Vernon Ah Kee
Education
2001 - 07
Doctorate of Visual Arts (Fine Art), Queensland College of Art.
1999 - 2000
Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours (Fine Art), Queensland College of Art.
1996 - 98
Bachelor of Visual Arts, Contemporary Indigenous Australian Art, Queensland College of Art.
Solo Exhibitions
2012
Hallmarks of the Hungry, Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
2011
Tall Man, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne.
Bad Sign, Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
2010
Tall Man, Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
Vernon Ah Kee, City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
waru, Queensland College of Art Gallery, Brisbane.
2009
waru, Kick Arts, Contemporary Arts, Cairns.
Blow your house in, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Canada.
becauseitisbitter, Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
2008
belief suspension, Artspace, Sydney.
born in this skin, Milani Gallery, Brisbane .
2007
cant chant, Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
unwritten, Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
conText, Postgraduate Assessment Exhibition, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane.
Drawings, Brisbane State High School, Brisbane.
2006
not an animal or a plant, Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
2005
you must hit, Bellas Milani Gallery, Wooloongabba, Brisbane.
mythunderstanding, The Contemporary Arts Centre of South Australia, Adelaide.
2004
fantasies of the good, Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
2003
consent, Gallery 1, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.
anotherthing, Bellas Gallery, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
2002
non-People, Bellas Gallery, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
2001
whitefella normal blackfella me, Postgraduate Exhibition, Queensland College of Art Gallery, Brisbane.
2000
The Which Way, Queensland College of Art Gallery, Brisbane.
1999
If I was White, Metro Arts Building, Brisbane.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2013
My Country: I Still Call Australia Home, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern art, Brisbane.
Voice and Reason, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern art, Brisbane.
Sakahàn: 1st International Quinquennial of New Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada.
Shadowlife, Bendigo Art Gallery.
2012 - 13
The Future’s Not What it Used to Be, touring Chapter Gallery, Cardiff; Newlyn Art Gallery & Exchange, Cornwall.
Making Change: Celebrating the 40 Years of Australia-China Diplomatic Relations, touring: NAMOC, Beijing; COFA, Sydney.
2012
Everything Falls Apart, Artspace, Sydney.
Propositions Part 2, Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
Negotiating This World: Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria.
2011 - 12
Ten Year of Contemporary Art: The James C Sourris AM Collection, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
2011
Barack Commissions, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
The Black See, Kickarts Contemporary Arts, Cairns.
Counting Coup, Museum of Contemporary Native Art, New Mexico, USA.
Evolving Identities: Contemporary Indigenous Art, John Curtain Gallery, Perth.
Erased: Contemporary Australian Drawing, Asialink International touring exhibition: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Gallery (NAFA), Singapore; PSG Art Gallery, Silpakorn University, Bangkok; Chiang Mai University Faculty of Fine Art Gallery, Chiang Mai; Khon Kaen University Art Gallery, Thailand; National Art School Sydney, Australia. Touring 2009 - 11.
2010
roundabout, Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
Basil Sellers Art Prize, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University.
National Works on Paper Award, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria.
Jus’ Drawn, Linden Contemporary Arts Centre, Melbourne. 2010.
PUTSCH proppaNOW, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide.
2009
Once Removed, 53rd Venice Biennale of Art, Venice Italy.
Terra Nullius: Contemporary Art from Australia, ACC Galerie, Weimar, Germany.
I walk the line: new Australian drawing, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
Avoiding myth & message: Australian artists & the literary world, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
2008
Revolutions: Forms That Turn, 2008 Biennale of Sydney, Sydney.
In the space of elsewhere, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University, London.
New Millennium, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore.
On paper, Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
Optimism, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
In the space of elsewhere, Stanley Picker Gallery, London.
2007
Power & Beauty: Indigenous Art Now, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.
Regionalisms, University of Queensland Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane.
National Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors, National Gallery of Art, Canberra.
The Amersham Trophy, Ambleside Street Studio, West End, Brisbane.
Sunshine State, Smart State, Cambelltown Arts Centre, Cambelltown, Sydney.
Friendly Fire, ProppaNOW Group, George Petelin Gallery, Gold Coast.
Thresholds of Tolerance, School of Art Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra.
Raised By Wolves, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
2006
Yours, Mine & Ours: The ABC Of Everything, Cambelltown Arts Centre, Sydney.
There Goes The Neighbourhood, Ambleside Street Studio, Brisbane.
Colonial To Contemporary, Dell Gallery, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane.
The Sixth Drawing Biennale, The Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra.
MCA Collection: New Acquisitions 2006, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Radical Regionalism: The Empire of Shadows, Museum London, London, Ontario.
Queensland Live, touring exhibition: Gladstone, Logan, Bundaberg, Cairns, Ipswich, Cleveland, Mackay, Toowoomba, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. Touring February 2007 – 08.
Dancelines, George Adams Gallery, The Arts Centre, Melbourne.
2005
ARC Art, Design & Craft Biennial, Brisbane City Hall, Brisbane.
Thick and Fast, The Powerhouse, Brisbane.
Art Urbain du Pacific, Diff’ Art Pacific, The Castle of St-Auvent, Saint Auvent, France.
The Grey Voice, Tin Sheds Gallery, University of Sydney, Sydney.
Untitled, The Lane Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Face Value: Video portraiture from the Pacific, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney; Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane. 2004
skin, Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart.
Cultural Copy: Visual Conversations on Indigenous Art and Cultural Appropriation, The Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles.
blak insights: Contemporary Indigenous Art from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
ART TV 2004: Australian Culture Now, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne.
Spirit & Vision: Aboriginal Art, Sammlung Essl – Kunsthaus, Klosternburg, Austria.
2003
Places That Name Us, RAKA Award: Contemporary Indigenous Visual Arts #3, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne.
