Pradeep Mahadeshwar (He/They)
+353831532342
Instagram – Queer Myths Link
Pradeep Mahadeshwar is a visual artist and LGBTQIA+ activist from India now based in Dublin. With a rich background in storytelling, writing, photography, illustrations, and filmmaking, Pradeep’s work delves deeply into the complexities of identity, migration, and the lived experiences of Queer People of Colour in Ireland and beyond.
As the founder of Queer Asian Pride Ireland and the Queer Spectrum Film Festival, Pradeep has created platforms that celebrate diversity while addressing the unique challenges faced by the immigrant LGBTQIA+ community in Ireland. Through their surreal and satirical films, Pradeep critiques sexual racism. He explores alternative emotional landscapes, offering profound insights into self-exploration, sexuality, and gender identity within new cultural contexts.
Pradeep’s artistic practice is rooted in a commitment to social justice, with a particular focus on the impact of migration, displacement, and racism on the mental and sexual health of Queer People of Colour. By weaving together stories, photography, illustrations, and moving images, Pradeep crafts narratives that challenge societal norms and invite audiences to reflect on the intersectionality of race, sexuality, and identity.
Education
Diploma in User Experience, UX Acedemy and UCD, Dulin, Ireland 2024-25.
Higher Diploma in Science in Computing and Mobile Application, NCI, Dulin, Ireland 2014-15.
MA Printmaking, Bucks New University & Londáon Print Studio, London, UK. 2011-2012.
Diploma in Printing Technology, Government Institute of Printing Technology, Mumbai, India. 2000.
Founder and Director
Queer Asian Pride Ireland, QAPI
A safe space for LGBTQIA+ Immigrants in Ireland.
Queer Spectrum Film Festival, QSFF
Ireland’s first-ever film festival dedicated to showcasing LGBTQIA+ People of Colour stories
from around the world.
Film Projects
An talamh faoi gheasa – The Enchanted Land, 2024.
Writer, Director and Performer
Waterford International Film Festival 2025
The Irish Film Festival Los Angeles 2025
Part of the group exhibhition ‘The Tides of Monumental Gesture’, a multi-disciplinary group exhibition in collaboration with Museum of Everyone: Communal at the Luan Gallery, Athlone, 2024
Skin To Skin Talks- Gay Men of Color and The Racial Politics of Exclusion, 2023.
Writer, Director and Performer
GAZE International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, 2023
Queer Lisboa 27 – International Queer Film Festival, 2023 | Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest, London, 2023
Culture Night with Museum Of Everyone at Nun’s Island Theatre, Galways Arts Center, 2023
Part of the Skin / Deep: Perspectives on the Body exhibhion at Photo Museum Ireland 2024-25
The Concept of Self, 2022.
Writer, Director and Performer
30th GAZE International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Dublin 2022
10th Anniversary IndieCork Film Festival, Cork 2022
Bloomsday Film Festival, Dublin 2023 | Berlin Indie Film Festival, Berlin 2023
Dumbo Film Festival, NYC 2023
Tír na mBeo – The land of the living, 2022. View Link
Writer, Director
Culture Night 2022 screening at Outhouse, presented by GAZE International LGBTQ+ Film Festival. Project supported by Dublin Pride CLG and The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
Voices From Afar, 2022
Participant
GAZE International LGBTQ+ Film Festival
A new video documentary series from Gay Health Network. It features intimate portraits of five immigrant gay men of colour living in Ireland.
Shame//Less, 2021
Writing contribution and Performer
GAZE International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, 2021 | 34th Galway Film Fleadh – Opening film, 2022
Shame // Less is an artistic response to the findings of “Culture and Sexual Risk: An Ethnographic Analysis of Gay Male ‘Sexual Worlds’ in Ireland Today,” funded by an Irish Research Council COALESCE/Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme Award (PI: Thomas Strong, Maynooth University). Shot in Dublin’s iconic Boilerhouse sauna, Shame // Less transports the viewer on a kaleidoscopic cruise of Dublin’s queer underbelly.
