Local artist Billy Bain is challenging colonial narratives of masculinity with his solo exhibition Being Manly at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum.
Billy Bain's paintings and ceramic artworks examine popular iconography and histories of the area while referencing the continued presence of the traditional custodians of this land.
Mr Bain stresses that Captain Arthur Phillip named the area Manly Cove in 1788 as he was impressed by the Gayemagal people's ‘confidence and manly behaviour’.
“Though Manly’s cultural identity pertaining to masculinity has remained, cultural icons such as the surfer, the lifeguard and the footballer have emerged and shifted the public’s perception of what it means to be ‘Manly," Mr Bain said.
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