Dylan Mooney

‘The Indigenous and LGBTQI+ communities are resilient peoples that are thriving and growing. Through so much adversity, we have overcome all the obstacles that have been thrown at us, and we will keep empowering each other and grow in strength for a better future for us.’

– Dylan Mooney

In Dylan’s ‘Queer, Blak, & Here’ series, seven large-format digital portraits focus on love in queer communities, deftly illustrating issues affecting Mooney’s lived experience in ways that are poignant and very much of our moment. 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 that have often been overlooked or under-represented in the broader art world.

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.

Dylan is among artists who are 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.