Lot 109

Realities Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne
Thence by descent

Other Side Art: Trevor Nickolls, A Survey of Paintings and Drawings 1972-2007, The Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 13 May – 2 Aug 2009

"Other Side Art was the first museum survey of the work of senior South Australian artist, Trevor Nickolls. Nickolls has been described as 'the father of urban Aboriginal art' and stands as a seminal figure whose career has spanned an unprecedented era of Aboriginal cultural expression since colonisation. Over more than thirty years, Nickolls has developed a unique repertoire of visual symbols to depict the impact of Western culture on Aboriginal traditional life. His art informs many of the critical intellectual and aesthetic positions that are vital to questions of identity and Aboriginality in Australia. The exhibition brought together more than fifty paintings and drawings from around Australia, aiming to recognise Nickolls's pioneering role in a generation of Aboriginal artists' struggle to forge a new position within the mainstream of Australian art and culture at a vital juncture in the nation's history. Largely based on a chronological sequence of paintings with the addition of selected works on paper, groups of works were arranged to explore the various facets of the artist's interests: the interplay between human psychology and the polemical and political, the cityscape and unmodified landscape, and the harmony/disharmony between the spiritual and the material."

(Curator Michael O'Ferrall, The Potter Museum of Art, Parkville)

"The top half of this painting shows a traditional scene with male and female trees. Their gender is shown through genitalia added by Nickolls. The central figure is reflected in contemporary cityscape. Nickolls is fond of the idea of his work being considered as ‘contemporary – traditional'. Machinetime to Dreamtime and this work are prime examples of that idea."

(excerpt from University of South Australia)

© Trevor Nickolls/Copyright Agency, 2025