Database

AñA Wojak (b. 1954) is a trans non-binary artist whose work crosses the precipice of performance and visual art. With a particular interest in site-specificity, durational performance, ritual and altered states, they create visually poetic work that resonates with a visceral depth. Based in Widjabul Wia-bul Bundjalung Country, Northern Rivers, NSW this cross-disciplinary artist studied in Gdańsk, Poland amid the turmoil of Solidarity and Martial Law and has been an exhibiting visual artist for over 45 years. With pieces featured in private and public collections, Wojak’s work has also been shortlisted in numerous award exhibitions, winning the prestigious Blake Prize in 2004. They have performed at festivals in Australia, Europe and Asia, including: Interakcje14, Poland (2006), DIAF China (2006), Brisbane Festival (2011), Xplore Festivals Sydney; Berlin, undisclosed territories Java x 2, MAP Delhi (2015), Pelem Festival, Java x 2, MAP Festival Malaysia x 9 and MoNA FoMA Hobart. Collaborations have included senVoodoo (co-founder), Tony Yap Co (Australia), Pacitti Co (London), La Pocha Nostra (US/Mexico), Felix Ruckert (Germany), cloudbeard, Textile Audio; RealArtworks (Australia), among others. Their performance work gestated in the creative hotbed of 1990s queer Sydney and continues to evolve: a deeply rooted Eastern European sensibility of non-verbal theatre and lush aesthetic meld with ongoing explorations informed by Butoh and South East Asian trance into a hybrid dance practice.

Barbara Cleveland is an Australian artist collective directed by Diana Baker Smith, Frances Barrett, Kate Blackmore, and Kelly Doley, working on Gadigal land (Sydney). The collective take their name from the mythic feminist performance artist who they recovered from the margins of Australian art history and who has been a key feature in their work since 2010. Barbara Cleveland’s projects are informed by queer and feminist methodologies that draw on the historical lineages of both the visual and performing arts. Their recent video and performance works are deliberations on history and memory as embodied action, as fiction, as mode of collaboration.

Barb Miles is lesbian, artist and creative arts therapist based in Koornoo (Barwon Heads) on Wadawurrung country, Victoria, Australia. Initially trained in visual arts, her working life has crisscrossed several disciplines: environmental activism, flora and fauna conservation, youth work and returning back to the arts to work with children and adolescents who had experienced family violence. As a member of Jillposters, feminist poster group, she produced screen printed postcards during the 1980s which are held in a number of public collections including the National Gallery of Australia and the State Library of Victoria. Inspired by the natural world and unique textures of Australian Bull Kelp, her current art practice explores the intersection of creativity and ecology and is informed by her deep respect for the land, indigenous perspectives, and the interconnectedness of all living things.

Bashir Baraki (b.1943–1998) was an artist known for photographic works that combined themes of gay male sexuality, his Lebanese heritage, and catholicism. Like many of his contemporaries, Baraki produced sexually explicit work during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, but since his passing from cancer in 1998 has often been forgotten by much of art history. Baraki's images frequently appropriate iconographic religious imagery, read through and altered by his contemporary political position. Baraki's photographs often evoke a sense of carnality and eroticism formally putting his work in contrast to many of his Australian contemporaries. Baraki juxtaposes human and historical experiences, which are brought together with a particular sense of unease, recalling painterly influences such as Francis Bacon and Francisco Goya. Baraki was of Lebanese descent and was born to first-generation immigrants in Greenville, North Carolina, United States of America. Between 1948–52 Baraki and his family returned to Lebanon where he was educated. Between 1960–62 Baraki studied at the Petersburg School of Fine Art in Petersburg, Virginia before transferring to The Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia where he studied Fine Art (painting) from 1962–63. In 1966 Baraki settled in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he lived and practiced for the next decade. In 1977 Baraki moved to Melbourne, Victoria where he would remain until his death. Throughout his career, Baraki was included in numerous group and solo exhibitions. He exhibited work at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; amongst many others. Baraki's work is included in various public and private collections in Australia and New Zealand.

Bessie Gibson (1868-1961) was an artist born in Ipswich, Queensland, known for her impressionist style and her rejection of the radical aspects of modernism. Gibson studied under Godfrey Rivers at the Brisbane Central Technical College, where she developed an interest in miniature painting. After visiting relatives in Scotland in 1901-02, she was inspired to study abroad and moved to Paris in 1905. Her family favoured her painting career and supported her for three years. Gibson settled in Paris, found herself a flat in Montparnasse, and had an intimate friendship with another Brisbane painter, Anne Alison Greene (1878-1954). In Paris, Gibson established a studio on Rue Campagne Première. Gibson studied at the Castelucho and Colarossi ateliers under Frances Hodgkins and the American Edwin Scott. Additionally, she pursued miniature painting under Gabrielle Debillemont-Chardon. Gibson regularly exhibited in the then-decaying system of Salon and Royal Academy exhibitions between 1905 and 1923. From 1913 to 1939, Gibson exhibited annually at either the Société des Artistes Français or the Salon d'Automnes. When Greene moved back to Queensland because of illness, Gibson followed shortly after, returning to Australia in 1947. At the time, Gibson's work was relatively unknown in Australia; however, she went on to regularly exhibit in Sydney and Melbourne. Today, Gibson's paintings are held in State Galleries and Museums throughout Australia.

