Original Work Featured in Fifty Squared Art Prize

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

King for a Day Returns to Exhibit in the 2025 Fifty Squared Art Prize at Brunswick Street Gallery

Following its celebrated inclusion in this year’s Small Works Art Prize, King for a Day is proud to announce its latest public exhibition as part of Brunswick Street Gallery’s Fifty Squared Art Prize 2025 — one of Australia’s most dynamic open-call exhibitions for small-scale contemporary artworks.

The selected work, Romain Photographed in Whitsunday Islands, will be on display from 21 June to 4 July, in the heart of Fitzroy’s iconic gallery district.

Held annually by Brunswick Street Gallery, the Fifty Squared Art Prize is a bold showcase of emerging and established talent, with over 600 works presented across painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, textiles and more — all confined within the formal limit of 50x50cm. But this restriction is anything but limiting; rather, it invites an intimate engagement with the artist’s message, technique and voice.

For King for a Day, inclusion in the Fifty Squared Art Prize represents not only another milestone in the project’s artistic journey, but a reaffirmation of its core purpose: to reimagine masculinity through intimate, unapologetic fine art photography.

Fifty Squared Art Prize 2025 © Brunswick Street Gallery

About the Work: “Romain Photographed in Whitsunday Islands”

The exhibited work, Romain Photographed in Whitsunday Islands, is a powerful monochromatic portrait captured in natural light during an isolated shoot on one of the remote beaches of tropical North Queensland. In the frame, exclusive male model Romain stands naked as both man and myth, his posture relaxed but regal, caught between the rawness of nature and the stillness of self.

The photograph is a study in freedom and strength. It reflects King for a Day’s continued fascination with the interplay between the male body and its emotional interior — between the archetype and the individual. Like many of the project’s previous portraits, this image is both tender and bold: an invitation to see masculinity through a different lens.

A Platform for Male Beauty and Modern Kings

King for a Day is more than a photography brand; it is an ongoing creative exploration of the male form, the male psyche, and the cultural expectations placed upon both. Through fine art portraiture, fashion editorials, exhibitions, and printed ephemera, King for a Day seeks to elevate the male body from object to subject, from stereotype to symbol. The work is rooted in aesthetic discipline — lighting, composition, texture — but also in human connection. The kings photographed are not models by trade, but people of lived experience, each one offering something unique to the frame: a story, a wound, a moment of power reclaimed.

In a media landscape saturated with digitally manipulated perfection and narrow ideals of what it means to be a man, King for a Day is a quiet rebellion — a reclamation of space for male beauty, vulnerability, sensuality and softness within masculinity.

Our Commitment to Public Exhibition

Central to the King for a Day mission is a commitment to public engagement through gallery exhibitions, art prizes and curated events. While digital platforms allow for global reach, it is the tactile, in-person experience of photography that holds special meaning — the scale, the grain, the light on paper.

Presenting works in established Australian galleries such as Brunswick Street Gallery allows King for a Day to bring its imagery into communal space — where ideas about masculinity can be challenged, celebrated, or reimagined by a diverse audience. It is through this kind of cultural visibility that broader shifts in understanding can begin to take root.

Art prizes like the Fifty Squared provide a rare democratic forum: where emerging voices sit beside established names, and where intimacy and impact matter more than scale. For KFAD, this egalitarian approach mirrors the project's founding ethos — that every man, no matter his background or body type, deserves to be seen with dignity and complexity.

Visit the Exhibition

We invite the public to experience Romain Photographed in Whitsunday Islands in person at Brunswick Street Gallery, located at Level 1 & 2, 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065. The exhibition runs from 21 June to 4 July 2025, with gallery hours from Tuesday to Saturday, 10 AM to 5 PM, and Sunday 11 AM to 4 PM. Entry is free, and all works are available for purchase. To learn more about the Fifty Squared Art Prize.

To view King for a Day artworks available for sale, visit our Gallery.