"SOULS" is a vibrant visual art exhibition showcasing the work of LGBTIQA+ artists and communities. Each artist brings their own unique technique and vision ranging from painting, photography, sculpture, and digital media to performance and installation. Together, these diverse practices celebrate identity, resilience, and connection, illuminating the richness of queer experience through creativity, personal expression, and the shared spirit that unites and empowers us all.
Albert Koomen
These four works are animal representations of the gay Bear community. There are two bears - frequently used as visual totems by their human namesakes, and two tigers - the bright distractions which mean you don’t notice the actual blokey bears right next to you.
Albert Koomen is an artist and filmmaker with a focus on exploring the many different facets of the Bear community. His extensive professional career includes more than 20 years as director and producer with the ABC. Over the years, he has had several exhibitions and his short films have featured in Australian and international festivals - including this year’s Melbourne Queer Film Festival.
Kate Galea
Kate Galea, originally from London, made Sydney her home in 2011 and now she and her wife reside in the vibrant neighbourhood of Redfern.
Her work is defined by the use of sharp, deliberate edges that shape abstract compositions where bold lines and geometric forms take centre stage. Drawing inspiration from overlooked spaces and the subtle rhythm of repetitive patterns she brings a sense of structure and intentionality to her paintings.
While Kate strives for near-perfect balance in her work, she is equally committed to ensuring that the human touch remains evident - asserting thather art is crafted by hand and paint, not by computer or AI. Through this process she seeks to establish a distinct connection between the viewer and the tactile, intricate nature of her creations. Her paintings can be appreciated at face value but ask the viewer for a second and third look finding new lines, colours and pattern combinations each time.
Marcus O'Donnell
‘These bodies are wild and shimmering’
The installation plays with the covering and uncovering of the saint’s body and the collision of the erotic and ecstatic in Christian iconography. Saints have always been active images –used to vividly imagine sacred narratives, to awaken emotions of love and devotion. However, the role of beauty, the body and the sensuous in this process is complex. In the history of art, we witness a desire to tread what Maya Corry calls the “line between licit and illicit loveliness,” which she acknowledges “was often so thin as to be indistinguishable”. Corry also shows that the will to embrace and navigate this dialectic was strong, which is why the history of art is filled with comely saints. So, to actively rework saintly imagery, to try to construct new meaning from these historic patterns, is to participate in this long tradition of calling sensuous mystery into our lives in and through bodies.
Marcus O’Donnell is an artist, writer and academic. His hybrid traditional-digital prints explore pattern, chaos and complexity at the intersection of bodies, sexuality, and landscape. He was awarded 2nd prize in the Jack Wilkins Experimental Photography Prize (2022); was a finalist in Milburn Prize (2023); Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (2023) and Olive Cotton Award (2023). He has exhibited at Woolwich Print Fair London (2024 & 2025) and Sydney Contemporary (2024 & 2025). He is a member of Baldessin Press Committee of Management.
Suzanne Phoenix
In 2013 I started documenting my queer Naarm community through photography. It was a way for me to connect and feel part of the community. I returned each year to LGBTIQA+ events including Pride March, Midsumma Carnival and Victoria’s Pride Street Party. Along with festivals like Gaytimes, protests for Marriage Equality and ral SlutWalk. For the first time I am exhibiting a collection from this vast series.’ - Suzanne Phoenix.
Suzanne Phoenix is a Naarm/Melbourne queer photographer, artist, book maker and publisher based in the Yarra Valley. Photos punctuate her life through portraits, performance, music, the street, and daily life. Suzanne has been recognised in many industry awards including National Photographic Portrait Prize, the Martin Kantor Portrait Prize and the Australian Women in Music Awards for Music Photographer in 2025.
Wendy Yong
Wendy Yong (Not.So.Glamorous) brings a new set of work that encompasses a new stage in life that highlights 'POP!' With the usual scummy pink flare that embodies the depth of their soul. Step into chaos that is packaged up in the simplicity of high contrast in the new series - "SCUM POP!".