By Biennale of Sydney
22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN
Gangsters of Art Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney
About the artists
Tennant Creek Brio
Formed 2016
Rupert Betheras
Born 1975 in Melbourne, Australia
Lives and works in Alice Springs; Tennant Creek; and Melbourne, Australia
Fabian Brown
Born 1968 in Alice Springs, Australia
Lives and works in Tennant Creek, Australia
Language group Kaytetye, Waramungu, Warlmunpa and Warlpiri
Marcus Camphoo
Born 1994 in Katherine, Australia
Lives and works in Tennant Creek, Australia
Language group Kaytetye
Jimmy Frank (Jupurrula)
Born 1981 in Alice Springs Australia
Lives and works in Tennant Creek, Australia
Language group Warumungu
Matthew Ladd
Born 1970 in Epenarra, Australia
Lives and works in Tennant Creek, Australia
Language group Alyawarr
Lindsay Nelson
Born 1974 in Ali Curung, Australia
Lives and works in Tennant Creek, Australia
Language group Warlpiri
Clifford Thompson
Born 1980 in Tennant Creek, Australia
Lives and works in Tennant Creek
Language group Kaytetye
Joseph Williams
Born 1978 in Darwin, Australia
Lives and works in Tennant Creek, Australia
Language group Warumungu
Simon Wilson
Born 1987 in Tennant Creek, Australia
Lives and works in Tennant Creek
Language group Alyawarr and Kayetye
Tennant Creek Brio
The Tennant Creek Brio is an artist collective who navigate their individual practices through a collective spirit of energetic, experimental and transformative working, captured by their name brio, an Italian word meaning mettle, fire, or vivacity of style or performance.
"In Tennant Creek, Aboriginal men have been stereotyped into figures of notoriety and disrepute – made to live on the edge of two worlds – a place they have learned not only to inhabit but to ride. They are NIRIN, and this is their biennale: a biennale embodied in them, and in turn, emboldening them to speak their truth."
– Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Cultural Centre
Gangsters of Art Gangsters of Art (2020) by Tennant Creek BrioBiennale of Sydney
Gangsters of Art
One of two installations presented at the Biennale of Sydney, Gangsters of Art showcases a central aspect of their practice, re-working found materials to enliven their multi-layered social commentary.
"In Gangsters of Art the Brio mark their territory: obsolete pokies from Tennant Creek’s old Shaft Night Club are refigured and juxtaposed against jettisoned screens and signage. In a ventriloquist performance, an anarchic assemblage of technology, chance, and power sends-up and repurposes the dominant cultures machinery of alienation – financial, cultural and psychological."
- The Artists
Tap to explore
Navigate around Artspace and explore the installation Gangsters of Art in 360.
We are the Living History We are the Living History (2020) by Tennant Creek BrioBiennale of Sydney
Keep exploring...
Take the NIRIN Social Tour at Cockatoo Island and Artspace; learn more about the Brio's artistic practice in this article in Art Guide Australia; create your own mixed media artwork in this NIRIN at Home activity inspired by the artists; or explore the second NIRIN installation We are the Living History at Cockatoo Island.
Gangsters of Art, 2020
mixed media installation
Presented at the 22nd Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia Council for the Arts and generous assistance from Fondation Opale
Courtesy the artists and Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre
