Dr. Kirsten Garner Lyttle, a Māori-Australian artist and practice-led researcher, was born in Sydney, raised in Pōneke (Wellington), New Zealand, and grew up in Narrm (Melbourne), Australia, where she is based. Committed to an Indigenous research agenda, she intertwines Indigenous self-determination, rights, and sovereignty into each project, focusing on Indigenous-centered methodologies, knowledge systems, and customary art practices, particularly their application to photography and video technologies. With over a decade of teaching experience, she has lectured on photography, art history, and visual art at institutions such as RMIT University and The University of Melbourne. Currently, Kirsten is the inaugural Post-Doctoral Research Fellow for Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab at Monash University's Art Design and Architecture Faculty.

Kirsten has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally, including commissions for the National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Now 2023 and the TarraWarra Biennial 2023. Recent highlights include participating in exhibitions at the Immigration Museum, Museums Victoria, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Monash Gallery of Art; Gertrude Contemporary; and Centre for Contemporary Photography. Her work is held in numerous private collections and has been collected by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; State Library of Victoria, Deakin University, Melbourne; Merri-bek City Council and the Patrick Corrigan AM

J Davies' work explores the intersections of identity, intimacy, and neurodiversity, deeply rooted in their connection to community and the ongoing archiving of contemporary queer existence in Naarm. By documenting personal, behind-closed-doors moments, J invites audiences to reflect on how we value intimacy and connection. Their practice blends the boundaries between the conscious and subconscious, often informed by their experience of a processing disorder, blurring timelines and memories.

In 2024, J Davies was an LCI Artist in Residence and a finalist for both The Bowness Photography Prize at The Museum of Australian Photography and The National Photographic Portrait Prize at The National Portrait Gallery. Their solo exhibitions included the future feels familiar at LCI Melbourne Gallery, Weaving a Waiata at First Space (Sawtooth ARI), and Incase We Don’t Live Forever at James Makin Gallery for Photo 24.

In 2023, J's work featured in Home (Away From Home) at Tomorrow Maybe for The Hong Kong International Photography Festival, The Sentimentality of Something Unseen at Incinerator Gallery, and Whānau at The National Gallery of Victoria for Melbourne Now.

Amos Gebhardt brings a cinematic force to large-scale moving image installations and photography, collaborating with performers, choreographers, and sound artists. Gebhardt’s sustained practice of visually rich work is epitomised by a courageous commitment to agitating dominant narratives around marginality, representation, queerness and more than human ecologies.

This year Gebhardt won the prestigious National Photographic Portrait Prize for a portrait of acclaimed Waanyi author, Alexis Wright lit solely by moonlight. In 2022 Gebhardt was awarded the Bowness Photography Prize for Wallaby, and was a finalist in the National Photography Prize at MAMA and the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, HOTA in the same year. The video installation Evanescence (2018) and Lovers (2018), featured at the 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. A Sidney Myer Creative Fellow, Gebhardt’s work has also exhibited at M+ Museum Hong Kong; ACMI Melbourne; NGV Melbourne; MONA Hobart; Carriagework, Sydney, Centre for Contemporary Photography Melbourne, in addition to Melbourne International and Sydney Film Festivals and screened on SBS and ABC.

Represented by Tolarno Galleries, Gebhardt’s work is held in both public and private collections in Australia and internationally.

Image: Thomas McCammon

Bamzar is a Melbourne-based Iranian artist and fine art photographer whose work explores the connections between gender identity and body image, shaped by cultural, historical, and religious influences. Drawing from Persian literature, traditional Iranian art, and classical painting, she incorporates historical symbols to question contemporary perceptions of gender and selfhood. Central to her creative process is reconstructing second-hand materials into symbolic garments. Her photographs skillfully merge set design, colour and light resulting in emotionally and intellectually narratives.