Vernon Ah Kee


Vernon Ah Kee is an Australian award-winning artist, political activist and founding member of ProppaNOW. He is an Aboriginal Australian man with ties to the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples in Queensland, Australia. His art practice typically focuses on his Aboriginal Australian identity and place within a modern Australian framework. He is a contemporary artist, based primarily in Brisbane, and is regarded as one of Australia's most prominent, active artists. Ah Kee has exhibited his art at numerous galleries across Australia, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. He has also exhibited internationally, most notably at the 2009 Venice Biennale and the 2015 Istanbul Biennial, having been chosen to represent Australia.
Ah Kee has a very diverse art practice, using a broad range of techniques and media such as painting, installation, photography and text-based art. He is particularly renowned for his manipulation of colonial language and imagery to highlight racial issues in Australia. His exhibitions generally receive positive reviews and his works are hosted in both public and private collections around the world.
In 2003, Ah Kee, along with other Indigenous Australian artists Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd and Joshua Herd, created ProppaNOW – an organisation dedicated to supporting urban Indigenous artists in Brisbane and combating cultural stereotypes.
He was awarded the Australia Council's Visual Arts Fellowship in 2018.

Personal life and education

Vernon Ah Kee was born in Innisfail, Queensland in 1967 to Merv and Margaret Ah Kee, who were Indigenous rights activists. Like most other Indigenous people in Australia, the family was not included in the population census until 1971. He is an Aboriginal Australian, of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Ggu Yimithirr peoples in Queensland. He also has some Chinese ancestry from his great-grandfather, but Ah Kee has stated that he identifies more with his Indigenous heritage.
His family moved to Cairns when he was a teenager, and Ah Kee sketched avidly at this time.
Ah Kee started his Bachelor of Visual Art at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane in 1996. He majored in Contemporary Indigenous Australian art and earned his degree in 1998. He then went on to do honours in fine art from 1999 to 2000, and then completed a doctorate in fine art from 2001 to 2007. During his studies, he had two solo exhibitions hosted at his college's art gallery as part of his postgraduate work – whitefella normal blackfella me in 2000 and con Text in 2007.
In 2014, his father died in a car accident. In 2017 Ah Kee drew Portrait of My Father, a task that he described as a "labour of love".
Ah Kee suffered a heart attack in 2016 but managed to recover in time for his 2017 exhibition Not an animal or a plant.

Career

Art practice

While Ah Kee incorporates a broad range of different art mediums, from life drawings to video installations, a consistent theme across all of his artworks is his examination of racism in Australia. Ah Kee has said that his art practice has been influenced by a wide range of artists and styles, but most significantly by other Indigenous artists such as Kevin Gilbert, Trevor Nickolls, Richard Bell and Gordon Bennett, stating that "I can see my own life and history" in their artworks. In particular, Bell and Bennett's manipulation of colonial text and images encouraged him to broaden his art practice and experiment with media beyond drawing - the text art, in particular, is a common technique among ProppaNOW artists. He also credits the politics of Malcolm X and James Baldwin, two prominent African American activists, as early inspirations for both his art practice and personal activism, as well as Barbara Kruger's propaganda-inspired art.
Many of his text-based artworks contain colonial language that have been manipulated and rewritten to create a secondary meaning, such as his 2003 austracism being a play on the word "ostracism", and 2009 becauseitisbitter appropriating a poem from American poet Stephen Crane to portray an Indigenous experience of contemporary Australia. It has been suggested that the black and white text introduces the concept of racial relations in Australia and that the word play makes the audience think more deeply on the issues represented. The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia described his text-based art as "...point to prejudices and agendas embedded in Australian society and politics. These puns and words-within-words fuse the history and language of colonisation with contemporary experiences and issues".
Ah Kee has also engaged with drawing and painting mediums to highlight the modern Indigenous experience. fantasies of the good is a series of 13 detailed charcoal life drawings of different members of Ah Kee's family, who are all identified by name. The series uses a mug-shot style and is suggested to reference the documentation of Indigenous Australians by some anthropologists in the twentieth century; the Indigenous people who were documented were unnamed and the works were rather referred to by numbers. Ah Kee wanted to convey Australia's history of racism and has stated that "These drawings and what they represent are my evidence". His 2012 portrait, I see deadly people: Lex Wotton, depicted the titular man through bold paint strokes Ah Kee explained that Wotton's actions during the Palm Island Riots led to him being negatively misrepresented in the media, and the artist decided that "Lex should look bold and brave" in his portrait.
Ah Kee has used video installation art, most notably in his exhibition Tall Man, to create confronting reflections of Australian racism. In Tall Man, Ah Kee collected and edited footage from the Palm Island riots, an event that occurred after the death of Indigenous man Cameron Doomadgee in police custody, and retold the controversial story from an Indigenous perspective. The installation played across four screens and juxtaposed a peaceful representation of Palm Island with the chaos of the riots, concluding with footage of protesters holding up signs with Christian-related statements such as "Thou shalt not covet the land no more". Maura Reilly suggests this was to reference the hypocrisy of white Australian Christians in their treatment of Indigenous peoples.
His recent work, the island, also features a video installation, in which Ah Kee highlights Australia's "brutal" immigration system through the recounting of an Afghani refugee couple's story, rather than wholly focusing on the experiences of Indigenous Australians.

