The Footscray-raised self-taught artist achieves a career milestone with the opening of his first retrospective, featuring more than 100 works
Installation view of REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie, on display at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia until 27 January 2025.Installation view of REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie, on display at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia until 27 January 2025., including the National Gallery of Victoria. There, he fell in love with art. “I’d spend hours in these places as a kid,” he says. “That stayed with me for a long time.
Decades later, the self-taught Kamilaroi artist’s dream is coming true with Rekospective, a major exhibition at the NGV’s Ian Potter Centre charting the last two decades of his prolific, multidisciplinary career. Among more than 100 works are early stencils, sculptural installations, multi-channel videos and neon wall pieces., and the experiences of Rennie’s grandmother, Julia, who was a child of the Stolen Generations. Remember Me, a monumental 15-metre-wide illuminated text work, memorialises.
When it came to a career, however, he initially chose journalism, motivated by the idea of being a voice for his community. “I thought I could maybe be the Indigenous correspondent, or work more with First Nations stories,” he says. Instead, when he graduated, he was assigned to the crime beat at the Age, covering harrowing stories in the courts. “I was really disillusioned with working as a journalist,” he says. “I was seeing really negative aspects of society every day.
That was 15 years ago, and Rennie has been a full-time artist since. That’s not to say it was easy making the transition into what Rennie says is “a very cliquey world”. “ I had a lot of commercial gallery directors going, ‘what are your dreams?’ I said, ‘I want to have a show in New York … I want to show at the Venice Biennale’. They’re like, ‘maybe you need to be a bit more realistic,’” he says.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Rennie Advisory co-CEOs Simone and Matt Rennie on their daily scheduleSimone and Matt Rennie, co-founders of rising consulting challenger Rennie Advisory, avoid work after dinner at all costs.
Read more »
ASX set for bright start as economic data boosts Wall StreetUS stocks are gaining ground on Wall Street following a couple on the economy that came in close to expectations.
Read more »
ASX set for bright start as economic data boosts Wall StreetUS stocks are gaining ground on Wall Street following a couple on the economy that came in close to expectations.
Read more »
ASX set for bright start as economic data boosts Wall StreetUS stocks are gaining ground on Wall Street following a couple on the economy that came in close to expectations.
Read more »
Manchester United and a bright red vision of the future lacking in detailIn today’s Football Daily: how a ‘Wembley of the North’ could look (if you were very far away)
Read more »
Dye leak turns water bright green in Sydney harbour at Kirribilli‘Bucket-full’ of non-toxic dye shocks onlookers at Milson Park, Kirribilli, as experts conclude ‘misuse’ likely to blame
Read more »