Richard Bell (b. 1953) uses his practice to explore the complex artistic and political problems of Western, colonial and Indigenous art production. Growing out of a generation of Aboriginal activists, he has remained committed to the politics of Aboriginal emancipation and self-determination. In 2003 he was the recipient of the Telstra National Aboriginal Art Award, establishing him as an important figure in contemporary Australian Art, and in 2015 collaborated with eminent American activist Emory Douglas on a series of works presented at Milani Gallery.
Bell has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout Australia and overseas, such as ‘Embassy’, 58th Venice Biennale, 20th Biennale of Sydney, Performa 15 New York City, 16th Jakarta Biennale, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (2013-ongoing); ‘Asia Pacific Triennial 8’, QAG|GOMA (2015); ‘See You at the Barricades’, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2015); ‘Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art’, National Gallery of Canada (2013); Asian Art Biennial, Taiwan (2013); Fifth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2013); ‘My Country, I Still Call Australia Home’, QAG|GOMA (2013); ‘Half-Light: Portraits from Black Australia’, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2008); Biennale of Sydney (2008 and 1992); ‘Culture Warriors’, National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, (2007); ‘Aratjara: Art of the First Australians’, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf (1993); ‘Australian Perspecta’, Art Gallery of New South Wales (1993); and ‘Unfamiliar Territory’, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (1991). In 2016, Bell opened ‘BELL invites…’, an exhibition of work by himself, friends and collaborators, at the Stedelijk Museum SMBA, Amsterdam, and premiered a new sculptural commission at the Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem, Netherlands.
