Experience REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie at NGV

By Our Reporter
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Portrait of Reko Rennie // Photo by Eugene Hyland

REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie is now open, showcasing the artist’s most extensive body of work to date and his first-ever retrospective. This major exhibition features over 100 pieces, including a stunning 15-metre-wide light sculpture, a Rolls Royce covered in bold pink and black camouflage, and the world premiere of Rennie’s latest large-scale figurative painting.

The exhibition offers an in-depth look at Rennie’s more than two-decade-long career, displaying recent acquisitions and new, never-before-seen works. Audiences are invited to explore Rennie’s powerful engagement with history, culture, and materials, tracing his journey from graffiti culture to international recognition.

Rennie, who began his artistic journey as a young graffiti artist, has become renowned for his unique style that blends street art principles with contemporary forms and traditional Kamilaroi designs. His work, which includes printmaking, sculpture, video, painting, and neon, often challenges romanticized views of Aboriginal identity.

Having exhibited across Australia, Asia, the U.S., and Europe, Rennie’s career highlights include participation in Personal Structures: Crossing Borders at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015 and the 2016 XIII Bienal de Cuenca in Ecuador. In 2008, he devoted himself fully to his art practice, receiving the prestigious Victorian Indigenous Art Award. His works are now held in major state collections and public art commissions throughout Australia.

One of the key highlights of REKOSPECTIVE is the NGV debut of Remember Me (2020), a monumental light work spanning over 15 metres. Commissioned by Carriageworks and acquired by the NGV, this piece is a poignant response to the 250th anniversary of Lieutenant James Cook’s first landfall at Botany Bay, acting as a contemporary memorial for the frontier wars and the displacement of Aboriginal communities.

Another standout is Initiation OA_RR (2021), a three-channel film that follows a customized pink 1973 Holden Monaro cruising through Melbourne’s western suburbs, a nod to Rennie’s youth. The film explores themes of drag-racing culture and Kamilaroi initiation practices, accompanied by an original score composed by Yorta Yorta soprano Deborah Cheetham AO.

This film builds on his earlier work, OA_RR (2016), in which Rennie drives a Rolls Royce wrapped in his signature camouflage design across the red desert of Kamilaroi Country. Both the Rolls Royce and the accompanying film will be on display, highlighting the artist’s interest in materiality and subcultures like Australian car culture.

The exhibition opened on 10 October 2024 and runs until 27 January 2025 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square. Entry is free. For more information, visit NGV.MELBOURNE.

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