The folio 'Queer, Blak & Here' includes seven full-colour digitally designed portraits of the artist and his romantic partner. They are depicted in affectionate poses, surrounded by iconography connected to their Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Australian South Sea Islander and queer identities. To further direct the meaning of the imagery, some of the works include incidental text. In ‘What you water is what you grow,’ for example, the title is based on a phrase that can be read along the sleeve of one of the subjects as he embraces the other. In ‘Pride + culture,’ the two subjects lock eyes with the viewer. The subject’s t-shirt statement, as per the title, appears to strengthen their bond so that the two figures can look out toward the rest of the world without shame, carrying the power of their ancestors.
--Artspace Mackay 2021

Dylan Mooney is an Indigenous artist of Aboriginal (Yuwi), Torres Strait Islander and South Sea Islander heritage. He is a Mackay-born artist who graduated from the Queensland College of Art’s CAIA (Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art) program in 2020. His two paths of creation are fine art, including drawing and printmaking; and graphic design, in which Mooney’s digital posters celebrate Indigeneity and queer identity. He has exhibited his work in Queensland and South Australia, with mural commissions across several regional Queensland locations including Mackay. In 2019 he was commissioned to produce work for the State Library of Queensland’s ‘Plantation Voices: Australian South Sea Islanders’ and ‘Spoken: Celebrating Queensland Languages’. Mooney was Artspace Mackay’s invited artist-in-residence, commissioned to produce a temporary mural for ‘The Wall’ program in February 2021, and will showcase 'Queer, Blak & Here' with a major exhibition of fellow Australian South Sea Islander artist Jasmine Togo-Brisby in January 2022.