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Latrobe Regional Gallery in hot water over treatment of Blak queer artist

The treatment of artist Clinton Hayden by the regional gallery prompts questions of adherence to cultural protocols and RAPs, along with concerns about understaffing and burnout.

13 Sep 2024 12:52

Jessi Ryan

Installation view of Clinton Hayden's 'mudyigalang-gu ngurambang-gu' at Latrobe Regional Gallery, showing a number of black and white portraits of Aboriginal men, in a style referencing the artist Tom of Finland. The art works are hung in black frames on a white wall.

Visual Arts

Installation view of Clinton Hayden’s ‘mudyigalang-gu ngurambang-gu’ at Latrobe Regional Gallery. Photo: Supplied.

The censorship of Wiradjuri Blak queer artist Clinton Hayden by Latrobe Regional Gallery has forced the Latrobe City Council to offer the artist a formal apology and acknowledge a long list of shortcomings on the part of the Gallery across the artist’s exhibition.

Hayden’s exhibition at the regional gallery entitled mudyigalang-gu ngurambang-gu was installed on 7 June this year, after the Gallery’s former Senior Curator, David Ashley Kerr, saw a sequence of Hayden’s work exhibited in December 2023 as part of the NotFair art fair at Alchemy in Melbourne.

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Jessi Ryan

Jessi Ryan (they/them) has been creating performance and exhibitions for the past 20 years, both locally, nationally and abroad- in this time collaborating with a huge number of artists from a broad cross section of cultural backgrounds. As a journalist they have written for and been published by some of Australia’s leading arts and news editorial across the last 10 years-and was recognised as a finalist for Globe Community Media Award in 2021. Ryan has also taken photos for a number of print and online publications.