작품 상세

Arone Meeks was a Kuku Midigi man who grew up in Yarrabah and El Arish missions in Far North Queensland. Initially taught to paint by his grandfather, his talent was recognised at an early age and he studied fine art at the City Art Institute in Sydney. A founding member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, he won an Australia Council Fellowship to study at the Cité Internationale in Paris, and went on to exhibit throughout Europe, and North and South America. In 1992, he was awarded the UNICEF Ezra Jack Keats Award for International Excellence in Children's book illustration. He then exhibited and attended monoprint workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1994, and later returned to Queensland to study with tribal elders, including those of the Lardil people of Mornington Island. Meeks' work drew on traditional themes arising out of his concern with the issues of Land Rights, sexuality, cultural values, and belonging to place. He was concerned not only with representing identities of difference, but also with linking them, based on common ground. His art is remarkable for its ability to explore multiple identities in a manner that celebrates and liberates them.