J Davies (Ngāti Te Awhitu, Ngāti Hauā) is an Australian born, takatāpui (Māori, Queer/Trans) artist living and creating on the unceded lands of the Kulin Nation in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Their practice is rooted in an ever-growing archive of contemporary queer existence, weaving connection, community, and culture through the intertwined lenses of identity, intimacy, and neurodiversity.

With a deliberately personal approach, J Davies turns the camera inward to document the private geographies of their own life. They invite audiences to reconsider how intimacy is created, communicated, and cherished. Their work explores a shifting relationship to time and memory, shaped in part by a processing disorder diagnosis that deepened their interest in the fluid boundary between dreaming and waking.

J’s work has been exhibited at Les Rencontres d’Arles (France), the Hong Kong International Photography Festival, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Centre for Contemporary Photography and Hillvale Gallery. They have been an artist-in-residence at Collingwood Yards, a finalist for The Bowness Photography Prize, The National Photographic Portrait Prize and the winner of The Midsumma Art Prize 2026. 

J Davies is represented by Mars Gallery in Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand. See the catalogue of available works here.



Contact: jdavies.studio@gmail.com
Instagram: @jdavies.studio


Artist Portrait by Andy Johnson at Hillvale Gallery for Maybe Our Dreams Are Real exhibition opening 2025

© J Davies