CASE STUDY

Richard Bell was born in 1953 in Charleville, Queensland, and is a member of the Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang communities.
Based in Brisbane, Richard has held numerous solo exhibitions since 1990. He is represented in major collections in Australia and New Zealand and is internationally recognised through numerous exhibitions, including the significant European touring exhibition Aratjara: art of the First Australians (1993); Culture Warriors, the National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia (2007); the 9th and 16th Biennales of Sydney (1992 and 2008); Australian Perspecta (1993), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the Unfamiliar Territory, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art (1991) and Half-Light: Portraits from Black Australia at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

 

Self described as ‘more activist than artist’, Richard Bell is famous for his uncompromising political artworks. Bell often employs appropriated Western images, artistic styles and motifs in his works. These visuals are frequently coupled with text to create a direct and confrontational message. The use of text in Bell’s art draws influence from the high art, word based works of the 1980s by artists such as Barbara Kruger.

 

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Angry Art? A Review of Richard Bell's solo exhibition 'You'd believe me if I was a white man'