Here, the artist narrates his personal experience as a proud queer Indigenous man.

Subjects stand proudly and defiantly, gazing out at the viewer.

Identity, desire and representation are brought together to promote discussions of art that include acknowledgment of works created by members of groups often overlooked or underrepresented in the broader art world.

About the artist

Dylan Mooney is a proud Yuwi, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander man from Mackay in north Queensland working across painting, printmaking, digital illustration and drawing.

Influenced by history, culture and family, Mooney responds to community stories, current affairs and social media. Armed with a rich cultural upbringing, Mooney now translates the knowledge and stories passed down to him, through art. Legally blind, the digital medium’s backlit display allows the artist to produce a high-impact illustrative style with bright, saturated colour that reflects his experiences with keen political energy and insight.

This blending of digital technology and social commentary is a uniting of the artist’s sense of optimism – pride within the works exude with profoundness and substance.

Mooney is among artists rethinking digital technologies and artistic practices to consider contemporary issues around identity, desire and representation. Interested in the ways in which we can reframe the conversation around some of the voices that have been left out, the artist has made an important body of work that embodies a shift in representation of queer love among people of colour.

Produced by Sydney WorldPride in partnership with the Australia Council.