COSMICA's Exhibition Vol. 2 announced for July 2025

One of the largest events in Meanjin's music scene prevails beyond the rapid cancellation of national festivals.

As one would expect, holding live arts showcases in the current climate is no easy feat but one band out of Meanjin is proving everyone wrong. COSMICA is no stranger to resilience, recently having made their way to Stage 5 at Good Things 2024 with a full EP release already behind them. As the love child of Teah Biviano and her band of Jayden, Connor and Ethan, they find themselves influenced by some massive hard rock and punk acts internationally: Limp Bizkit, The Cure, Korn, and Led Zeppelin only begin to mark the list.

Last year, COSMICA ran their Exhibition, a showcase of local arts to promote the smaller side of Meanjin's music scene. Held at BackDock Arts in Fortitude Valley, its first iteration featured the likes of local darlings My Daydreams and Lydia Urbina as well as the gallery of Jex Calder in a multimodal appreciation of arts.

We reached out to COSMICA for some insight on the logistics of running an event of this size, the process of booking bands, and the importance of giving back to their local scene.

Where did the dream come from to take the initiative and show off local artists?

"Originally, it all came from the realization that a lot of our favourite music, shows, movies, photography and so forth can come from different art forms. Like, you find your favourite song through a TV show, for example. That exact concept of different audiences discovering different artists in unexpected ways is what I wanted to bring to the music community. There is so much fulfilment in collaborating and exploring these mediums. So I thought to myself, “How can we create exposure for different artists all in one place?”
That’s when “COSMICA’s Exhibition” was created. 

In effect, [running the first Exhibition as an EP release show] also became an indirect protest of traditional lineups and unspoken rules around making gigs in Brisbane. I felt that a lot of local launch shows seemed “self-centric” and very similar in lineup. Additionally, the amount of brilliant artists that are not seen or given a platform is insane, and nothing makes us happier than to see people come to the event having discovered and supported their new favourite artists."

This is the second year you've run the Exhibition now. What was the initial response from the local music community?

Very very positive and supportive! A lot of people commended the idea for what it was trying to achieve, and being we blew our expectations out of the water last year, I can predict continuing this year will be a nice snowball effect for the scene. Who knows, it might encourage other bands/acts to take on a similar type of show in the future, potentially. Speaking to others about the event, there is always an excited energy around what we are doing, which makes it pretty clear these events are heavily desired from the community. 

How have you found the whole process of booking so many bands and having so many contacts for an event like this?

Vol.2's booking process was actually very eye-opening, highlighting how many people in our orbit are artists in some way shape or form. Unfortunately at the moment we can’t book every single artist we see or know, but, a goal is to one day be able to facilitate as many artists as we please, being we would have a crazy massive venue for it. One day.

Is this as big as you plan to take the Exhibition? What's the dream venue for this festival?

We want to take this event as big as we can get, one year at a time. Being that COSMICA’s Exhibition is making such a positive difference to the creative community, and the audiences surrounding these communities, I say let’s take it to the moon and back and back again if we have to. That being said, my dream venue at the moment would definitely be The Old Museum in Brisbane, that place is perfect.

Any other things you'd like to say to the people on the fence about buying a ticket to Exhibition Vol. 2?

Why not come? Why would you not want to come support lots of local talent in one night with one ticket? 

Genuine questions, but I am joking. In the times we are in, we have to get out and support art more than ever. Even if it means just showing up and nothing else. Vol.2 is not only supporting us, it is supporting so many individuals who just want to share their art in the world and make a living. Even if you just purchase a $20 ticket, that alone makes a massive difference to not only the artists directly but the community around it. So, overall, I urge anyone who wants to keep art alive in Brisbane to go support not only our event this year, but any others that catch your eye too. We, COSMICA, invite you to take a chance and come find your next favourite artist/s at Vol.2. 

COSMICA's second coming of Exhibition is just around the corner and it wouldn't be unseated in reality to suggest that tickets are selling fast. Keep up to date on the event through COSMICA's Instagram and the Exhibition's Instagram page.

Tickets are available via Eventbrite here.