Vincent Namatjira has been making headlines since becoming the first Indigenous artist to win the Archibald Prize in 2020. Since then, he's gone on to win awards and accolades around the world. Now, he's bringing a new exhibition to Sydney, where fellow APY lands artists Eric Barney and Alec Baker are also presenting their works. 'King Dingo' is the name of the show and provides a fresh perspective of one of our most exciting portrait artists.
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00:00Far from their home in the AP wildlands, Vincent Namadjira and his countrymen Eric Barney and
00:14Alec Baker have set Sydney alight with the colours of Indolkana.
00:19These two have come together to do a collaboration work of dot painting called country painting,
00:26the paintings of water holes we call Chukwala and the mountains we call Puli, and the trees
00:36we call Burnu.
00:37Eric Barney usually lets his work do the talking, but shares how art helps him connect to country
00:44and to elder Alec Baker.
00:46I do the painting, this is me, I make water hole and all the trees, make colour too.
00:56I paint fast, really fast, not get tight, not get light, only really fast.
01:06Vincent Namadjira steeped in a long art tradition that includes his famous great grandfather
01:11Albert Namadjira is keen to share the limelight.
01:15The paintings that you see on this wall here, the beautiful dot paintings, the dots are
01:20coming from Barney and Alec together and with these two we would like to just say have
01:28a show in Sydney in this wonderful gallery to represent these two wonderful artists to
01:34be shown around the world.
01:36Me and Alec helping this old man, that's why I help him, can't move him, he's a little
01:43car person, and every day he come for painting, and I sit and wait for him to do painting,
01:51and I do it, it's only two big ones.
01:56Known for sparking strong reactions to his works, Vincent doesn't retreat from the recent
02:02controversy surrounding his portrait series featuring Australia's richest woman.
02:07The portrait about Gina Reinhardt, I just painted her because she's just one of the
02:13richest people in Australia, that's the reason why I painted her to be honest, yeah.
02:17This time Vincent's putting himself in the picture.
02:21With my particular work I'm painting for this exhibition here, the King Dingo, to me the
02:26Dingo represents strength, resilience, and proud, and he's courageous, and also he's
02:34also wild, and he's a leader. I'm looking at a reflection of myself as well, through
02:43my career as an artist in Australia, I could say one of the best artists in Australia today.
02:52So what would Eric like people to feel when they see these paintings?
02:57Happy.
03:03Happy.