Dharug artist Billy Bain Joins Ames Yavuz
The Singapore‑founded gallery will now represent Billy Bain, whose distinctive and tongue‑in‑cheek practice charts new narratives of Australian Indigeneity. Save to My Ocula
Ceramic artist Billy Bain will join the lineup of creators represented by Ames Yavuz.
Along with the Dharug artist joining the lineup of the international gallery, he will have his first solo exhibition under their banner in 2026.
New paintings and ceramic works by Bain will also be featured at the gallery’s booth at Sydney Contemporary this September.
Bain’s lived experience as an Aboriginal man in urban Australia is central to his practice, with many of his works dealing with what he refers to as ‘a place where he and his family’s presence and survival have been systematically denied’.
Spanning ceramics, painting, and printmaking, Bain’s work depicts ‘classically White domains’ like the beach, pub and sports fields with a cast of diverse, expressive figures to assert the complexities and nuances of contemporary Indigenous life.
Marked with humour and political commentary, his work features recurring visuals such as gold-lustred chains, referring to histories of enslavement and liberation while functioning as symbols of kitsch and power.
‘It’s my cultural responsibility to keep stories of my people circulating, to be honest to myself and true to my story, which is not a typical story of Aboriginality,’ Bain said.
Bain has a notable exhibition history with shows at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2025), The Art Gallery of New South Wales (2025), the Australian Museum (2024), and Penrith Regional Gallery (2024).
He was also a finalist for the prestigious Archibald Prize in 2025, with his finalist portrait, Rona and Pig at Palm Valley (2025), becoming the first work by a Dharug artist to enter into the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. —[O]
Main image: Billy Bain, Self Portrait as Warrior (2025). Exhibition view: Souters Bondi, Bondi Pavilion (10 May–29 June 2025). Courtesy the artist.
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