Midsumma may be over but Melbourne’s queer events are here to keep the Pride going!
Mind, Mythos, Muse: Alexander McQueen
Skip the queues and book online to catch the Mind, Mythos, Muse retrospective of iconic designer Alexander McQueen at the NGV. Featuring 60 garments and accessories from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and nearly 50 pieces from the NGV’s own collection, this exhibition weaves fashion with inspiration, including work by Robert Mapplethorpe, M. C. Escher and Pablo Picasso among marble sculptures from antiquity and historical textiles and garments.
Friday nights also see the NGV’s great hall and garden transforming into an echo of McQueen’s 90’s London with live music and pop-up bars from 6 pm to 10 pm.
Where: 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
When: Monday-Sunday: 10 am-5 pm, until April 16, 2023
Tickets: $30, here
Men/Still/Shooting
XYZ Gallery in Docklands presents an exhibition of work by six photographers celebrating the male nude form in photography. Featuring work by Scott Davis, Travis De Jonk, Eureka, Brenton Parry, Rod Spark & Ross Spirou photographing male friends and acquaintances in mediums from the traditional analogue film all the way through to high-impact photographs featuring bright splatters of paint hiding and revealing the contours of nude forms.
Where: 312/757 Bourke St, Docklands 3008 Vic (Entry on Batmans Hill Drive follow the Nixon Hotel wall to the swinging door)
When: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday 2 pm-6 pm, until March 12, 2023
Tickets: Free
Coming Out
Coming Out closes this Sunday! Don’t miss this premiere production of Scott Taylor’s hit new satire woven around a cabaret drag show featuring Midsumma regular Perri Cummings and rising stars Steve Loftus and Olivia Piplios. Lynda and Simon’s marriage of 25 years is rocked by the revelation of Simon’s fluid sexuality in this comedy-drama with a “sting in its tail”.
Where: The Loft – Chapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel Street, Prahran
When: Friday 7.30 pm, Saturday 7.30 pm, closing night Sunday 6.30 pm
Tickets: $20-$35, here
Burgerz
Last chance to feast on the poignant, raucous, and confessional Burgerz, a “trans cooking show with a recipe for reclamation.” From the pen (and lived experience) of award-winning UK performance artist Travis Alabanza, Theatre Works relocates this “funny, confronting, flirtatious and sometimes messy” show to Melbourne as part of the Midsumma Festival.
Featuring Maori actress, artist and advocate Kikki Temple, who weaves her own lived experience into the show, dazzling audiences with her natural charisma, wry humour and magnetic stage presence, wrapped in a bold and dazzling set and costumes by Bethany J Fellows.
Where: Theatre Works, Saint Leonards Avenue, St Kilda
When: Friday February 17, at 7.30 pm, Saturday February 18, at 7.30 pm
Tickets: $21.99, here
Break the Binaries
“Bend, blend, blur or break” your perception of gender and identity at the Science Gallery Melbourne’s first exhibition of 2023, opening this Saturday. Break The Binaries features 12 installations that express diverse perspectives on gender and cultural identity. Some highlights include Zeth Cameron’s Queervoice 101, an interactive video installation challenging society’s binary perspective on voice, We Are Here Because Of Those That Are Not, by London-based artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, an interactive animation experience that records the lives of Black Trans people including local Australian perspectives, Lauri Pavlovich’s Bugs Against The Binaries featuring live non-binary invertebrates in playful habitats with an audio commentary by the artist and Dylan Mooney’s We Are All Heroes, a series of six larger-than-life portraits that represent various intersectional identities outside the boundaries of traditional hero characters in popular culture.
Where: Science Gallery, Melbourne University, 700 Swanston Street, Parkville
When: Tuesday-Saturday 11 am-5 pm, Until June 18, 2023.
Tickets: Free
