Renowned contemporary artist, Gerwyn Davies returns to his hometown with Shimmer, a bold new photographic series created in collaboration with trans and gender diverse young people from Open Doors Youth Service and presented as part of MELT Festival 2025.
Known for his theatrical approach to photography, Davies combines sculptural costuming, vibrant colour palettes and cinematic staging to create works that are both playful and profound. For Shimmer, he worked closely with twelve young people through a series of workshops, guiding them in the design of elaborate handmade costumes that transformed them into extraordinary, larger-than-life figures. Each portrait allows the wearers to express themselves in spectacular ways while maintaining their anonymity, making the images as much about empowerment as they are about artistry.
The vivid portraits, presented in the Museum’s Fairfax Gallery, celebrate the voices and identities of the young creatives from Brisbane’s trans and gender diverse communities. Together, these works champion self-expression, resilience and the transformative power of chosen visibility. Beyond the gallery walls, Shimmer will also extend into the streets of Brisbane, with select portraits appearing in public spaces during MELT Festival and transforming the city into an outdoor exhibition that surprises pedestrians with moments of artistry and humanity.
Open Doors Youth Service CEO Rachel Hinds expressed the importance of this collaboration in shining a light on the experiences of trans and gender diverse young people. “At a time when trans identities are too often reduced to headlines and politics, this collaboration brings something vital: the human stories behind the debate. Through Shimmer, Gerwyn creates a powerful space where trans and gender diverse young people can be seen and celebrated in their full complexity, joyful, resilient and unapologetically themselves.”
Shimmer runs from 18 October 2025 through to March 2026 at the Fairfax Gallery in the Museum of Brisbane. For more details, check Shimmer out here.