Look South!
On the Foreshore by Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist Dennis Golding
Image: Garry Trinh courtesy MCA and Bayside Council
SCN Plenary with Bayside Council
Thursday 28 May 2026, 10am-1pm
Ramsgate Surf Lifesaving Club and walk along Ramsgate Foreshore to view On the Foreshore
Look South! shines a light on Sydney’s growing cultural hotspot.
Stretching from Botany Bay to Mascot, Bayside is the only LGA in Greater Sydney with a growing cultural workforce. Drawn by affordable spaces and a vibrant creative community, artists and designers are flocking South, establishing innovative galleries, studios, and businesses.
A panel of South Sydney creatives will explore the conditions needed for culture to thrive, and the opportunities the South offers for cultural partnerships. Speakers include Gary Bigeni (fashion artist and designer), Kaye Mahoney (multimedia artist), Megan Riakos (filmmaker and co-founder of Women in Film and Television Australia), and Patrick Cremin (Arts and Culture Specialist, Bayside Council).
Featuring a conversation between Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist Denis Golding and MCA Senior Curator Pedro de Almeida, and a special viewing of Golding’s major new work On the Foreshore, commissioned by Bayside Council and the MCA through C3West, Look South! addresses the need for greater acknowledgement of Indigenous history at this critical site of first contact between First Nations peoples and European colonisers.
With dedicated time for networking, Look South! aims to seed new connections across the Greater Sydney cultural landscape.
Sydney Culture Network is an alliance of over 50 cultural institutions and creative sector organisations working together to make Sydney a global leader in valuing culture. SCN Plenaries bring together network members twice a year to dive deeply into a pressing cultural issue or opportunity and to network with one another.
SCN Plenary PrograM
10.00 am - Arrival networking and refreshments
10:30 am - Panel discussion: Look South! with Gary Bigeni (Studio, Kogarah) · Kaye Mahoney (Studio, Botany) · Megan Riakos (filmmaker, Bayside resident) · Patrick Cremin (Arts and Culture Specialist, Bayside Council)
11:30 am - Networking break with refreshments
12:30 pm - In-conversation: Dennis Golding and Pedro de Almeida (Senior Curator, C3West, MCA)
12.45 pm - Walk to artwork On the Foreshore (8 mins)
Access: The Ramsgate Surf Lifesaving Club is wheelchair accessible via ramp. From the venue, On the Foreshore is a 600 metre (8 min) walk along a paved coastal footpath.
Opening of Denis Golding’s major new work On the Foreshore - commissioned by Bayside and the MCA through C3West
Look South Discussion Panel
Gary Bigeni – Studio in Kogarah
Gary Bigeni pushes the limits of fashion as individual expression through his custom made-to-order fine art collections.
Original designs are hand painted by Gary directly onto ethically sourced eco-cotton, then made in very limited production runs using sustainable manufacturing practices. Intended to last a life-time, all pieces are gender neutral and designed to reflect the distinctive personality of the wearer.
Even as a young Maltese boy living in Sydney, Australia with his three siblings and mother, creativity was always present for Gary Bigeni. As a child he would sneak into his mother’s wardrobe and cut large circles out of the bottom of her dresses so he could create collections for his GI Joes and Barbies. Years later, following fashion training at East Sydney Tech, Gary Bigeni launched his eponymous label and secured himself as part of the Australian fashion cohort.
With multiple fashion week shows, presentations, artist collaborations and celebrity muses, Bigeni built a reputation for masterful drape, intelligent silhouettes and artful use of colour. Over time, Gary Bigeni’s collections have evolved and bought his tribe of followers with him. Whilst still created on a foundation of masterful fabric manipulation and soft tailoring, his once quiet palette now exudes the vibrance and joy of his own style and personality. Today Gary Bigeni’s girl is the artist. The city dweller, she works hard and plays hard, professional by day and party by night – her effervescence pervades.
