Dylan Mooney
Dylan Mooney is a proud Yuwi, Torres Strait and South Sea Islander artist from Mackay, North Queensland, working across painting, printmaking, digital illustration and drawing.
Dylan Mooney’s practice engages with themes of identity, community, and resistance. Influenced by history, culture and family, Mooney responds to community stories, current affairs and social media. Legally blind, Mooney uses digital media for its backlit accessibility and ability to produce high-contrast, high-impact illustrative works with bright, saturated colour that reflects his experiences with keen political energy and insight.
Mooney is showing as part of the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial: After the Rain, curated by Tony Albert, 6 Dec 2025 – 26 Apr 2026 at the National Gallery of Australia.
Recent solo exhibitions include The Story of My People, N.Smith Gallery, Sydney (2025), Still Here at Photofairs Shanghai (2024), and Queer, Blak, & Here, Cement Fondu, Sydney and Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane (2022), and Still Thriving, commissioned by Sydney WorldPride (2023).
Group exhibitions include High Colour, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Performing Presence, Redland Art Gallery, Qld, and Intertwined Series presented at N.Smith Gallery’s booth at Art Toronto (2025), 24th Biennale of Sydney (2024) with the commissioned mural Malcolm Cole – larger than life, produced for the White Bay Power Station site. His work was also included in QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection at the National Gallery of Victoria (2022) and the viewing room Still Thriving at N.Smith Gallery (2023) .
In 2023, Mooney won the Brisbane Portrait Prize for Still Thriving. His work is held in public collections including Artbank, Queensland Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria and the Australian Queer Archives.
Mooney graduated from the Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art. He currently works as Assistant Curator at Artspace Mackay in Queensland.
Mooney is represented by N.Smith Gallery.
In this video, Mooney reflects on the evolution of his practice, the role of art in shifting perspectives and amplifying underrepresented voices, and the value of queer Indigenous representation. He also discusses the importance of using art to respond to climate change, and how NAVA’s Code of Practice has supported both his creative and curatorial work.
Video production by Atypical 2025.
Image: Dylan Mooney, photo by Ochre Lens, 2025.
ID: Photo of Dylan Mooney sitting in his studio in front of a computer displaying one of his artworks which is a portrait featuring two faces. The wall behind the desk is covered with prints, sketches and postcards. Shelves on either side hold art supplies, equipment and books. He wears a black sweater decorated with red, yellow and white illustrations and a black cap. He is smiling at the camera.
