Courtney Act Commemorated In Extravagant Paul Yore Painting In National Portrait Gallery

Australian drag superstar Courtney Act has been depicted in a new, larger-than-life tribute by acclaimed contemporary artist Paul Yore. 

The portrait’s private unveiling is slated for 23 October at Canberra’s National Portrait Gallery, whose premier collection houses works depicting the most prominent and celebrated Australian figures. The following day, the public can attend a special a 10:30am Drag Storytime with Courtney Act, followed by a 5:30pm  ‘In Conversation” session featuring Courtney Act and Paul Yore.

The portrait, “a glittering tribute to Sydney-based, Queensland-born performer Shane Jenek’s besequinned alter ego”, is a wall-sized mosaic made up of thousands of objects ranging from beads and pearls to shells, barbie dolls, and make-up accessories, many sourced from Shane’s own life (and dressingroom).

“At a distance, this is a glossy likeness of Courtney,” said Director of the National Portrait Gallery Bree Pickering, “yet up close thousands of small details tell another story, about a big life lived without apology.”

A Big Deal: Courtney Act’s Debut At The National Portrait Gallery

Ultimately, the portrait’s prestigious inclusion in the National Portrait Gallery seeks to celebrate Courtney Act as not only a renowned international personality, but an unapologetically queer Australian talent, author, and trailblazer who has inspired countless LGBTQ+ youth and adults alike to embrace their most authentic self.

“This artwork is a monument to queer culture and a celebration of the audacious energy needed to achieve everything Shane has,” said Pickering. “Paul approached this project with the care and humour inherent to his practice, and we’re thrilled to be honouring the magnificent Courtney Act with this portrait.”

Meanwhile, Shane, AKA Courtney Act, marvelled at the significance of having his drag celebrated in such a mainstream Australian institution.

“When I began performing in gay bars and nightclubs in the early 2000s, drag was very much on the fringes of the arts, some less kind folks wouldn’t even have considered it the arts at all,” said Shane. 

“To have a portrait in the National Portrait Gallery feels like being seen for who I am, not just what I do. It’s a marker of how far queer culture has moved into the mainstream story we tell about who we are as a country, and it’s a marker of everything it took to get here.”

About Paul Yore

The artist behind the portrait, Paul Yore, is a leading Australian contemporary artist whose work explores queer identity, pop culture and politics. 

Despite having been prominently featured in prestigious institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Artspace, Gertrude Contemporary, and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Yore was he was intimidated by the Portrait Gallery’s request.

“In the constellation of Australian queer icons,” Yore said, “Courtney is a very bright star indeed; a trailblazer and true interdisciplinarian: all-round performer, author, advocate and globetrotting personality boldly putting Australian creativity on the map.

“As such, the work was beset with significant material, formal and conceptual challenges. My usual choice of material is discarded trash, and my method collage, yet I was charged with creating a likeness of Courtney, all the while expressing my own artistic point of view in my visual language.

“The result is a surrealistic junk-art assemblage; a work that exists in a state of flux: halfway between image and sculpture, fantasy and reality, light and dark. I see the piece therefore as a meditation on queer subjectivity, attended as it is by indeterminacy and messiness, a dynamic process of constant reinvention.”

Courtney Act and Paul Yore will be at the National Portrait Gallery to reveal the portrait at 10.00am Friday 23 October. Further details to come