Queer Australian Art and KINK acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of the lands and waters of this continent. KINK conducts its work on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation in Naarm Melbourne, the Turrbal and Jagera peoples in Meanjin Brisbane and the Gadigal lands of the Eora Nation, Sydney. We pay respect to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.

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Don't Forget to Remember by Amelia Barikin, Courtney Coombs, Callum McGrath, Spiros Panigirakis, and Tim Riley Walsh, published 02.05.2024

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About

KINK is a cross-disciplinary working group researching and publishing on the histories of queer Australian art. KINK’s work is defined by an interest in publishing, scholarship, advocacy, curating and public access. We are deeply passionate about generating new and open resources by, for and about the Australian LGBTQI+ arts community. Currently, the group comprises art historian and writer Amelia Barikin, artist and facilitator Courtney Coombs, artist and researcher Callum McGrath, art historian and curator Tim Riley Walsh, and artist and academic Spiros Panigirakis. In 2022-23, KINK's work was supported by research assistant Shannon Brett. 

KINK formed in 2019 out of discussions between Coombs, McGrath and Riley Walsh about the scarcity of a defined publication or resource on queer Australian art. Stemming from a deep interest and passion about the history of queer Australian art practices, the team began to imagine what this history could look like. From these early discussions KINK applied for and was awarded the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art’s Vida Lahey Memorial Traveling Scholarship to begin a process of community consultation; from the beginning, the core of this project was to be open and in-conversation with the queer community. 

In 2021 KINK held our first public community consultation event, staged as a ‘town hall’ type meeting at the Griffith University Art Museum in Meanjin/Brisbane. It was after this event that Barikin joined the working group. This was followed by multiple research trips to Naarm/Melbourne and Gadigal/Sydney, meeting with members of the queer arts community. In 2022 KINK began working with artist and designer Kiah Reading who designed and developed the site and database. The same year KINK welcomed Panigirakis to the working group and Brett joined as the group’s inaugural research assistant. As we continued to build the resources that went into the database we also published essays for un.Projects and Artlink. In 2023, KINK staged our second town hall event in collaboration with FAIRY in the pavilion in the Fitzroy Gardens and later in the year announced a partnership with the Institute of Modern Art, Meanjin/Brisbane, joining their newly formed Curatorium, alongside fellow Adjunct Curators Brett and Stephanie Berlangieri. 

This site is a work in progress. There are many artists we are yet to contact, and many more archives we need to visit. Information will be regularly updated in response to community feedback. Insta: KINK @kink.au

To make a tax deductible donation towards supporting this research please visit our project page at the Australian Cultural Fund.

queeraustralianart.com is an evolving resource and will never be complete – there will always be holes, missing artists and fractured histories. If you would like to share resources or missing parts of this history, KINK can be contacted via our email: info@queeraustralianart.com

Supporters

KINK was a recipient of the 2021 Vida Lahey Memorial Travelling Scholarship, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane and the 2021 University of Queensland HASS Faculty Enabler Funding Scheme. Additional research funding was supported through the University of Queensland Summer Research Scholarship Program 2021-22, the Institute of Modern Art, Fine Art Monash University, and Creative Australia.

We would like to thank all the artists and estates who assisted with image permissions for this site and everyone who contributed their time, conversation, connections, resources and suggestions during the development of this project including: Alexie Glass-Kantor, Angela Bailey, Angela Goddard, Carrie McCarthy, D Harding, Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Dan Roe, Ellie Buttrose, Francis E. Parker, Jessica Astrid, José Da Silva, Kiah Reading, Liam Bryan-Brown, Luke Roberts, Marcus O'Donnell, Mel Deerson, Melissa Ratliff, Meg Slater, Nick Henderson, Robert Leonard, Ruby MacGregor, Scott Redford, Shannon Brett, Susan Best, Ted Gott, The Australian Queer Archives, Tim Roberts, and Tony Albert.

This website was designed and developed by Kiah Reading of thoughtful.website.

queeraustralianart.com and KINK acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of the lands and waters of this continent. KINK conducts its work on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation in Naarm Melbourne, the Turrbal and Jagera peoples in Meanjin Brisbane and the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, Sydney. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.

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