The Studio of Dreams
Leo Herreygers
- Sitter: Dan Evans
- Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
- Dimensions: 100cm x 120cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
- Categories: Performing arts and music industry
About the artwork
Dan Evans’ relationship with Queensland Theatre began at sixteen, when he won the Young Playwrights Award with his debut work. Twenty-five years later, he was appointed its Artistic Director. In between, he has directed award winning productions including A Few Good Men, Pride and Prejudice and Vietgone, earning back-to-back Best Production and Best Director Matilda Awards in 2023 and 2024.
Leo Herreygers has worked alongside Evans as a scenic artist on many of those productions, watching him arrive in the workshop not as an observer but as someone genuinely energised by the physicality of set construction and the process of making. The Studio of Dreams places Evans in that workshop, surrounded by elements drawn from productions they have collaborated on together. This is a portrait of a man in his element, surrounded by the evidence of a creative life fully lived.
About the artist
Leo Herreygers migrated to Brisbane from Belgium in 1967 and has spent over forty years as a scenic artist with Queensland’s major performing arts companies, including Queensland Theatre, Opera Queensland, Queensland Ballet and La Boite. A largely self-taught painter, his expressive, surrealist-inflected work explores human character, memory and the stories behind faces. His work is held in collections across Europe, including Kensington Palace.
