Register for the exhibition launch party at the event page here

Cosmogenesis is an immersive collaborative exhibition by Axel Starviking and Russell Austin, exploring the parallels between the human mind and the structure of the cosmos, and delving into the mental landscape behind Axel’s expanding StarViking Universe. Inspired by the way neural pathways resemble artistic renderings of galaxies and interstellar networks, the exhibition transforms the gallery into a living inner universe of light, sound and imagination. Inside the “Vault”, Axel presents his sparkling StarViking crowns, wearable art, paintings, photography, audio visual renderings of his original compositions (featuring his pre-transition and post-transition vocals performing in harmony) and theatrical artefacts as fragments of memory, identity and transformation.

Russell Austin’s atmospheric oil paintings expand this universe further, creating a colourful, emotionally charged and deeply immersive journey through creativity, consciousness and the infinite worlds that exist within us.

Artist/s Bio:

Axel StarViking is a Central Coast NSW-based transgender polymath artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans music, visual art, photography, wearable art, performance and immersive installation. Drawing on over four decades of performance experience, Axel creates emotionally charged worlds exploring transformation, resilience, identity and the inner landscapes of the human mind.

Through theatrical costuming, handcrafted rhinestone-encrusted crowns, layered vocal compositions, cinematic sound and symbolic storytelling, Axel blurs the boundaries between concert, ritual and contemporary art.

Originally working in theatrical productions and touring educational entertainment in South Africa, Axel now creates original works including Changeling and Intergalactica. Their art explores the parallels between cosmic structures and human consciousness, reflecting lived experiences of transition, survival and healing.

COSMOGENESIS traces the creative evolution of Axel’s artistic practice, revealing the diverse works, experiments and explorations that have shaped their current performance art and the expanding StarViking Universe.

Russell Austin is a Central Coast-based artist, oil painter, muralist and teacher whose practice explores the extraordinary within the everyday. His paintings transform familiar scenes into parallel visions, where humour, tension, absurdity and symbolism coexist.

Working with expressive oil painting techniques, Austin creates evocative, often surreal worlds that invite viewers to look beyond the obvious. His work is not intended to offer fixed answers, but to open doors into imagination, emotional landscapes and the strange theatre of human behaviour.

With an extensive exhibition history spanning the Central Coast, Sydney, Newcastle and Japan, alongside numerous public mural projects, Austin is an established and passionate contributor to the regional arts community.

For COSMOGENESIS, Austin presents a body of oil paintings inspired by Axel StarViking, his music and the StarViking Universe, translating an imaginative world of sound, identity and mythology into paint.

Join us from 6pm for $15 cocktail happy hour and delicious burgers & street food from Beau’s Burgers.

If you’re driving, street parking and public parking is available in Baker St car park (enter via Erina St near Gosford hotel and ground floor parking is free)

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