Extracts of the Progression of Queer Art

Currently showcasing at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne CBD is  ‘Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection’. This exhibition provides homage to the significance of queer art, the cornerstone stories and archives of the Institution.

While this is a first major and prominent movement for a large cultural establishment in Australia to acknowledge the LGBQTIA+ contribution to art, it is important to recognise the evolution and history of Australian queer art through its trepidation, adversity, and conservation.

Photo: Tim Carrafa

The history of the LGBTIQA+ community and the arts has been a unique intersection that has been actively preserved through the Australian Queer Archives (formally known as the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives). The records located in the Victorian Pride Centre in St Kilda, Melbourne, have been collecting and showcasing LGBTIQA+ artwork since 1978, following the Fourth National Homosexual Conference in Sydney where the Australian Gay Archives was formally inaugurated.

To illustrate how queer art has become distinguished within our own backyard, KOS spoke with Angela Bailey (she/her), curator and President of the Australian Queer Archives. Angela, a trained photographer activist and previously Director of Visual Arts for the Midsumma Festival, has a strong connection and perspective on queer art and its progression over time.

Photo: Getty Images

Having been awarded a curatorial residency at the Visual Aids Organisation in 2015 in New York City, Angela’s interest in art and archiving was consolidated in what she describes as the “3 A’s – Art, Activism and Archives”. These three fundamentals provided Angela with unification to highlight the diversified histories of the queer community. In particular, Angela has a strong interest in revealing the overlapping histories within queer art:

“I am always interested in broadening out the stories to a bigger audience and a more diverse audience. Queer art has a fantastic shared history with other communities. In my projects and exhibitions, I really try to use these histories to interpret, it allows people to take a different look at and way in to that queer history.”

Angela details that the synergy of art and the queer community within Australia has been predominantly shaped by the safe spaces and opportunities for connectedness and acceptance that these places allowed. Significantly, these spaces nurture and support the community to develop its family like structure.

“Queer events and festivals were always safer places where artists could exhibit, or the only places they could exhibit. They were not accepted or acknowledged by institutions or considered a ‘real artist’. These events and the bars were the ways in which all really communicated and could connect with one another. ”

Distinctly in today’s current age, there are certain constructs still skewed towards traditional ideals, the role of art in the LGBTIQA+ community can be viewed as a way to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary. Angela reflects further on the influence these spaces and places have had on the queer community and art, distinguishing that “Art has always really been that place to explore identity.

While Australia has gathered momentum towards reforms for the LGBTIQA+ community, the reality is only decades ago the law ruled a very different and unforgiving terrain. Many of those involved within queer art have faced challenges that have obstructed exhibitions and events, from large scale institutions to city councils. 

Photo: Sean Fennessy

Closely observing the progression of queer art’s growth locally, Angela indicates that notable organisations have taken an extensive time to pledge an interest in the culture of queer art. This movement demonstrated by the NGV is the beginning of a celebration and investment towards queer art and the wider artists in the LGBQTIA+ community. Angela explains:

“The bigger institutions need to acknowledge their efforts in collecting work by and for the queer community, its lagged a bit. This is a great exhibition, that points to a different direction to uncover those rich histories that are evident and the stories that are told through those art works. This exhibition also talks to all the different times in history, the places and space that were not available to us in the queer community.”

Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection, published by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2022.
Photo: NGV

To gain a ground-level perspective to the importance of supporting queer art, Kasia Vickery (she/they), writer, performer, director and 2021 Pride Foundation Australia Small Grant recipient shared her thoughts. As a queer artist, Kasia beams that all of her work is “inherently queer”, however her creative direction is focused on creating visible queer stories, and accentuating the political affairs interlaced with the LGBTQIA+ community. Having faced her own barriers during her career through the rejection of projects not meeting institutions seal of approval, Kasia is conscious of the apprehension for queer stories to become more regulated in institutions. In the instance of a pitch failing an establishments criteria, Kasia recalls:

“I particularly enjoy writing plays for young people and I wrote a play with a few young trans characters in it. It didn't pass anywhere or go any further. And I was so confused why this wasn’t going anywhere. And then I got the feedback that it will never pass the Departments checklist - it's ‘too much’. It didn’t make sense because it's real and these people exist and they have voices.” 

Undeterred, Kasia maintains a strong focus in producing these narratives to build prominence, awareness, and representation, “We still do have a little bit to go of whose voices and identities, we are willing to ‘take a risk’ on. But we are getting there.” 

Photo: Getty Images

An important component of Kasia’s reflection on queer art and the LGBTQIA+ community, is central to the fusion of activism and art. Specifically, the form the two elements offer, “It's really about the visibility of having things seen authentically, and reimagining the world where we have diversity, equality and growth. That's what both worlds do, is reimagine a new future.” 

As a working queer artist, Kasia has largely felt the deficit of funding for the performing arts, principally funds directed towards independent theatre. Kasia speaks in detail around the ‘conditional’ funding that is provided to artists wrapped in dull provisions and limitations. Looking towards the future ‘unconditional’ funding  would be able to propel artists, “‘Unconditional’ funding is important in elevating and nurturing artists in all stages of their career, really helps with the sustainability of artists, especially queer artists.”.  

NGV Queer Opening. Photo: Liz Sunshine

Receiving the grant from Pride Foundation Australia in 2021 allowed Kasia to officially bring her play “Taz vs The Pleb” to the Flight Path Theatre stage in February 2022. Kasia notes the significance of the community-driven sponsorships, such as the Pride Foundation, as it forms that full-circle community foundation on which the LGBQTIA+ exists and grows. Further, the recognition has established Kasia’s career within her community as a celebrated working queer artist. “It's been great to have the financial support to create the work you want to make and tell the story you want to tell and to bring on artists that you want to collaborate with, is so important and so validating.”

“While there is still a fair way to go to as a nation to support the art produced and connected to LGBQTIA+ community, there is evidently an  eagerness to see
the expansion and accessibility of art to. ”

WORDS: BRIDGET KELLY
PHOTOGRAPHY: NGV, GETTY IMAGES, LIZ SUNSHINE, SEAN FENNESSY, TIM CARRAFA