proppaNOW

Along with Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd and Joshua Herd, all artists based in Brisbane, Ah Kee is a founding member of proppaNOW. Bell had stated in 2002: "Aboriginal art – its a white thing", saying that the industry was controlled by white people, a sentiment echoed by Ah Kee. The ProppaNOW artists seek to refute the white belief that remote Indigenous Australians are the only true Aboriginal people, and to re-establish the presence of urban Indigenous people in society. The founding members created the organisation after the government's Queensland Indigenous Artists Marketing Export Agency appeared to focus more on Indigenous artists from rural communities than on those from urban areas.
At a Canberra proppaNOW exhibition in 2007, Ah Kee displayed his artwork You Deicide. Senior Curator at the National Museum of Australia, Margo Neale, suggested that the work's deliberate misuse of deicide was a comment on the role of Christian-based religions in the "cultural terrorism" of Aboriginal people, and that the manipulation of colonial language in the work was a common "tactical device used by the proppaNOW artists".

Dark + Disturbing

Dark + Disturbing is a curatorial project by Ah Kee. In August 2015, he mounted the exhibition Dark + Disturbing: Gordon Hookey for proppaNOW at theCairns Indigenous Art Fair, featuring the work of fellow collaborator in proppaNow, Gordon Hookey.

Reception

Reviews and criticisms of his art

Ah Kee has generally received positive reviews of his art, often being praised for his clever reinventions of colonial language to highlight racism in Australia and noted for the dual personal and political nature of his art. His Tall Man exhibition, a video and text installation of the Palm Island Riots, was called a "smartly composed yet painful examination of racial relations in Australia" by Art Asia Pacific Magazine.
Art critic and broadcaster Andrew Frost reviewed some of Ah Kee's works at the Sydney Festival and quotes the artist: "this is not history, this is my life" and "this is not political, it's personal". Frost gave particular praise for the artist's charcoal drawings of his family, the form referencing the documentation of Indigenous peoples by 20th century anthropologists, finding that Ah Kee was personalising a traditionally impersonal genre.
When Ah Kee was awarded the Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize, one of the judges, National Art School Curator Judith Blackall, also noted the dual political and personal nature of Ah Kee's work and how it impacts the audience. In regard to his portrait of Lex Wotton, she stated that “Vernon’s masterful drawing technique of charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas goes from strength to strength. This portrait is particularly powerful as it shows Lex Wotton – who the artist knows well as he is married to Vernon’s cousin – in profile, with an intense gaze. Importantly, the story behind the portrait is of great significance, both personally for the artist and politically for Australia".
In Ah Kee's 2020 exhibition, The Island, Andrew Brooks suggested that the show was criticising the romanticised, white settler mythology of Australia and was trying to remind the audience of Australia's indigenous presence. Unlike Frost, Brooks determined the inclusion of the Yuendumu doors to be "a powerful statement about the continuity of Indigenous sovereignty in this country", especially in their juxtaposition with the Walpiri Dreamtime paintings. Brooks judged that the contrast between the racist graffiti of Yuendumu doors and the "vibrant" Dreamtime paintings indicated that indigenous culture was more than what white Australian culture limited it to be.

