Richard Bell
In 1952, Brisbane’s Taubmans Paint Factory—at the time one of the world’s largest industrial sites producing the material—was built on rural Yeronga farmland. Today, the massive complex lies mostly dormant. Surrounded by single-story residential dwellings and encircled by metal fencing topped with barbed wire, it has been an issue of contention with developers and local authorities ever since the factory shut down in 2015, with the former wrestling with the latter for the rezoning of the site for residential use.
Despite these ongoing conflicts, the complex remains well-kept. Several local artists have discreetly taken up studio space there, among them Vernon Ah Kee and Ross Manning, as well as Richard Bell, who works out of a ten-by-ten-meter former office space on a quid pro quo rental arrangement with the developers. Bell’s studio