Permanence, 2012
Writer, Director and Performer
A video shot with the support of Muzeum Stará Čistírna, o.p.s., Prague, Czech Republic and displayed in the same location, Summer 2012
Publications (Online and Print)
Masc Life – Pradeep Mahadeshwar
Irish Times – ‘When you are a person of colour in Ireland people don’t see you as gay’
GCN – Gay Community News, an interview series about LGBTQIA+ Immigrants in Ireland
Dublin-based gay artist on making a film about the effect of social distancing on sex and intimacy
Queer POC making a new life in Ireland
The experiences of LGBTQ+ Asian people in Ireland
You have to live your life and find happiness
Yes, sexual racism is a thing in Ireland
After the Proud AF campaign, racism in the Irish LGBTQ+ community still needs to be discussed
Meet the faces of Gay Project’s Proud AF campaign
Irish Examiner – ‘Only certain people are celebrated here’ Tackling racism in LGBTQ+ community
Solo Exhibitions
Fusion, Vaishwik Gallery, Pune, India. 2006
Digital Pigments, Kamalnayan Bajaj Gallery, Mumbai, India 2010
Meanwhile, Cologram, Delhi, India. August 2010
Magnify Multiply, London Print Studios, London. 2011
When Are You Going Back? – The Copper House Gallery, Dublin. 2018
Group Exhibitions
Magnify Multiply and Other Stories Bucks New University, London. December 2011
Fantasy is Toxic, at Rose Garden, New Bucks, High Wycombe, UK. 2011
Co-existance, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India, 2004
I am what I am, Ballina Arts Centre, Ballina, Ireland, 2021
Culture Night with Museum Of Everyone at the Galways Arts Center, 2023
Tides of Monumental Gesture, a multi-disciplinary group exhibition in collaboration with
Museum of Everyone: Communal, Luan Gallery, Athlone,Ireland 2024
Skin / Deep: Perspectives on the Body, Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin 2024 – 25
Notions: Home, Place and Speculations, People’s Museum in Limerick 2025
National Campaign
Proud AF campaign by Gay Project which aims to highlights racism amongst GBTQI+ men in Ireland Funded and supported by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
“Hate Crimes Hurt Us All” Campaign by The Coalition Against Hate Crime Ireland (CAHC),
lead by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) designed to highlight the ripple effect of hate crime across entire communities and the urgent need for hate crime legislation and other measures to tackle the roots of hate crime and hate speech.
Art Residency
MOE – Communal – The Art of Coexistence residedency programe at IMMA and Galway Arts Center, 2023
Design and Illustration Project
Sex Party First Aid Guide – in collaboration with HIV Ireland and Empower, 2021
Syphilis Outbreak Awareness Campaign, in collaboration with Empower, 2021 2021
EMERGE Report for HIV Ireland’s MPOWER Programme During COVID-19 Pandemic, 2022
Monkeypox Awareness National Campaign, in collaboration with Empower, 2022-23
EMBER LGBTQIA+ End-of-Life Guide – in collaboration with LGBT Ireland,, 2024
DoxyPEP Awareness Campaign, in collaboration with Empower, 2024
Film Festival Jury
Gaze Film Festival, Dublin 2021
One Fluid Night, OFN LGBTQIA+ International Film Festival, London, 2024
Podcasts
The ShoutOut Podcast: ShoutOut, ListenIn!
Glow West Podcast – What is sexual racism?
‘Resident’ explores the experiences of immigrants in Ireland
The ShoutOut Podcast: ShoutOut, ListenIn!
Queeriosity! Queer Spectrum Film Festival
The News Talk, Younified, Queer Activist Pradeep Mahadeshwar
The ShoutOut Podcast: Queer Joy: Queer People of Colour in Ireland Today