Kaye Mahoney – Studio in Botany
Kaye Mahoney is a Thai born Australian American multimedia artist. Her wide-ranging expressive tools include video, installations, painting, text, assemblage and music. Many of her works are conceived as platforms for experimentation and interaction. In her early years, after completing an MFA program at the New York Academy of Art, Mahoney trained in Italy and practiced as a muralist specializing in fresco. Mid-career, she was represented by Dillon Gallery in Chelsea, New York and exhibited regularly in France and Italy. Since moving to Australia, Mahoney’s shows have included a major solo exhibition at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, solo exhibitions in Sydney at Art Atrium and a show at Lesley Heller Gallery, New York. Mahoney maintains studios in Sydney and France and is represented in Sydney by Art Atrium.
https://artatrium.com.au/48/kaye-mahoney
Megan Riakos- Resident of Bayside
Megan Riakos is a writer and filmmaker known for bringing a bold, distinctly female lens to genre storytelling. Her debut feature as writer and director, Crushed, received strong critical attention, with The Australian calling it “a tense, bloody mystery thriller” and The Hollywood Reporter describing it as “a solid debut.” She is also the creator of Australia’s first all‑female horror anthology, Dark Whispers – Vol 1, praised by Killer Horror Critic as “a shining example of horror anthology film done right.” Megan went on to write and direct an episode of Deadhouse Dark, which premiered at CANNESERIES, became a Shudder Original, and earned her an Australian Directors’ Guild Award nomination.
Alongside her creative practice, Megan is an experienced industry advocate, consultant and educator. She co‑founded Women in Film & Television (WIFT) Australia and founded Raising Films Australia (advocating for parents and carers in screen) and has worked closely with screen industry organisations and policymakers to shape practical, sustainable change across the sector.
She has taught extensively at leading institutions including AFTRS, UNSW, QUT and NIDA, and currently serves as a member of the AFTRS Alumni Advisory Group. Known for her practical, energetic approach, Megan brings a collaborative mindset and a deep commitment to building a stronger, more inclusive industry, both on the screen and behind the scenes.
Patrick Cremin
Patrick Cremin is the Arts and Culture Specialist at Bayside Council NSW, his work looks to highlight Southern Sydney as a creative destination through public art, creative placemaking and public programs. He has held positions at the Art Gallery of NSW, Bankstown Arts Centre and City of Parramatta.
He is a founding Co-Director of Archive Space, an artist-run gallery in Newtown (2012-2015), co-founder of Document Photography an art documentation business in Sydney and graduated from UNSW Art and Design with a Master of Fine Arts (research) in 2016.
https://www.bayside.nsw.gov.au/community/arts-and-culture
In-conversation Dennis Golding and Pedro de Almeida
Dennis Golding
Dennis Golding is a Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist from the northwest of NSW and was born and raised on Gadigal land (Redfern, Sydney). Golding also has ancestral ties to Biripi country situated along the mid-north coast of NSW through his mother’s lineage.
Working in a range of mixed media including painting, video, photography and installation, Golding critiques the social, political, and cultural representations of race and identity. His practice is drawn from his own experiences living in urban environments and through childhood memories.
Golding was surrounded by art from his urban upbringing living in an Aboriginal community in Redfern (often referred to as ’The Block’). As a young child, he often watched his mother and grandmother paint on large canvas and sheen fabrics which depicted Australian native plants and animals, cultural motifs, and human figures. Golding developed his professional practice in art school through mentorships with leading curators, educators, and artists. Golding graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at UNSW Art & Design in 2019 and now works independently as an artist and curator.
Since graduating Golding was awarded the Create NSW Visual Arts Fellowship 2020 and has exhibited at many major institutions including the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Living Museums, and Carriageworks. Golding’s work can also be seen around Sydney in many public art installations. Golding also co-founded the Re-Right Collective with Carmen Glynn-Braun.
Through his artistic and curatorial practice, Golding aims to present powerful representations of contemporary Aboriginal cultural identity that inform narratives of history and lived experiences.
https://www.dennisgolding.com/
Pedro de Almeida
Pedro de Almeida is the Senior Curator, C3West at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. In this role he leads the Museum’s longstanding program, C3West, which brings artists and communities together to create art that responds to local concerns in Greater Sydney. He has delivered the C3West projects Linda Brescia: Skirts (2021), Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook (2022) by Cherine Fahd and Lifting the Tapu (2024) by Greg Semu.
Pedro’s two-decade career as a curator, programmer and arts manager is distinguished by an emphasis on commissioning new work and engaging culturally and socially diverse artists, communities and audiences. Prior to joining the MCA, he held senior programming positions at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2012–2019) in Sydney’s Chinatown and Campbelltown Arts Centre (2008–2011) in Sydney’s western suburbs, delivering socially engaged, multidisciplinary projects. Pedro has also curated exhibitions and produced programs for organisations including Australian Centre for Photography, Carriageworks, City of Sydney, Museums of History NSW, Sydney Festival and Sydney Olympic Park.