Awards

In 2012, Ah Kee was a finalist for the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Archibald Prize with his portrait I see deadly people: Lex Wotton. Wootton man is Ah Kee's cousin-in-law and was a key figure in the Palm Island Riots of 2004. In the same year, Ah Kee was also awarded Visual Artist of the Year in the Deadly Awards, the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander
Music, Sport, Entertainment & Community Awards.
In 2014, the Redlands Konika Minolta established artist prize was awarded to Ah Kee for his charcoal rendition of Lex Wotton.
In 2018, Ah Kee was awarded a Visual Arts Fellowship by the Australia Council for the Arts. The fellowship is worth up to and awarded to prominent artists in mid-career. Ah Kee planned to use his fellowship grant to exhibit his work in England and at other galleries abroad, as well as to produce new artworks.

Media

In 2020 Ah Kee featured as one of six Indigenous artists in the ABC TV series This Place: Artist Series. The series is a partnership between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Gallery of Australia, in which the producers travelled to the countries of "some of Australia's greatest Indigenous artists to share stories about their work, their country, and their communities".

Exhibitions

, Ah Kee has displayed his art at 30 solo exhibitions and 100 group exhibitions, all around the world. He continues to create and exhibit his art in 2020, with plans to exhibit more of his work abroad. The following table lists his exhibitions to date.
YearExhibitionExhibition TypeGalleryPlaceCountry
1999If I was WhiteSoloMetro Arts CentreBrisbaneAustralia
2000The Which WaySoloQueensland College of Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2001whitefella normal blackfella meSolo Queensland College of Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2002non-PeopleSoloBellas GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2002Transit NarrativesGroupCentro per la Arti Visive LE VENEZIETrevisoItaly
2002Transit NarrativesGroupSalone espositivoAuronzo di CadoreItaly
2002MunicipioGroupQueensland College of Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2002MunicipioGroupVictorian College of the ArtsMelbourneAustralia
2003consentSoloGallery 1 of the Institute of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2003Places That Name UsGroupIan Potter Museum of ArtMelbourneAustralia
20031 Square Mile, Brisbane BoundariesGroupMuseum of BrisbaneBrisbaneAustralia
2003AbstractionsGroupThe Drill HallCanberra, ACTAustralia
2003This Is Not AmericaGroupDusseldorfGermany
2003This Is Not AmericaGroupQueensland College of ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2003Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the RainforestGroupQueensland Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
20034 x 4GroupInstitute of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
20035 White CubesGroupForum Kunst Art ResidencyRottweilGermany
2003Feedback: Art, Social Consciousness and ResistanceGroupMuseum of ArtMelbourneAustralia
2004fantasies of the goodSoloBellas Milani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2004skinGroupLong Gallery, Salamanca Arts CentreHobart, Tas.Australia
2004Cultural Copy: Visual Conversations on Indigenous Art and Cultural AppropriationGroupFowler Museum of Cultural HistoryLos AngelesUSA
2004blak insights: Contemporary Indigenous Art from the Queensland Art GalleryGroupQueensland Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2004ART TV 2004: Australian Culture NowGroupAustralian Centre for the Moving ImageMelbourneAustralia
2004Spirit and Vision: Aboriginal ArtGroupSammlung Essl—KunsthausKlosterneuburgAustria
2005you must hitSoloBellas Milani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2005mythunderstandingSoloContemporary Art Centre of South AustraliaAdelaideAustralia
2005ARC ArtGroupDesign & Craft Biennial, Brisbane City HallBrisbaneAustralia
2005Thick and FastGroupThe PowerhouseBrisbaneAustralia
2005Art Urbain du PacificGroupDiff’ Art Pacific, The Castle of St-AuventSaint AuventFrance
2005The Grey VoiceGroupTin Sheds GallerySydneyAustralia
2005UntitledGroupThe Lane GalleryAucklandNew Zealand
2005Face Value: Video portraiture from the PacificGroupIvan Dougherty GallerySydneyAustralia
