Scotty So Queen Of Begonia's & Hai Kot Tou

Venue: The Art Gallery of Ballarat
Location: 40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat 3350
23 Feb - 4 Apr, 2024
Web: https://www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au/explore/exhibitions/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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November

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Level 3, Brisbane City Hall King George Square, Brisbane 4000 Museum of Brisbane. Level 3 City Hall. | 1 Nov, 2024 - 13 Jul, 2025

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Sydney: The photographs in Max Dupain: Student Life were taken at the University of Sydney in the early 1950s, a period of rapid change marked by the politics of the Cold War.

Level 4, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, University Place, Camperdown Level 4, Chau Chak Wing Museum | 1 Nov, 2024 - 29 Jun, 2025

Henry Roy - Impossible Island

Perth: Until 18 May 2025. Henry Roy – Impossible Island draws on 40-years of recollections and observations as it brings together 113 photos taken from 1983 to 2023.

Perth Cultural Centre, Perth The Art Gallery of Western Australia | 30 Nov, 2024 - 18 May, 2025

December

Accidentally Wes Anderson: The Exhibition

Melbourne: Until 31 January. Prepare to be transported into the picturesque world of Accidentally Wes Anderson: The Exhibition—an Instagram sensation and New York Times best-selling book brought to life!

360 Bourke St Melbourne 3000 360 Bourke St Melbourne 3000 | 1 Dec, 2024 - 31 Jan, 2025

Southern Sky Astrophotography Exhibition

Sydney: 5 December – 1 February. Photofields presents the Southern Sky Astrophotography 2024 exhibition, the 20th edition of the David Malin Awards.

1003 Upper Fort Street, Millers Point NSW 2000 Sydney Observatory | 5 Dec, 2024 - 1 Feb, 2025

Petrina Hicks | Snakes and Mirrors

Melbourne: until 16 Feb 2025. Petrina Hicks works with photography to create large-scale photographs that draw from mythology, fables, and historical art imagery to reframe the contemporary female experience.

860 Ferntree Gully Road Wheelers Hill Victoria 3150 Museum of Australian Photography | 10 Dec, 2024 - 16 Feb, 2025

PIX – The magazine that changed everything (1938-1972)

Sydney: Until 31 Dec 2025. 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.

1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney State Library of NSW | 13 Dec, 2024 - 31 Dec, 2025