Australia’s most talked about contemporary artist and a figure of increasing international stature, Richard Bell describes himself as “more an activist than an artist,” and indeed much of his work is politically charged, addressing issues such as the racist Australian culture within which he finds himself. Didactic yet humorous, Bell’s vivid and provocative paintings and videos signal an important and powerful voice in contemporary art. His work is included in major public and private collections and has been represented in a number of notable contemporary exhibitions, both in Australia and overseas, but this will be the first mid-career survey in the U.S. of the work of this important Aboriginal artist. The guest curator is Maura Reilly.

Among Bell’s American corollaries are Emory Douglas, Jimmie Durham, James Luna, Daniel Martinez, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems, all of whom have taken “identity politics” as their subject, appropriating popular imagery to subvert its often inherently derogatory message—be it slavery, the subjugation of indigenous Americans, and so forth. Bell invokes the formal aesthetics of Aboriginal desert painting (with their dot matrixes and expressionist drips) while usurping the mainstream Pop art styles à la Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein. He began his practice of pop appropriation around 2001, as is most visible in his brightly colored Lichtenstein series, of which there are multiple examples in the exhibition, including a Ben-Day dot painting of the Sydney Opera House, as well as the The Peckin’ Order (2007), a well-known work in which a young woman cries out, “Thank Christ I’m Not Aboriginal.”

Bell is probably best known for his “theorems,” a series of paintings with declarative pro-Aboriginal statements. Among his most famous is Aboriginal Art—it’s a white thing (2002), in which he accuses the contemporary art world of manipulating and exploiting indigenous art while he himself ironically utilizes in the work an earthy palette and brushstroke derived from traditional Aboriginal desert painting. Another in the exhibition, Wewereherefirst (2007), which features a multi-colored Jasper Johns target in the center, speaks to a universal indigenous voice in the struggle against the continued colonialist stronghold. In his most recent “theorem,” Pay the Rent (2009), Bell demands back rent from the colonizers as restitution for what they owe to the colonized Aborigines since “the invasion” in 1788.

Likewise, in the provocative video Scratch an Aussie (2008), Bell overturns political and social norms by charading as a black Sigmund Freud who psychoanalyzes racist white Australians. The exhibition will also debut Bell’s new video Broken English (2009), in which the artist plays chess with indigenous politics, asking white and black Australians why Aborigines appear to lack a vision of their own future, often encountering strongly contradictory views. The exhibition will also include The Dinner Party (2010), a new video work that completes his trilogy Imagining Victory.

The exhibition catalogue will include an essay by the curator, a reprint of a canonical 2002 essay by the artist; and two or three additional texts.

Richard Bell: Uz vs. Them will travel to at least 4 venues.

*This is when the tour is expected to begin. The exact date will depend upon the needs of the participating institutions.

For more information, contact Amy Brandt, AFA Assistant Curator of Exhibitions, 212.988.7700 ext. 266 or abrandt@afaweb.org.