2005Face Value: Video portraiture from the PacificGroupMuseum of BrisbaneBrisbaneAustralia
2006not an animal or a plantSoloBellas Milani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2006Yours, Mine, Ours: The ABC of EverythingGroupCampbelltown Arts CentreSydneyAustralia
2006There Goes the NeighbourhoodGroupAmbleside Street StudioBrisbaneAustralia
2006Colonial to ContemporaryGroupDell GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2006The Sixth Drawing BiennaleGroupDrill Hall Gallery, ANUCanberraAustralia
2006MCA Collection: New Acquisitions 2006GroupMuseum of Contemporary ArtSydneyAustralia
2006Radical Regionalism: The Empire of ShadowsGroupMuseum of LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
2006Radical Regionalism: The Empire of ShadowsGroupOntarioCanada
2006Queensland LiveGroup Queensland Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2006Queensland LiveGroup Gladstone, QldAustralia
2006Queensland LiveGroup Logan, Vic.Australia
2006Queensland LiveGroup BundabergAustralia
2006Queensland LiveGroup CairnsAustralia
2006Queensland LiveGroup Ipswich, QldAustralia
2006Queensland LiveGroup Cleveland, QldAustralia
2006Queensland LiveGroup Mackay, QldAustralia
2006Queensland LiveGroup Toowoomba, QldAustralia
2006DancelinesGroupGeorge Adams Gallery, The Arts CentreMelbourneAustralia
2007cant chantSoloInstitute of Modern Art BrisbaneAustralia
2007unwrittenSoloBellas Milani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2007conTextSolo Queensland College of Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2007DrawingsSoloBrisbane State High SchoolBrisbaneAustralia
2007Power & Beauty: Indigenous Art NowGroupHeide Museum of Modern ArtMelbourneAustralia
2007RegionalismsGroupUniversity of Queensland Art MuseumBrisbaneAustralia
2007National Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture WarriorsGroupNational Gallery of ArtCanberraAustralia
2007The Amersham TrophyGroupAmbleside Street Studio, West EndBrisbaneAustralia
2007Sunshine StateGroupSmart State, Campbelltown Arts CentreSydneyAustralia
2007Friendly FireGroup George Petelin GalleryGold Coast, QldAustralia
2007Thresholds of ToleranceGroupSchool of Art GalleryCanberraAustralia
2007Raised by WolvesGroupArt Gallery of Western AustraliaPerthAustralia
2008belief suspensionSoloArtspaceSydneyAustralia
2008borninthisskinSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2008Revolutions: Forms that TurnGroup2008 Biennale of SydneySydneyAustralia
2008In the space of elsewhereGroupStanley Picker GalleryLondonEngland
2008New MillenniumGroupLismore Regional GalleryLismore, NSWAustralia
2008On PaperGroupMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2008OptimismGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2009Once RemovedGroup53rd Venice Biennale of ArtVenice, ItalyAustralia
2009Terra Nullius: Contemporary Art from AustraliaGroupACC GalerieWeimarGermany
2009I walk the line: new Australian drawingGroupMuseum of Contemporary ArtSydneyAustralia
2009Avoiding myth and message: Australian artists & the literary worldGroupMuseum of Contemporary ArtSydneyAustralia
2010Tall ManSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2010Vernon Ah KeeSoloCity GalleryWellingtonNew Zealand
2010WaruSoloGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2010WaruSoloKick Arts, Contemporary ArtsCairns, QldAustralia
2010Blow your house inSoloMackenzie Art GalleryReginaCanada
2010becauseitisbitterSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2010roundabout.GroupCity Gallery WellingtonWellingtonNew Zealand
2010Basil Sellers Art Prize,GroupIan Potter Museum of ArtMelbourneAustralia
2010National Works on Paper AwardGroupMornington Peninsula Regional GalleryMelbourneAustralia
2010Jus’ Drawn,GroupLinden Contemporary Arts CentreMelbourneAustralia
2010PUTSCH proppaNOWGroup Nanwang Academy of Fine Arts Gallery Singapore
2011Erased: Contemporary Australian DrawingGroup PSG Art Gallery, Silpakorn UniversityBangkokThailand
2011Erased: Contemporary Australian DrawingGroup Chiang Mai University Faculty of Fine Art GalleryChiang MaiThailand
2011Erased: Contemporary Australian DrawingGroup Khon Kaen University Art GalleryKhon KaenThailand
2011Erased: Contemporary Australian DrawingGroup National Art SchoolSydneyAustralia
2011Ten Years of Contemporary Art: The James Sourris CollectionGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2012Hallmarks of the HungrySoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2012Everything Falls ApartGroupArtspaceSydneyAustralia
