Gary Lee, Original fashion sketch from the 1980s #2 with Madagaskan pink mountboard

Nice Coloured Boys commemorates the distinguished practice of Gary Lee—artist, writer, curator, designer and anthropologist. The exhibition offers a glimpse into the past when Lee, a young, gay Larrakia Aboriginal man from Darwin, moved to Sydney in the early 1980s to pursue a career as a visual artist. As fate would have it, he arrived a year earlier than his enrolment at Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) so he busied himself with part-time studies at Alexander Mackie College and making hand-painted silk scarves, cards and jewellery for a stall with his cousin Laura Lee at Paddy’s Markets. The much sought-after stall space at Paddy’s Markets belonged to their Auntie Stella who was happy to hand it over to them for a time. Gary also teamed up with ex-Darwinite Andrew Trewin to design clothes, a collaboration which eventually saw him leave SCA at the end of the following year to undertake fashion designing full-time, working out of studios in The Strand and Imperial arcades in Sydney’s CBD.

The original fashion sketches included in this exhibition come from around this time. They are part of a rare archive. Not much thought was given then to posterity … sketches were made, garments were sold. An intact book of Gary’s fashion sketches is housed in the collection of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. A number of loose sketches in pen and pencil are all that otherwise remains. Evidence of a fluid, embodied sense of line and fabric; fragments of ’80s Sydney style and glamour.

Gary Lee is a Larrakia artist, curator, anthropologist and writer. His visual arts practice
includes photography, illustration, fashion design and design although he primarily works
as a photographer. His photography focuses on male portraiture largely through a street
photography methodology which he began in the early 1990s in South Asia with his series Nice Coloured Boys which celebrates the beauty and diversity of coloured men and which was triggered by an appreciation that the look of men from these countries (initially India, Bangladesh and Nepal) reminded him of Aboriginal men in his hometown Darwin.

In 2022, Gary won the Work on Paper Award at the Telstra National Aboriginal Art Awards
for Nagi, 2022, a hand-coloured photo-portrait in tribute to his maternal grandfather Juan (John) Cubillo who was killed in the Bombing of Darwin, 1942. A book on Gary’s work, Heat: Gary Lee, selected texts, art & anthropology, was published in 2023 by dishevel books, Darwin. Heat was launched in Darwin as part of Gary’s solo exhibition midling (Larrakia: together), Coconut Studios, shown as part of the 2023 Darwin Festival. Heat was also launched in Sydney (as part of Gary’s solo exhibition midling 2, The Cross Art Projects, shown in parallel with the 2024 Sydney Mardi Gras Festival and the 2024 Biennale of Sydney), and in Melbourne as part of the solo exhibition Heat / Keep Him My Heart at Swarf gallery, Brunswick (curated by Tristen Harwood and Lauren Burrow). Heat was awarded Best Art Writing by an Indigenous Writer at the 2024 Art Writing and Publishing Awards hosted by the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand.

Since 2006 Gary has held 17 solo exhibitions in Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth,
Brisbane, Canberra and Auckland and including his current exhibition at Suite7a. His
upcoming solo exhibition Another other, the photo-politics of Gary Lee will be held at
the Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, 5 April to 7 September 2026. Gary has participated
in many group exhibitions including nationally and internationally touring exhibitions. His
work is represented in collections held by the National Gallery of Australia, Australian War
Memorial, Art Gallery of Western Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Museum and Art
Gallery of the NT, Charles Darwin University, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Studies, along with many private collections.