Emma Maye Gibson (AKA Betty Grumble) is a Gadigal/Sydney based performance artist. Largely through the avatar/war mask/love letter/critter of Grumble she engages her body as a hopeful and medicinal site for catharsis and pleasure. Often moving in a genre smash of ritual theatre, autobiography, cabaret, performance art and multi-media, she is a proud ecosexual and believes in art as an action of her spirituality. She has her Masters in Fine Arts/Arse and has presented work at the Sydney Opera House, Glastonbury, Edinburgh Fringe, Perth & Adelaide Fringes, The Melbourne Comedy Festival, The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Griffin Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, The Bearded Tit, Red Rattler Theatre, OUTsider Festival (Austin, Texas), MoMA (NYC), Joe’s Pub (NYC), The Glory (London), LiveWorks, The Old Fitz, AsiaTOPA, Dark Mofo, Mona Foma, Berlin Fringe, Sydney World Pride and beyond. Major works include: *Sex Clown Saves The World*, *Love & Anger*, *The Unshame Machine*, *Grumble n’ Friends*, *Grumble Boogie*, *Goddess – The Elizabeth Burton Story* and *Enemies of Grooviness Eat Shit*.

Bill Morley (1949-2007) was an artist and DJ in the early 1980s at Stranded and resident DJ for Arthurs in Kings Cross. His legend began when he outraged the 1987 Mardi Gras party by playing the *Blue Danube Waltz*. His eclectic mix of all sounds remains an inspiration to young DJs. It is said he began drawing by studying the shading on the Art Deco fins of Buicks and Cadillacs. Morley was inducted into the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Hall of Fame in 2000. His papers are held in the collection of The Australian Queer Archives in Melbourne, and further aspects of his life are detailed in Papers of Jeffrey Stewart and Papers of Stephen Allkins in the AQUA collection.

Blake Lawrence (b. 1986) is an artist who lives and works on Gadigal Country in Sydney, who makes work within intersections of queer histories, story-telling and ecology. Lawrence’s projects incorporate live performance, club-kid and drag adornment practices, textiles, video, photography and installation. Such projects include: Haliastur for Ten Thousand Suns—the 24th Biennale of Sydney (2024); Psittacines for Grafton Regional Gallery (2024); and Haunting in Kensington for Firstdraft (2022). They have further exhibited nationally at Seventh Gallery, C3 Contemporary, The Walls, Verge and more. They have presented further live work for Performance Space, the Art Gallery of NSW and Newcastle’s This Is Not Art. They have performed drag at Club Kooky, The Bearded Tit, Bad Dog, Tropical Fruits, Falls Festival and more. They have published peer-reviewed articles for Queer Studies in Media & Culture and Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion, and have produced creative writing projects for Unlikely and Runway Journals. Lawrence works as a casual academic at the University of Technology, Sydney, where they are undertaking a Doctorate of Philosophy (Design).

Brad (Bradley) Levido (1953–1993) was born in Cessnock, NSW, and studied at Newcastle College of Adult Education before moving to Sydney. Working across painting, prints, photography and works on paper, his work was included in numerous exhibitions including the 1992 exhibition *Dead Gay Artists* at the Tin Sheds in Sydney and the 1994 exhibition *+Positive: Artists Addressing AIDS* at Campbelltown City Art Gallery, NSW. His work is held in several public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia and QAGOMA and was featured in the 1993 TV documentary *Positive Art* (ABC).

