Review by Markus Hamence – Oscar Arrais: Queer Flesh, Sacred Soul –Date: Wednesday 05 November 2025, Payinthi, Eliza Hall, Prospect Town Hall, South Australia
Every now and then an artist emerges that goes deep within the soul, turns it inside out, asks the audience to gaze at it and… ponder their human existence on earth. Today that artist is Oscar Arrais:
Oscar Arrais’s Feast Festival exhibition Queer Flesh, Sacred Soul is not just an art show – it’s a visceral reckoning that speaks a strong message.
Held at Payinthi in November as part of Adelaide’s iconic Feast Festival, this collection of seven works (selected from a broader twelve-piece series) dives deep into the body as both a canvas and a battleground. Arrais uses reclaimed materials – leather scraps, old textiles, and found objects – to piece together a visual language that feels ancient yet defiantly modern. The textures ripple with memory. The stitching feels like an act of repair. The result is raw, tactile, and fiercely personal – a declaration of identity that pulses between defiance and devotion.
Oscar Arrais. Photography Credit (Including below gallery): Carmen Alcedo
Standing before these works, you’re met with something deeply human – the imperfections are the beauty. The colours are bold, unapologetic, and alive with rhythm. There’s sweat and softness in equal measure, an emotional choreography between what’s hidden and what’s exposed. Arrais doesn’t ask you to simply view the art; he dares you to feel it. He reclaims discarded material and in doing so, reclaims pieces of himself – queer, immigrant, artistic – forging a narrative of survival through sensuality and soul. The title Queer Flesh, Sacred Soul says it all: flesh is the site of both struggle and divinity, queerness a ceremony of becoming whole.
“Arrais builds tension between the physical and the spiritual, forcing viewers to confront the question of what it means to inhabit a body that doesn’t fit conventional boundaries…” – Markus Hamence
There’s an undercurrent of intimacy in every piece – a vulnerability stitched between bold gestures. Some works carry the burn of protest, others sit (quietly but powerfully) with tenderness. The collection moves like an emotional map: one moment fierce and loud, the next almost prayerful. Arrais builds tension between the physical and the spiritual, forcing viewers to confront the question of what it means to inhabit a body that doesn’t fit conventional boundaries. Each surface becomes an altar; each mark a meditation on truth. It’s the kind of exhibition that demands time – rush through it and you’ll miss the quiet ache beneath the chaos.
The opening night revealed new works never seen before, each piece boasting energy of rebirth. The timing is significant – 2025 marks fifty years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in South Australia, a fitting backdrop for an exhibition that celebrates liberation in all its complex forms. Queer Flesh, Sacred Soul fits seamlessly into that narrative: a declaration that freedom isn’t tidy or linear – it’s layered, stitched, and reclaimed from what the world once cast aside.
“His work is rooted in ideas of identity, transformation, and sustainability, often using reclaimed materials as a metaphor for renewal and resilience…” – Markus Hamence
Oscar Arrais is a Brazilian-born multidisciplinary artist now based in Adelaide, whose practice spans visual art, fashion, performance, and activism. His work is rooted in ideas of identity, transformation, and sustainability, often using reclaimed materials as a metaphor for renewal and resilience. Drawing from his cultural heritage and queer experience, Arrais brings a fierce authenticity to his craft – a mix of chaos and elegance that has become his signature. Over the years, his art has evolved from design and costume work into deeply personal installations that blend body politics with spiritual expression. Queer Flesh, Sacred Soul represents a culmination of that evolution – a fusion of art and autobiography that invites audiences to feel, question, and re-imagine what queerness looks like in physical form.
Ultimately, Arrais’s exhibition is not just an art display – it’s a mirror. It asks viewers to see the divine within the broken, the sacred within the scarred, the beauty within the imperfect. In the dim light of Payinthi, surrounded by fabric, shadow, and emotion, you can almost sense the heartbeat of the artist himself – wild, tender, and utterly free. Queer Flesh, Sacred Soul isn’t just a highlight of this year’s Feast Festival; it’s a statement of arrival from an artist who understands that art is not about decoration – it’s about embodiment. It’s not about seeing, but truly feeling.
Watch Oscar Arrais, he’s an emerging artist that is about to go far and wide with important messages.
Rating: A confident and bold FIVE STARS
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Queer Flesh, Sacred Soul 2025 Feast Festival Until 22 November 2025 Payinthi, Prospect, SA Exhibition Tickets
