Meet Paul Ewart, A Sydney-Based LGBTQ+ Artist Featured In Sculpture By The Sea 2026

In just ten days, Sydney’s annual Sculpture by the Sea will return for its 30th installment. Running from 16 October until 2 November, the festival will once again transform Bondi’s iconic coastal walk into a 2km long, free public exhibition.

While the oceanside cliffs are arguably an artwork in their own right, what better time to visit this salt-sprayed scenic route than when the trail is dotted with some of the most challenging, absurd, and amusing objects made by human hands? 

Well, actually, there is an even better time, and it’s this year’s festival, when two of those aforementioned hands are… well… gay as fuck.

Meet Paul Ewart, A 20-Year Career Journalist, Multimedia Artist, & LGBTQ+ Icon

One of the exceptional artists to feature in this year’s Sculpture by the Sea festival is none other than Paul Ewart.

A senior journalist with a 20-year global journalism career, Paul is now applying this passion for cultural analysis and hard-hitting messaging to a growing body of interdisciplinary artwork, much of it exploring queer identity. 

His recent artworks have included large-format ceramic sculpture, abstract canvases, and hand-retouched photography, all created from his home in Bondi Beach, where the artist cohabitates with his husband and two rescue dogs, Zeus and Luna.

As for his entry into Scupture by the Sea, Paul is debuting Both Sides Now, an ambitious  project that transfers his extensive knowledge of conflict, competing perspectives, and political polarisation into something unexpected: a gigantic, dual-faced head made entirely out of mirrors.

 

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According to Paul, the 3-metre-high head of the two-faced Roman god Janus  — created with facets of highly polished, mirrored steel —  aims to explore a fractured political landscape, one where perspectives are narrow, polarised, and devoid of empathy.

“Through faceted mirror planes, the sculpture explores the collapse of common ground,” Paul told Star Observer. “Though Janus looks in opposite directions simultaneously, each face is physically unable to see the other’s perspective. As viewers walk around it, its polished surfaces reassemble their reflection alongside the sky, the ocean, and the surrounding crowd.”

An Artwork Inspired By A Childhood Of Anti-LGBTQ+ Prejudice

For Paul —  who has interviewed everyone from Hugh Jackman, Chris Hemsworth, and Katy Perry to Holocaust survivors and global explorers —   the piece isn’t just a product of decades of rigorous journalistic observation. Rather, much of it was inspired by growing up gay.

“While the piece tackles what I believe is the most urgent issue we face globally—the erosion of middle ground and the tightening grip of ideological polarisation—it’s also a deeply personal, local story,” Paul said.  

“Having grown up gay in a small town and attended a fundamentalist Christian high school, I know all too well what it feels like to be on the receiving end of extreme prejudice and dogmatic division. 

“Both Sides Now is born directly out of that lived experience, using mirrored surfaces to force a moment of shared reflection where the viewer’s own image merges with the landscape and the people around them.”

According to Paul, the hope is that the artwork will pose a simple yet urgent question to those who pass by it: “Can we still hold space for nuance, empathy, and opposing truths?”

“While the piece wasn’t created specifically around the anniversary of the Bondi terror attacks, its message of lost middle ground, prejudice, and the need for human connection feels deeply poignant right now,” Paul said.

“Living here, you feel how profoundly recent events have impacted our community. Placing a reflective piece on the coastal path offers a quiet, organic space for shared pause, asking us to look at one another with renewed empathy and understanding.”