Image credit: Dylan Mooney Still Thriving, 2023, (detail) courtesy the artist and N. Smith Gallery. 

18 December 2023 – 25 February 2024

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.

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.

As an official exhibition of Victoria's Pride 2024, 'Still Thriving' was presented courtesy of the artist, Dylan Mooney, and N.Smith Gallery. Victoria's Pride is delivered by Midsumma in partnership with the Victorian State Government. 

The reel created for Peel Street Park Projection Program was made in collaboration with local Dja Dja Wurrung/Yorta Yorta artist ENOKI.