Courtesy: the artist and Arthouse Gallery, Sydney.

John Prince Siddon is a Walmajarri man who lives in the remote township of Fitzroy Crossing in the West Kimberley. Prince’s psychedelic surrealist paintings bring some of the most urgent themes of our time into piercing view. His ironic combination of Australian narratives, current affairs and ancestral creation stories articulate some of the complexities of the present-day Australian experience.

Prince challenges traditional notions of Indigenous painting. Combining diverse influences drawn from television, the traditional Kimberley craft of boab nut carving, desert iconography and the epic characters of Narrangkarni (Dreamtime), he creates a ground breaking style of painting and sculpture that is eclectic, gothic and psychedelic. His vibrant paintings, 3D printed, painted bull skulls and kangaroo hides explore his Country and history. They engage with issues of national and global significance, from the recent floods, endangered species, destruction of Indigenous landmarks and global warming to the war in Ukraine, gun control and the shortcomings of our politicians.

John Prince Siddon has been a finalist in the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2023), The Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2022) and the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) at the Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018). He was also a featured artist at the Tarnanthi 2021 festival at the Art Gallery of South Australia. His solo exhibition All Mixed Up at the Fremantle Arts Centre, presented in conjunction with the Perth Festival 2020, was heralded as the ‘stand-out exhibition’ of the festival by John McDonald of the Sydney Morning Herald. His works are included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia and Artbank.

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