Will Huxley grew up in the suburbs of Perth, and Garrett Huxley was raised on the Gold Coast. After university, where they both studied photography – Will at Edith Cowan University and Garrett at the Queensland College of Art – the artists gravitated to Melbourne where they met in 2006. Garrett and Will found that they had much in common: not least their individual experiences growing up queer in traditional suburban Australia, and their passions for art and creativity. The pair soon began to collaborate as The Huxleys, combining their separate practices of photography, filmmaking and costume design, with performance as a key element. Inspired by the attention-grabbing and the outrageous, the artists embrace the glamourous, the absurd and the provocative and in doing so challenge convention; the Huxleys persuade their audience to consider notions of gender, social mores and non-conformity. The artists continue to be in demand across the country and internationally.
Style Over Substance is the Huxleys' first video work wholly conceived, written, composed, and performed by them. Equal parts biography and declaration, this work is a well-executed and joyous depiction of the Huxleys' lives as performing artists: presented with the trademark highly polished outrageousness and humour that audiences expect of the duo's live performances.
Purchased 2021
© The Huxleys
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the
Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
Reproduction request. For further information please contact
NPG Copyright.
