Title

The art of Lin Onus (1948 - 1996).

Collective title

Queensland Art Gallery travelling exhibition.

Venues

Museum of Contemporary Art [Sydney]. (11 August 2000 – 29 October 2000)

Date

(2000)

Summary

Single-artist exhibition. Located: Australia

Curator

Margo Neale

Documentation

Catalogue

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

Urban dingo: The art of Lin Onus 1948-1996 is a retrospective exhibition celebrating the contribution made by the artist Lin Onus to the emergence of Australian urban-based Indigenous art.

Described by the curator Margo Neale as a “cultural terrorist of gentle irreverence”, Onus, a self-taught artist, left school at the age of 14 and worked as a motor mechanic and spray painter before joining his father making artifacts for the tourist market. He began painting small landscapes in oil in 1974 and in the mid-1980s developed his characteristic fusion of photo-realism and indigenous imagery. Incorporating paintings, sculptures and installations urban dingo acknowledged Onus’ major contribution to the emergence of urban-based indigenous art and contemporary Australian art.

In 1986 Onus was introduced to the Garmerdi community at Maningrida. Making annual pilgrimages to the community, Onus acquired his knowledge of symbols, patterns and designs from the community elders.

Employing wit and irreverence to include rather than alienate viewers, Onus combines Aboriginal imagery and Western art practices to create a hybrid style that speaks across cultures, highlighting points of political and social importance, drawing the viewer into a world of fact, fantasy and fiction.

Of Yorta Yorta and Scottish heritage, Onus’ acknowledged and reconciled his own mixed origins in his art with a dialogue in which he hoped history might see him “as some sort of bridge… between the cultures… between technology and ideas…” (Lin Onus, 1996). Onus’ art deals with issues of identity, the reclamation of culture, hidden histories, land rights and racial injustice, offering new perspectives on Australian history, life and politics from an indigenous perspective. [MOCA media, 2000].