A New Exhibit Queers This Australian Museum’s Collection

The National Gallery of Victoria International, Melbourne, Australia, is staging the biggest LGBTQ+ themed show in that nation’s history, opening this December. Queer includes more than 300 works of art pulled from deep within the museum’s archives. Pieces range from antiquity to the present day, making the exhibition the most historically expansive thematic presentation of its kind put on by an Australian art institution.

Rather than soliciting new works from LGBTQ+ artists, the curators chose to explore the gallery’s extensive collection from a queer perspective, to “interpret queer concepts and stories in surprising and thought-provoking ways,” according to NGV director Tony Ellwood.

Above: Worcester Royal Porcelain Co., Worcester (manufacturer) Aesthetic Teapot 1882 porcelain, 15.4 × 17.5 × 8.5 cm (overall). The Dr. Robert Wilson Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr. Robert Wilson, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2002

The collection includes everything from an Ancient Greek vase picturing male warriors embraced in combat and sex to a self-portrait by South African nonbinary photographer Zanele Muholito, to less explicitly queer pieces like this fey, quintessentially British (Empire) teapot. The exhibit, Queer, runs December 10, 2021 to June 2022. (ngv.vic.gov.au)