026
Ecstatic Threads, exhibition views. The Side Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.
Photographs by Louis Lim.
Ecstatic Threads
10 – 19 September 2026
Artist talk with Laura Brinin 10 September 5:30pm
Opening event 10 September 6 – 8pm
About the exhibition
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.
