Photographer ····Katherine Cordwell
Medium ········· Photographic Series
Published ······ 2024
Medium ········· Photographic Series
Published ······ 2024
Artist Series: This Is Blak Douglas
Blak Douglas, born Adam Douglas Hill, in 1970, is a contemporary Aboriginal artist and musician. Born in Blacktown and raised in Penrith (Dharug Country), Hill is an Indigenous Australian with Irish, Scottish, English and German ancestry.
Hill studied Graphic Design at the University of Western Sydney and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1994. While working as a graphic designer for the Indigenous Australians exhibition at the Australian Museum in 1997, Hill met the Wollongong-based artist Kevin Butler who became his main inspiration to begin painting in 1998.
Hill’s work is heavily influenced by his own experiences as an Aboriginal man living in contemporary Australia. He often draws on his personal history, as well as the stories and experiences of his ancestors, to create works that are both deeply personal and broadly political. His art is characterized by bold, graphic imagery and a striking use of color, and he often incorporates elements of street art and graffiti into his pieces.
In the June 2006 edition of Australian Art Collector writer Adam Geczy said of his work; “Hill’s commentary is laced with humorous bluster. An amalgam of poster art and hip-hop, Adam Hill’s painting still has no parallel in the Aboriginal art community. His works are typically acerbic attacks on abuses to the environment, and the continued reluctance of White communities to acknowledge the Aboriginal presence, past and present.”
He won the 2022 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens and was a finalist for the Archibald Prize in 2015 (Smoke and mirrors – Uncle Max Eulo) and 2018 (Uncle Roy Kennedy). His work is held in the National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Blak Douglas, born Adam Douglas Hill, in 1970, is a contemporary Aboriginal artist and musician. Born in Blacktown and raised in Penrith (Dharug Country), Hill is an Indigenous Australian with Irish, Scottish, English and German ancestry.
Hill studied Graphic Design at the University of Western Sydney and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1994. While working as a graphic designer for the Indigenous Australians exhibition at the Australian Museum in 1997, Hill met the Wollongong-based artist Kevin Butler who became his main inspiration to begin painting in 1998.
Hill’s work is heavily influenced by his own experiences as an Aboriginal man living in contemporary Australia. He often draws on his personal history, as well as the stories and experiences of his ancestors, to create works that are both deeply personal and broadly political. His art is characterized by bold, graphic imagery and a striking use of color, and he often incorporates elements of street art and graffiti into his pieces.
In the June 2006 edition of Australian Art Collector writer Adam Geczy said of his work; “Hill’s commentary is laced with humorous bluster. An amalgam of poster art and hip-hop, Adam Hill’s painting still has no parallel in the Aboriginal art community. His works are typically acerbic attacks on abuses to the environment, and the continued reluctance of White communities to acknowledge the Aboriginal presence, past and present.”
He won the 2022 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens and was a finalist for the Archibald Prize in 2015 (Smoke and mirrors – Uncle Max Eulo) and 2018 (Uncle Roy Kennedy). His work is held in the National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
