The top five quirkiest exhibitions of QVMAG from 2023

The museum is no stranger to hosting some compelling exhibitions so without further ado, let's take a look at some of the more quirky QVMAG exhibitions of 2023.

Landing at the museum in October, Strange Nature was a mish-mash of the "weird and wonderful" specimens from the museum's natural science collection.

Pangolins in vitrines and mounted warthog heads stood next to works like a series of 20 intricate prints from Hobart artist Milan Milojevic, or the glass-blown botanics of Helene Boyer of Invermay.

The Melbourne-based artist's works of Troy Emery and Kate Rohde took the centre-stage in Strange Nature, drawing attention with their synthetic or processed materials that are either technicolour or fabricated fluorescents.

"It's conceived around the idea that the old museum was one of those cabinets of curiosities that was everything jammed into this space," said Ash Bird, QVMAG's senior curator of visual art and design.

Some notable Launceston buildings appeared to have shrunk in October, part of the Miniature World's exhibition.

The showcase of tiny creations from Tasmanian, mainland and internationally recognised artists explored the miniaturist art movement growing throughout the world.

One piece to note was the Launceston Gas Works tower built by David Hourigan, who personally took his works across the Bass Strait on the Spirit of Tasmania.

"It just astounds me how many people are into miniatures, so the fact that there's an entire exhibition just about it I think it proves to me everybody's fascinated by them," Mr Hourigan said.

A unique array of dresses took the centre stage as part of QVMAG's RISE series last year.

But they weren't any ordinary dresses - the intricate works of Stephanie Reynolds were entirely made of paper.

Ms Reynolds said it was challenging to create at the start, and had to learn "how paper behaved."

"If you're trying to do what I'm doing and make it look like textile, you have to understand its properties and what you can do with its limitations," she said.

She said she loved the "flow of the process" when making the dresses.

Still images came to life when local saxophonist Spike Mason interpreted images through his music.

Mr Mason attempted to respond to the striking landscape works of Murray Fredericks in his exhibition Witness.

From the first note of Mr Mason's sax, visitors were sure to be captivated as it echoed throughout the walls of the QVMAG.

"I'm thinking about the relationship between the landscape and the sky, in particular some of those clouds and the different types of shapes and patterns that appear in those images," Mr Mason said.

"The melodic material I'm presenting will be directly from those images or how I interpret those relationships."

For 29 years, ArtRage has been an important milestone for many of Tasmania's young artists, where selected year 11 and 12 students have their work toured throughout the state.

St Patrick's College student Thomas Crack was one of those selected for last year's ArtRage, and said he felt honoured to be selected.

"I've wanted to be a part of this for so long, it's such a big deal within our school, and to now be a part of it feels like a dream and I'm loving every second of it," Mr Crack said.

He said his work was about "discovery and pain".

"I essentially destroyed this work to achieve the end outcome ... I hope when people view my work that they feel involved with it; I want them to have their own perspective and to feel immersed," he said.