Scotty So Queen Of Begonia's & Hai Kot Tou

Image: Scotty So

The Art Gallery of Ballarat is thrilled to present Scotty So: Queen of Begonias & Hai Kot Tou as part of PHOTO2024, a statewide international photography festival. The outdoor exhibition will open on the 23 February 2024 on the gallery’s Art Screen and lightboxes in Alfred Deakin Place, Ballarat.

Scotty So is a Melbourne-based artist who works across media, using painting, photography, sculptures, site-responsive installation, videos and drag performance. Driven by the thrill of camp, he explores the often-contradictory relationship between humour and sincerity within lived experience to offer a glimpse of a future society that embraces difference.

The exhibition features the premiere of a new video work by So where he pays tribute to the Begonia Queens, a feature of Ballarat’s Begonia Festival from 1953 to 1993. The new video work will be complemented by images from his series Hai Kot Tou, exhibited for the first time in Australia.

In this series, the artist is photographed dressed in ripped-off items from high-fashion brands, echoing the head-to-toe monogram trend of the new money in Asia, with matching grocery trolleys, a tribute to his Hong Kong grandmother.

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May

Sydney: Until 16 August 2026. PIX, Australia’s first pictorial news weekly, is brought to life in this exhibition, showcasing its archived images and stories for the very first time.

Melbourne: Until March 2027. Rehearsing the City presents archival photographs from Victoria’s government collections, alongside new work by contemporary street photographers.

June

Melbourne: 5 March – 7 August 2026. Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, artist and social documentary photographer Viva Gibb (1945-2017) documented the suburbs of North and West Melbourne, where she lived.

Sydney: Until 7 Feb 2027. From his archive of more than 200,000 images, Close Up celebrates the historic moments and pivotal people he famously captured.

Canberra: Until 6 Sept 2026. Trent Parke’s photographic series The Christmas tree bucket 2006–09 is a tender and darkly humorous portrayal of his extended family coming together to celebrate Christmas.

Sydney: June 6 – 19 July 2026. The World Press Photo Exhibition 2026 is returning to the State Library of New South Wales from 6 June to 19 July, offering Sydney audiences an uncompromising view of of the unending challenges that humans, and our planet face.

Melbourne: 6 June – 20 August 2026. Brook Andrew is an artist whose conceptual practice shifts across photography, performance, moving image, installation, public space and research, often through deep collaboration with artists, communities and friends.

Brisbane: until 18 October 2026. Known affectionately as the ‘Cool Cat of journalism’ Wayne moved effortlessly among the greats, between the media and community, treating every encounter as part of his day’s work behind the lens.

Melbourne: 26 June – 2 August. Through analogue photographic processes, Dylan Negri aims to immortalised fragments of life that would otherwise disintegrate.