Brent Harris (b. 1956) is one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists, widely recognised as both a painter and printmaker. Born in Te Papaioea Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand, Harris moved to Melbourne in 1981 and began his studies at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) the subsequent year. Throughout much of his career, Harris has explored the psychoanalytically-charged space between abstraction and figuration. Consistent with this has been his fascination with the subconscious and dream states. Harris’ compositions at times pulse with libidinal energies, though the drives and memories they draw from are often disquieting. Harris’ exploration of this terrain is guided by his close study of artists and art history; as well as reflections on his personal and familial histories. At times this has extended to responses to current events which have had a distinct impact on Harris’ life and those around him, such as in 'The Stations' (1989) series. Through hard edge geometric abstract forms, this group of fourteen paintings and corresponding series of aquatints describes Harris’ reflection on the impacts of the HIV/AIDS crisis via the biblical narrative of Jesus Christ’s journey through judgement to death. Harris’ also draws particular inspiration from his dedicated studio practice, where he privileges chance, intuition and experimentation as sources for creative insight. Across a career of nearly four decades, Harris’ art has been the subject of a number of major solo exhibitions including Just a Feeling: Brent Harris Selected works 1987–2005, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, curated by Bala Starr; and Swamp Op, Art Gallery of Western Australia, curated by Robert Cook (both 2006). In 2012 a significant monographic exhibition opened at the NGV International, Naarm Melbourne, curated by Jane Devery (2012). Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki presented in 2023 Harris’ first major solo survey exhibition in Aotearoa New Zealand, The Other Side, also curated by Devery. Later that year, Harris’ first retrospective Surrender & Catch, curated by Maria Zagala, premiered at TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, and in 2024 the exhibition toured in an expanded form to the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Brenton Heath-Kerr (1962-1995) was a performance artist and costume designer/maker who lived and worked in Sydney, Australia. Heath-Kerr died of HIV/AIDS-related complications in 1995. Heath-Kerr designed and performed in his disruptive costumes in Sydney’s queer nightlife scene. Grappling with declining health, his designs came to address his own mortality, exemplified by an intervention in the now unwearable costume *Self Portrait in Latex* (1994). Each of Heath-Kerr’s designs resonates with elements of fashionable modernism, from the Surrealist escapades of Dior, Schiaparelli, Dali and Jean Cocteau to the post modern anything goes antics of Andy Warhol, Leigh Bowery, Vivienne Westwood or Madonna. The artist’s repertoire has a common subtext which arouses the spontaneity, genderbender chic and nonsensical traits of Dada. Heath-Kerr wore *Self Portrait in Latex* (1994) to the opening of *Don't Leave Me This Way Art in the Age of AIDS* at the National Gallery of Australia. Many of Heath-Kerr’s costumes and sketches are held in the Powerhouse Museum’s collection in Sydney, Australia.

Brian Fuata (b. 1978) is a Samoan artist born in Aotearoa / New Zealand and based in Sydney, Australia. In addition to a live art practice of structured improvisation, Fuata has developed a unique method of remote performance through email correspondence and text message exchanges. Alongside his solo practice, he is part of the duo Wrong Solo with Agatha Gothe-Snape. In April 2022, Fuata and artist Latai Taumoepeau curated *MONUMENTAL (working title)*, a weekend of multidisciplinary performance for the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s 150-year anniversary celebrations which was remounted as part of the Sydney Festival in January 2023. Fuata was the 2020 Winner of the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art, Helsinki. Past works include: *Untitled (Intermission)*, 2022 ANTI Festival Helsinki and Singapore Biennale (2022); *Five Columns*, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (2020); *Apparitional Charlatan ~ Minor Appearances*, Biennale of Sydney (2020); *Care disfigurements (flowers)*, 4A Gallery Sydney for Hong Kong Art Fair, Hong Kong (2019); *Broadloom*, Murray Art Museum Albury (2019); *IWMLDFS (or MINIBAR)*, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2019); *The Guest House*, Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2018); *All Nothing*, Poetry Project, New York (2015); *All titles*, PERFORMA, New York (2015); *Untitled (a refit of the sheet)*, Chisenhale Gallery, London (2015); and *Points of Departure 1–3*, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2014).

Bundjalung woman Dr Bronwyn Bancroft (b. 1958) is an artist, activist, mentor and writer. Since the 1990s Bancroft has exhibited nationally and internationally. She has been a key player in the development of several cultural organisations including the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, Sydney. Her painting *Prevention of AIDS* (1992) was used in a campaign to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in Australia. Bancroft has a long history of involvement in community activism and arts administration. In the 1990s she was a Council Member of the National Gallery of Australia. She served on the boards of copyright collection agency Viscopy, the Australian Society of Authors and Tranby Aboriginal College, and the Artists Board at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) in Sydney. Her work in children’s literature received the prestigious Dromkeen Medal in 2009.

Wiradjuri/Ngunnawal, and Celtic artist Brook Andrew (b.1970) has made significant contributions to the art ecology with work spanning installation, photography and museum interventions. Andrew's practice takes interest in histories of colonisation, First Nations resistance, and the power structures of museums. His interdisciplinary practice challenges the limitations imposed by power structures, historical amnesia, stereotypes, and complicity. Léuli Eshrāghi has described the queer aspects of Andrew's work as inviting "the viewer to contemplate how architecture, social relations and cultural memory might look if Indigenous lineages to Ancestors, beyond the pale of assumed heterosexuality and docility to colonisation, were recognised." Andrew has exhibited internationally since 1996, with recent exhibitions being presented at Musee du Quai Branly, Paris (2020); Wuzhen International Art Exhibition (2019); Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (PAC), Milan (2019); Musée d'ethnographie de Genève, Geneva (2017-2018); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2017); and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2014-15). Andrew was the artistic director of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney entitled *NIRIN* held across various Sydney venues in 2020. Andrews is represented by Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne.