"Urban Dingo: The Art of Lin Onus (1948-1996)"
2000-08-11 until 2000-10-29
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Sydney, , AU Australia

Lin Onus was a Melbourne based artist of Yorta Yorta and Scottish heritage, acknowledged as a pioneer of the development of Aboriginal art in urban Australia. Onus was self-taught as an artist, and took as his mentors Aboriginal community artists and the central desert painter Albert Namatjira. Onus' art combines Aboriginal imagery and Western art practices, creating a hybrid artform that speaks across cultures. He often employed wit and irreverence as a subversive means through which to convey a political message. His paintings, sculptures and installations deal with pertinent issues of identity, the reclamation of culture, hidden histories, landrights and racial injustice.

Onus died prematurely at the age of 47 in October 1996. Although he began painting in 1974, it was not until the mid-1980s that Onus developed his characteristic, photo-realist style which developed out of many visits to Arnhem Land and adoption into a Maningrida family. A Queensland Art Gallery Travelling Exhibition Sponsored at the MCA by American Express An official event in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival This project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body and The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

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