Feature Artist, Colleen Curcuruto
Crystalbrook Bailey x Colleen Curcuruto
Step into the luminous and intricately crafted world of Colleen Curcuruto, a Cairns-based artist whose three-dimensional mosaic glass artworks celebrate local wildlife and tropical beauty. Explore Little Worlds of Glass & Light, on display as Crystalbrook Bailey’s feature artist exhibition for February and March 2026.
The exhibition Little Worlds of Glass & Light will be on display from 2 February 2026 until 30 March 2026 in the Crystalbrook Bailey lobby.
Colleen’s work captures delicate moments of nature through glass, light, and texture. Featuring birds, marine life, and tropical flora, each artwork is carefully constructed from hand-cut cathedral glass, layered to create depth, movement, and a sense of quiet wonder. Her use of reclaimed vintage glass, much of it sourced from 1960s-era Queenslander homes in the local area, gives each piece a sense of history, sustainability, and place.
Hand-painted backgrounds and whimsical details bring warmth and personality to Colleen’s work, while subtle humour and playful accents invite viewers to pause, look closer, and reconnect with the natural world around them.
Meet the artist
Colleen Curcuruto is a Cairns based artist known for her distinctive three-dimensional mosaic glass artworks. Her creative journey with glass began just three years ago, sparked by seeing a waterfall mosaic featuring realistic goldfish. This moment of inspiration led to her first major project, a two-metre bathroom feature in her home, and soon after, a deeper exploration of glass as an artistic medium.
Since then, Colleen has developed her own unique and playful style, combining a variety of art techniques and materials. She creates depth and movement by layering glass and incorporating mixed media such as natural shells, timber, resin, freshwater pearls, and hand-painted elements. A signature feature of her work is the use of “old world ripple glass,” which she uses to evoke natural effects like falling rain, reflections on water, and the gentle motion of ocean currents.
About the exhibition
Little Worlds of Glass & Light centres on Colleen’s ongoing Mini Worlds series, small, self-contained slices of nature that focus on a single subject. These intimate works are designed to catch the light, shifting in tone and atmosphere as the day changes, bringing each piece to life.
Colleen’s newest artwork Echo’s Under the Boat depicts manta rays and fish rising from the deep toward whales, emerging into the sunlit surface. The blue and bubble glass used in the piece were originally panes from the same window frame, reworked and transformed to tell a new story, turning something old into something entirely new.
This exhibition is a celebration of light, material, and the quiet magic found in nature’s details, inviting viewers to slow down and discover beauty in miniature worlds.
We invite you to join us for the exhibition opening night on Friday, 6 February 2026, from 6:00pm. It’s free to attend, with live music performed by Sarah Long.
Key dates
2 February 2026: Exhibition preview
6 February 2026: Little Worlds of Glass & Light exhibition opening night, from 6:00pm
30 March 2026: Exhibition closes
Where: Crystalbrook Bailey lobby, 163 Abbott St, Cairns
All artworks on display are available for purchase.