Our Garden of Tropical Delights

Once a storehouse of oil and industry, the Tanks Arts Centre now blooms with new life. In Our Garden of Tropical Delights, artists Jamie Cole and Gabrielle Cooney explore the fertile meeting point between the natural world and the industrial past. Creator of Flintstone Designs, Gabrielle’s ceramics embrace the philosophy of wabi-sabi – finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and transformation. Her tree trunks, seed pods, and pipe-like forms echo both the resilience of nature and the remnants of human structures. In vivid contrast, Jamie’s paintings pulse with fluorescent colour, gold leaf, and graffiti-like layers. Drawing on foliage, camouflage, architecture, and pop motifs, his works channel the dynamism and spectacle of the urban environment