Vincent Namatjira

Vincent Namatjira (born 14 June 1983) is an Aboriginal Australian artist living in Indulkana, in the APY lands in South Australia. After being a finalist for the Archibald Prize three times, in 2020 he became the first Indigenous artist to win the prize for his work Stand strong for who you are, and his work selected as a finalist or winning entry in a number of other significant art awards. He is the great-grandson of the Arrente watercolour artist Albert Namatjira.

Early life Namatjira was born on 14 June 1983 in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, He is the great-grandson of renowned watercolour artist Albert Namatjira, and identifies as a Western Aranda man. After his mother, Jillian, died in 1991, Vincent and his sister were removed by the government and sent to foster homes in Perth, Western Australia, thousands of kilometres away.

Of this period, he has said that he felt lost and did not have good memories of childhood, especially as an adolescent. When he was 18, he travelled to Ntaria (Hermannsburg) to find his extended family. both artists based at Iwantja Arts, an Aboriginal-owned and -operated centre in Indulkana. The series, which comprises 13 paintings, from "Being Initiated in the Bush" to "Albert Namatjira in Prison" to "Dies in Hospital, Broken Heart", is held by QAGOMA, and is available to view online. Artworks from the series were included in Namatjira's 2021 children's book, Albert Namatjira.

Also in 2016, he painted a series of portraits of the seven wealthiest people in Australia,

Three Legends, Namatjira's entry for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) in 2017, was a series of three portraits: David Unaipon, the first published Indigenous Australian writer; Jimmy Little, the first Indigenous performer to have a top 10 single; and Lionel Rose, the first Indigenous boxer to win a world title.

He has painted Donald Trump, whose birthday is on the same day as his own, several times. making Namatjira the first Indigenous Australian artist to win the prize. It was painted in acrylic on linen, with Goodes depicted as "a proud Aboriginal man who stands strong for his people".

On 26 February 2021, a work originally commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's arrival in Australia (2020) but delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, across a large wall known as the Circular Quay Foyer Wall

In August 2021, Namatjira's children's picture book about his grandfather, entitled Albert Namatjira, was published by Magabala Books. The artwork in the book was taken from the 2014 series Albert's Story. It was shortlisted in the 2022 Australian Book Industry Awards in the "Small Publishers' Children's Book of the Year" category.

In July 2022, as part of two festivals – Illuminate Adelaide and Tarnanthi – Namatjira created a huge animation to be projected each night for two weeks on the facade of the Art Gallery of South Australia, a work of public art entitled Going Out Bush. The animation includes elements of landscape from around Indulkana (his home) as well as Ntaria (home of his grandfather Albert), Toyota cars, and the Aboriginal flag. During the day, inside the gallery, his Archibald Prize-winning portrait of Adam Goodes is exhibited as part of a touring exhibition.

Vincent Namatjira has been represented by THIS IS NO FANTASY gallery in Melbourne, Australia, since 2014. The gallery has exhibited his work at numerous international art fairs including Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art16 London, Sydney Contemporary and Melbourne Art Fair.

Style and themes Namatjira has said that while his great-grandfather's work has influenced him greatly, he has created his own distinctive style:

Although his portraits resemble caricature, according to the art historian Wes Hill they also have "a level of sophistication that only a colourist, not a satirist, could possess".

Exhibitions Namatjira's first solo exhibition was held in 2016.

His work has been exhibited at the British Museum (in Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation, 2015); TarraWarra Museum of Art (TarraWarra Biennial, 2016); the Art Gallery of South Australia (Tarnanthi, 2017 & 2018); Art Basel Miami Beach (2018); Artspace Sydney, (Just Not Australian, 2018); Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (Asia Pacific Triennial, 2018); Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne (2018); Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre (2018), Warrnambool Art Gallery (2018) and Flinders University Museum of Art.

In July–August 2022, his work was exhibited alongside that of Kaylene Whiskey and Tiger Yaltangki in an exhibition called Iwantja Rock n Roll at the Fort Gansevoort gallery in New York. The exhibition includes his five-part series of portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, entitled Elizabeth (on Country) (2021), in which the queen's face is juxtaposed with the Australian landscape.

Namatjira's first survey exhibition is part of the 2023 Tarnanthi art festival called Australia in Colour at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA). It comprises over 100 works created between 2014 and 2023, including some new works along with more well-known ones, such as his portrait of Adam Goodes and Close Contact. A large installation called Australia in Colour comprises three rows of paintings each, of a diverse assortment of people including Ned Kelly, Jimi Hendrix, Scott Morrison, Julia Gillard, Gina Rinehart, Eddie Koiki Mabo, and Cathy Freeman, with his self-portrait in the centre. There are also several of Albert Namatjira's carvings and paintings from AGSA's collection included in the exhibition. The survey exhibition then transferred to the National Gallery of Australia, where the works are on display from 2 March until 21 July 2024. It was reported in May 2024 that mining billionaire Gina Rinehart objected to her portrait in the multi-portrait installation, and demanded that the painting be removed from display. The request originated with a group of 20 elite swimmers, led by Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers and Kevin Hasemann, head of Swimming Queensland, who wrote to NGA director Nick Mitzevich, complaining about two of the many portraits of Rinehart created by Namatjira and hanging in the NGA. The National Association for the Visual Arts issued a statement asserting the importance of freedom of artistic expression, while Namatjira himself simply wrote:

His artwork has been selected as a finalist or winning entry in a number of significant art awards. A selection follows. Archibald Prize: 2017: Shortlisted, Self-portrait on Friday 2018: Highly Commended, Studio self-portrait 2019: Finalist, Art is our weapon – portrait of Tony Albert 2020: Winner, Archibald Prize, for Stand strong for who you are, featuring AFL player Adam Goodes and the artist Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards: 2013: Finalist 2014: Finalist 2016: Finalist 2017: Finalist 2013, 2015: Finalist, John Fries Award 2017: Invited finalist in the University of Queensland Art Museum's National Self-Portrait Prize 2019: Winner, Ramsay Art Prize, for Close Contact; worth , awarded by the Art Gallery of South Australia, open to Australian artists under 40 years old 2022: Finalist, Sulman Prize 2023: South Australian Artist of the Year, SALIFE's Absolute Best Awards

Publications

Personal life Namatjira is married to Natasha Pompey and they live at Indulkana with their children .