NGV curators are joined by leaders within Melbourne’s queer community to share personal reflections on works in the NGV Collection.

Artworks & Speakers

Glyn Warren Philpot’s Oedipus, 1931-1932

Dr Ted Gott is Senior Curator, International Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and one of the co-curators of QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection. He has curated and co-curated more than 25 exhibitions, including Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire and Napoleon: Revolution to Empire. He has published widely on Australian, British and French art, and in 2013 co-authored a cultural history of the gorilla in nineteenth and twentieth century art, literature, scientific discourse and cinema (Gorilla, Reaktion Press, London).

Tobias Fulton (they/she) is a PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, an education and public programming officer at the Hellenic Museum, Melbourne, and a casual academic at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Fulton’s current research examines how ancient history plays reparative roles in current queer and trans lives, and how such histories shape self-understanding, legitimisation, community-building and world-making for LGBTIQA+ communities and individuals today.

Toyen’s Untitled from the Cache-toi, Guerre! (Hide, War!) portfolio, 1947

Coral Guan is Curatorial Project Officer, International Exhibition Projects at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Major exhibitions she has worked on include The Picasso Century (2022), Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi (2023), Pharaoh (2024) and Yayoi Kusama (2024). She is a contributing writer to the exhibition publications for Yayoi Kusama and NGV Triennial 2023, writing on Asian contemporary art.

Ethel Walker, Lilith, c. 1920s

Meg Slater is Curator of International Exhibition Projects at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Since 2017, Meg has worked on eight of the NGV’s major international exhibitions, including MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2018; Keith Haring | Jean Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines, 2019/20, Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi, 2023; and Yayoi Kusama, 2024/25. Meg was also one of the five curators who organised QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection, 2022. In 2021, Meg completed a Master of Art Curatorship at the University of Melbourne with First-Class Honours.

Tiger Salmon is a queer artist and writer based in Naarm. Over three decades ago, they co-created Wicked Women, Australia’s first spicy magazine for lesbians and trans folk. Today, they produce Wicked Words, a regular event showcasing local queer and trans writers. Their recent photographic exhibition, Wicked Reboot, restaged archival images from the Wicked Women collection, offering a fresh way for queer and trans communities to engage with their history.

Tiger’s writing explores their role as an LGBTQI+ publisher and provocateur during the third wave of women’s sexual liberation, a time when the pursuit of pleasure was a powerful form of political protest. Their work has appeared in Archer Magazine and Queerstories.

Angela Bailey is a curator, photographer and creative producer whose practice actively explores and interprets our rich and diverse queer histories and culture by creating exhibitions, installations, discourse and public programs of engagement. Her experiences as a young activist participating in the fight for gay law reform in Queensland continue to inform her work with LGBTIQ+ communities. Angela has a Postgraduate Degree in Fine Art, a Masters of Art Curatorship and is currently a Fellow at Arts Centre Melbourne and Vice President of the Australian Queer Archives.

Join speakers from the Australian Queer Archives and the National Gallery of Victoria for a walking tour between NGV International and NGV Australia, exploring significant sites of queer history along the way.

The tour will begin at the Waterwall at NGV International, which through time has been the canvas for queer artists including Keith Haring and Gilbert and George. Audiences will also get the chance to hear about LGBTQI+ stories within the performing arts at Arts Centre Melbourne, and how Alexandra Gardens, once a discreet meeting place, has transformed into a site of celebration and community. Hear about these and many other stories and reflections that highlight the importance of queer histories in Melbourne.

Celebrating the display of Larrakia artist, writer, curator, playwright and anthropologist Gary Lee’s work, currently on display in Another Other: The Photo-politics of Gary Lee at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, artist Emil Cañita, whose work has recently been acquired for the NGV Collection, reflects on Lee’s indelible contribution to the queer community through his art and his activism, in conversation with NGV curator Michael Gentle.

Speakers
Michael Gentle is Curator of Australian and First Nations Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). He is a Noongar man with Ancestral connections to Minang Country and English convicts. His research and curation explore national identities, constructions of the environment and the ‘Indigenization’ of the nation state. He has contributed to publications such as Artlink and MEMO Review, teasing out topics relating to eco-critical and queer art histories. Michael was awarded the 2025 Australia-at-Large Rhodes Scholarship for Oxford University, where he will continue his research in Australian and First Nations art. Presently, he is co-curating a Margaret Preston retrospective, scheduled to open late 2026.

Emil Cañita (he/she/they) is an artist based in Naarm. Emil’s distinctive art practice involves using a gloryhole and using their lived experience as an HIV-undetectable Transgender Filipino sex worker to explore themes relating to human sexuality and sex work culture. Often referencing other queer, migrant, HIV+ and feminist artists through their work, their current focus explores what it means to have a legacy for their communities.

Their work has been featured locally and internationally through Australian Broadcasting Network, SBS, VICE, Archer Magazine, BUTT Magazine and more and have a number of their works recently acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria. Outside of the arts, they work as an HIV+ Advocate for Living Positive Victoria supporting people living with HIV in Victoria.