Vincent Namatjira, Witty Australian Portraitist, Joins Yavuz
Namatjira was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2020, the same year he became the first Indigenous Australian to win the Archibald Prize.
Vincent Namatjira OAM, Vincent and Vincent (2022) (detail). Acrylic on linen. 122 x 304cm. Courtesy the artist and Yavuz Gallery. Image: Iwantja Arts.
Yavuz Gallery, which has locations in Singapore and Sydney, has added Western Aranda artist Vincent Namatjira OAM to its roster.
'Vincent is a singular voice in contemporary painting, deploying humour as a potent tool to reimagine and upend the politics of colonial power and Aboriginal Australian identity', said the gallery's founding director, Can Yavuz.
'When I see politicians, world leaders, royalty, and other power-players on the news, I see this huge disconnect between their world and the day-to-day reality of life in a remote Aboriginal community,' Namatjira told Ocula Magazine in 2023.
'A lot of my recent paintings are about the reversal of power structures—displacing powerful figures takes away some of their dominance,' he said.
Born in 1983, Namatjira is already one of Australia's most celebrated living painters.
Among other accolades, he was awarded the Ramsay Prize for Australian artists under 40 in 2019 for his double-sided portrait Close Contact (2018).
The following year became the first indigenous artist to win the prestigious Archibald Prize for portraiture.
The winning work was a painting of Australian Football League champion Adam Goodes, which Namatjira was inspired to paint after hearing the racism he endured in the sport.
Namatjira was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to Indigenous visual arts and the community in 2020.
A major monograph celebrating his career so far will be published by Thames and Hudson in October.
Namatjira's first museum survey exhibition, Australia in colour, will run from 20 October 2023 to 21 July 2024 at the Art Gallery of South Australia, before moving on to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
The artist will make his solo debut at Yavuz Sydney in October this year. —[O]
