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‘The artist is sacred’ – holding space for queer narratives

The annual 'Summer Daze' exhibition returns to Off the Kerb Gallery. ArtsHub speaks to gallery owner and exhibiting artists on the arts ecology for queer creatives.

18 Jan 2024 14:00

Jessi Ryan

Work by David Lee Pereira, 'Puppy play', 2023 (left) and Thao Tran, 'Serving Opulence', 2022-23 (right). Image: Supplied, courtesy of the artists. On the left is a painting of a cheetah wearing a bdsm mask licking its nose against a pink faded to blue background. On the left is the painting of a woman with long black hair lounging and holding a plate of oysters between her legs.

Amplify Collective

Visual Arts

Work by David Lee Pereira, ‘Puppy play’, 2023 (left) and Thao Tran, ‘Serving Opulence’, 2022-23 (right). Image: Supplied, courtesy of the artists.

Opening at Off the Kerb Gallery in Melbourne’s Collingwood on Friday 19 January is the annual Summer Daze exhibition, featuring the works from a plethora of emerging and mid-career queer artists.

Mid-install, Off the Kerb owner and director, Shini Pararajasingham, took time out to speak with ArtsHub.

‘We have 45 artworks in this show, and the rest of the installation is going to be fun,’ says Pararajasingham. ‘I feel like this year is a little bit different to last year. There is a really interesting mix of artists as well as voices – not the typical queer narratives.’

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Jessi Ryan

Jessi Ryan (they/them) has been creating performance and exhibitions for the past 20 years, both locally, nationally and abroad- in this time collaborating with a huge number of artists from a broad cross section of cultural backgrounds. As a journalist they have written for and been published by some of Australia’s leading arts and news editorial across the last 10 years-and was recognised as a finalist for Globe Community Media Award in 2021. Ryan has also taken photos for a number of print and online publications.