2012Propositions Part 2GroupMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2012Negotiating this World: Contemporary Australian ArtGroupNational Gallery of VictoriaMelbourneAustralia
2012unDisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art TriennialGroupNational Gallery of AustraliaCanberraAustralia
2012The Future’s Not What it Used to BeGroupTouring Chapter GalleryCardiff, WalesAustralia
2012The Future’s Not What it Used to BeGroupNewlyn Art Gallery and ExchangeCornwallEngland
2012Making Change: Celebrating the 40 Years of Australia-China Diplomatic RelationsGroupNAMOCBeijingChina
2012Making Change: Celebrating the 40 Years of Australia-China Diplomatic RelationsGroupCOFASydneyAustralia
2013Invasion PaintingsSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2013My Country: I Still Call Australia HomeGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2013Voice and ReasonGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2013Sakahan: 1th International Quinquennial of New Indigenous ArtGroupNational Gallery of CanadaOttawaCanada
2013ShadowlifeGroupBendigo Art GalleryBendigo, Vic.Australia
2014BrutalitiesSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2014Saltwater CountryGroupGold Coast City GalleryGold Coast, QldAustralia
2014Subject to RuinGroupCasula Power HouseCasula, NSWAustralia
2014Four RoomsGroupAdelaide FestivalAdelaideAustralia
2015EncountersGroupNational Museum of AustraliaCanberraAustralia
2015Propositions ThreeGroupMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2015When Silence FallsGroupArt Gallery of New South WalesSydneyAustralia
2015Brutal Truths,GroupGriffith University Art MuseumBrisbaneAustralia
2015The 14th Istanbul Biennial SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought FormsGroupIstanbulTurkey
2015GOMA QGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2015Imaginary AccordGroupInstitute of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2015BlackoutGroupSydney College of the ArtsSydneyAustralia
2015See You at the BarricadesGroupArt Gallery of New South WalesSydneyAustralia
2016Sugar Spin: You, me, art and everythingGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2016
Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia,		GroupHarvard Art MuseumsCambridge, MassachusettsUSA
2016With Secrecy and DespatchGroupCampbelltown Arts CentreSydneyAustralia
2016Frontier ImaginariesGroupInstitute of Modern Art and QUT Art MuseumBrisbaneAustralia
2016Black,White & RestiveGroupNewcastle Art GalleryNewcastle, NSWAustralia
2016Endless Circulation: Tarrawarra Biennial,GroupTarraWarra Museum of ArtTarraWarra, VictoriaAustralia
2016Over the FenceGroupUQ Art MuseumBrisbaneAustralia
2016On the Origin of ArtGroupMuseum of Old and New ArtHobart, Tas.Australia
2016Shut Up and PaintGroupNational Gallery of VictoriaMelbourneAustralia
2017OdeSoloMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2017Will I LiveSoloApartment der KunstMunichGermany
2017Not a plant or an animalSoloNational Art School GallerySydneyAustralia
2017A Change Is Gonna ComeGroupNational Museum of AustraliaCanberraAustralia
2017Australian CollectionGroupPermanent Hang, Queensland Art GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2017BOARD: Surf and Skate Cultures Meet Contemporary ArtGroupLake Macquarie City Art GalleryLake Macquarie, NSWAustralia
2018Boundary LinesGroupGriffith University Art MuseumBrisbaneAustralia
20182018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Divided WorldsGroupArt Gallery of South AustraliaAdelaideAustralia
2018Riots: Slow Cancellation of the FutureGroupifa-GalerieBerlinGermany
2018Playback, DobellGroupAustralian Drawing Biennial, Art Gallery of NSWSydneyAustralia
2018Hunter Red: CorpusGroupNewcastle GalleryNewcastle, NSWAustralia
2019Shadow LightGroupMilani GalleryBrisbaneAustralia
2019cantchantGroupArt Gallery of AlbertaAlbertaCanada
2019Body LanguageGroupNational Gallery of AustraliaCanberraAustralia
2019I, ObjectGroupGallery of Modern ArtBrisbaneAustralia
2019Hope Dies Last: Art at the End of Optimism,GroupGertrude ContemporaryMelbourneAustralia
2019Australia. Antipodean StoriesGroupPadiglione D'Arte Contemporanea MilanoMilanItaly
2020The IslandSoloCampbelltown Arts CentreSydneyAustralia