5 November 2022 – 15 January 2023. Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. Liam Benson: Virtue Without Stain presents a collection of works, performances, and community engaged projects by Western Sydney based artist Liam Benson exploring the intersection of gender, cultural and queer identity.
The exhibition surveys Benson’s photographic work, new media, performances, and embroidery practice. Importantly, Virtue Without Stain includes new collaborative works made with local communities to provide a context for the complexity of Benson’s work that discusses and celebrates contemporary stories, values and culture experiences.
‘Born, raised, and currently living in Western Sydney, in one of Australia’s most culturally diverse areas, his work holds an unflinching mirror up to who we are as Australians, and in Benson’s case what it is to be a Queer white male of Anglo-Saxon heritage’, says Richard Perram OAM, Curator of the exhibition. ‘Like the American photographer Cindy Sherman, Benson uses himself as the subject of his work. The addition of costume, make-up and text creates unsettling images of great beauty that subtly deal with issues of masculinity, homophobia, gender, and our colonial history.’
Liam Benson: Virtue Without Stain is a BRAG exhibition, curated by Richard Perram OAM.