Sydney gay and lesbian Mardi Gras visual arts program 1999

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.

Arone Raymond Meeks (1957–2021) was a Kuku Midiji artist from Laura, Cape York. Born in Sydney, he grew up in Yarrabah and El Arish, Mission Beach, just south of his Country. In addition to sustaining his artistic practice, Meeks was a prominent and important leader in Far North Queensland and also made vital contributions to the visual arts interstate as one of the founding members of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative in Sydney. Meeks studied at the City Art Institute, Sydney, and during his career was the recipient of an Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship that facilitated his study in Paris in 1989. The artist exhibited widely in Europe, North and South America. Known predominantly as both a painter and printmaker, Meeks' work incorporates themes relating to sexuality, identity, land rights, the significance of cultural values, and the importance of belonging to place and Country. He spent years campaigning and working with community health organisations such as Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations and the Queensland AIDS Council. In his later career, Meeks held the role of Director of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair. Meeks' work features in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; and Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; among others.