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Clandestine Queers, Hidden in Plain Sight.
Clandestine definition: (adj.) “kept secret or done secretly, especially because illicit.”
June 6, 2026 – June 27, 2026
Exhibition Opening: 12-2pm, Saturday 6th June 2026
Arts Space Gallery
Tuesday-Thursday 10am-4pm
Friday-Saturday 10am-2pm
Clandestine Queers, Hidden in Plain Sight is a contemporary exhibition exploring the history, symbolism, and lived experience of queer identity. Through a series of oil paintings inspired by nineteenth-century portraiture and significant queer spaces, the exhibition examines the ways queerness has historically been hidden, coded, and expressed through art, culture, and place.
Blending historical references with personal perspectives, the works move between themes of visibility and secrecy, community and belonging. From subtle queer symbolism in formal portraiture to reflections on spaces such as the Stonewall Inn and contemporary queer life in Perth, the exhibition offers both a sociocultural exploration and a deeply personal narrative.
Accessible and thought-provoking, the exhibition invites audiences to resonate with queer audiences through recognition and affirmation, while remaining accessible to a broader public as a means of offering insight and prompting reflection on unfamiliar perspectives and histories.
THE ARTIST – ALEXANDRA MARANGELIS
Alexandra Marangelis is a Perth-based emerging artist specialising in classical figurative oil painting. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Curtin University in 2022, her work has been presented in a number of exhibitions and collections, including the John Curtin Gallery. Her practice is strongly inspired by seventeenth-century Western European portraiture and Byzantine aesthetics and
iconography, an influence of her Greek Orthodox upbringing. Marangelis’s work merges and reinterprets traditional aesthetics within contemporary and personal themes, bringing a nuanced perspective to these ideas that connects past and present through a sensitive yet subtly playful application.
ACHIEVEMENTS
CITY OF BELMONT ART AWARD – 2025
ROCKINGHAM ART PRIZE – 2025
BOYNES ARTIST AWARD – 2023
JOHN CURTIN GALLERY COLLECTION – 2022
FINE ARTS CURTIN GRADUATION SHOW – 2022
SOUTHERN PERSPECTIVES – 2019
LESTER YOUTH PRIZE FINALIST – 2018
Meet the Artists “In Progress” Wed 3 June 1-2pm
Drop in during exhibition installation for a relaxed behind-the-scenes chat with the artists. Enjoy a cuppa, hear about their work and creative process, and see the exhibition come together. Everyone is welcome!