GEORGE COOLEY
b. 1953, AustraliaA senior man and respected community leader from Coober Pedy, George Cooley holds leadership roles across the Umoona and broader Coober Pedy communities. His paintings are grounded in deep knowledge of Country, mapping the expansive desert landscapes that surround his home, most notably the Breakaways, a culturally significant site located 25 kilometres north of Coober Pedy, renowned for its dramatic mesas, plains and colour shifting horizons. Working from lived experience, George paints the desert as a living, changing environment.
His compositions capture the intensity of ochre-rich earth, granite rock formations, mulga scrub and the shifting chromatic registers of Country across seasons. Embedded within these works is his history as an opal miner, where flashes of iridescent colour echo through the painted surface, blending seamlessly with the reds, oranges and purples of the desert terrain. As George reflects: “My story is about the painted desert landscapes, landscaping of Country and the environment of Coober Pedy... Using these colours reminds me of living on Country and the many campsites that we used to visit when the old people were still around.” George Cooley’s practice has received significant national recognition. He was a finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2023, 2024 and 2025, a finalist in the Wynne Prize in 2024 and 2025, and was included in the 2024 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum. Visions of Country at CASSANDRA BIRD SYDNEY (2026) marked an important moment in George Cooley’s career and offered audiences in Sydney a powerful introduction to an artist whose work speaks to memory, continuity and enduring connection to Country.
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