Photographer Damien Frost will be returning to Newcastle this September for the 2026 New Annual festival. A University of Newcastle alum, the Sydney-born artist has carved out a international reputation for his Night Flowers series, amassing more than 14 years of portraits of queer and alternative figures.
Frost is now expanding the series for New Annual, which runs across the city 25 September to 4 October. Alongside an exhibition at Watt Space Gallery, his work will also be inspiration for a one-night-only art party, featuring a performance by the shapeshifting Justin Talplacido Shoulder, also known as Phasmahammer.
New Annual 2026 – quick links
Damien Frost’s Night Flowers bloom in Newcastle
Damien Frost, Lith Li at Slimelight Electrowerkz, London, 2024. Courtesy: the artist. 
Damien Frost, Sussi at Sink the Pink – The Troxy, Shadwell, London, 2016. Courtesy: the artist. 
Damien Frost, Kala Kala backstage at Love Infinity filming – Browns Club, Shoreditch, London, 2019. Courtesy: the artist. 
Damien Frost, Tyler Darke at Berlin Berlin – Egg Club, Kings Cross, London, 2018. Courtesy: the artist.
Professionally, Damien Frost photographs celebrities and art directs for leading theatre, opera and ballet companies. After dark, he has photographed thousands of exotic ‘Night Flowers’ in clubs and surrounding streets.
The project started with a few chance late night encounters in London, but over the past 14 years it’s grown into a body of thousands of arresting portraits, documenting a community shaped by performance, resilience and radical self-determination.
Frost says his portraits ‘straddle the line between documentary and fine art portraiture’ and often centre on transformation, ‘not simply as self-expression, but as reinvention – where costume, gesture, and make-up become potent instruments for shaping, inhabiting and defiantly asserting identity’.
The exhibition at Watt Space during New Annual will present around 100 of these portraits. The festival has also commissioned new portraits of Australia’s creative, queer and alternative individuals – captured during the artist’s recent residency.
This local community is also invited to the one-night art party, taking place on 26 September. Twisted: Night Flowers is pitched as an immersive dreamscape and, alongside Justin Talplacido Shoulder, it will feature DJs Annabelle Gasper and Harry Court.
New Annual’s Festival Director Tory Loudon says Twisted will be a chance to ‘celebrate who you are – or who you might become’.
Soak sunset sessions returns to New Annual
Now in its sixth year, New Annual is riding off the renewed interest in the city since the reopening of the Newcastle Art Gallery. In 2026, Loudon’s aim is to continue programming site-responsive works that cast Newcastle locations in a new light and are also accessible to diverse audiences. With the exception of nights like the Twisted art party, which is around the $40 mark, most events will be low cost or free.
This year will see the return of the Soak sunset sessions at the Newcastle Baths. These free live music nights were introduced last year, attracting thousands of visitors each night.
Loudon says they were blown away by the response, and will be bringing the sessions back for a four-night run in 2026. The artists will be announced with the full New Annual program in August.