1 Square Mile, Brisbane Boundaries, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane City Gallery, Brisbane.
Abstractions, The Drill Hall, Australian National University (ANU), Canberra.
This Is Not America, Dusseldorf, Germany, June 27 – July 23, 2003, QCA Gallery, Brisbane.
Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
4 X 4, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
5 White Cubes, Forum Kunst Art Residency, Rottweil, Germany.
Feedback: Art, Social Consciousness, and Resistance, Museum of Art, Monash University, Melbourne.
2002
Transit Narratives, Centro per la Arti Visive LE VENEZIE, Treviso, Italy; Auronzo di Cadore, Salone espositivo. Touring 2002 - 03.
Municipio, QCA Gallery, Brisbane; Victorian College of the Arts, Tasmanian School of Art.
Bibliography
Bullen, Clotilde: “Vernon Ah Kee”, Raised By Wolves, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 2006, pp29-30.
Chapman, Chris: “This is Not America: Here There” Chris Chapman, This Is Not America, June 27 – August 23 2003, Griffith University, Queensland
College of Art, Brisbane.
Clayburn, Anna: “text and tablets follow the script”, Review, Weekend Australian¬, May 2 – 3 2003, p21.
Croft, Brenda: “No Need Looking”, Photofile, no.66, September 2002, pp24-29.
Day, Charlotte: Feedback: Art, Social Consciousness and Resistance, Monash University Art Museum, Melbourne March – May 2003.
Destination Art, episode 1, DVD, BBC, 2006.
Devenport, Rhana: “Face Value / Voicing The Silent Witness”, Face Value: Video Portraiture From The Pacific, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2005, p5.
Downes, Briony: “Cutting Skin”, australian Art Review, issue6, November 2004 – February 2005, p96.
Eather, Michael: “…always from the beginning.1: Aboriginal Art Today and Tomorrow”, Spirit & Vision: Aboriginal Art, Sammlung Essl – Kunsthaus, Klosternburg, Austria, 2004, pp42-48.
Eccles, Jeremy: “Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award 2006”, Art Monthly Australia, ANU School of Art, Canberra, June 2006, no. 190, pp15-17.
Edmundson, Anna; Neale, Margot: “Learning to be Proppa: Aboriginal Artist’s Collective, ProppaNOW”, Thresholds of Tolerance, Australian National
University, Canberra, 2007, pp29-38.
Eglitis, Anna: Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Art: Now Day, Early Days: Art Works and Legends, Central Queensland University Press, Rockampton, QLD, 1999.
Gorringe, Jenny; Foley, Fiona: skin, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart. July 8 – August 8 2004.
Handran, Chris: “4 x 4”, Artlink, rich and strange, vol. 23 no. 3, September 2004, South Australia, pp83-84.
Helmrich, Michelle: “this is not america”, eyeline: Contemporary Visual Arts, no. 54, winter 2004, p48.
Helmrich, Michelle; Bell, Richard: 1 square mile: brisbane boundaries, October 2003, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane City Gallery, City Hall, Brisbane, October 2003.
Helmrich, Michelle: “Sexy & Dangerous”, australian Art Review, issue 6, November 2004 – February 2005, pp86-87.
Hoffie, Pat: “blak insights”, Artlink, Currents 1, vol. 24 no. 3, September 2004, South Australia, pp82-83.
Hoffie, Pat: “Vernon Ah Kee”, Spacial Eclipses: Temporal Anchorings, Postgraduate Exhibition, QCA Gallery, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane. September 8–24 1999.
Holubizky, Ihor: “In the Future”, BackFlash, Buffalo Berry Press Inc. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, June 15 2002, pp5-13.
Martin-Chew, Louise: “Hybrid ideas home-grown”, The Australian, June 1 2006, p40.
Martin-Chew, Louise: “The Artists”, Artlink, critical mass: the new Brisbane, vol. 23 no. 2, June 2003, pp59-60.
Martin-Chew, Louise: “Story Place”, art & australia, vol. 41 no. 3, March/April/May 2004, pp474.
McIntyre, Sophie: “Vernon Ah Kee”, Place/Displace catalogue, QCA Gallery, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane. November 16 2001 – January 16 2002.
McLean, Bruce: “Vernon Ah Kee”, Queensland Live, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2006, pp14-15.
Milani, Josh: “Vernon Ah Kee – If I was White”, Promise 1999, March – July 1999, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University; Metro Arts Building; the Department of Art History, University of Queensland, Brisbane.
Morrell, Timothy: “Vernon Ah Kee”, mythunderstanding catalogue essay, 2005, The Contemporary Arts Centre of South Australia, Parkside, Adelaide.
Morrell, Timothy: “Vernon Ah Kee, consent”, broadsheet: Contemporary Visual Arts + Culture, vol. 32 no. 3, July/August/September 2004, p32.
Morrell, Timothy: “Vernon Ah Kee”, Australian Art Collector, issue 35, January – March 2006, p86.
Morrell, Timothy: “in black & white: text in Indigneous Queensland art”, Artlink, the word as art, vol. 27 no. 1, Jan-March 2007, South Australia, pp33-37.
Moore, Archie: “Black Eye = Black Viewpoint: A Conversation With ProppaNOW”, Machine, vol. 1 no. 4, Brisbane, 2006, pp2-4.
Muhlberger, Emma: “one square mile: brisbane boundaries”, eyeline: Contemporary Visual Arts, no. 54, winter 2004, pp52-53.
Nelson, Robert: “Struggling to do political art well”, The Age, April 2 2003.
Ostling, Susan: ARC Art, Design & Craft Biennial, Brisbane City Hall, Brisbane, 2005, pg2.
Smith, Marita: “Vernon Ah Kee”, Dancelines: Contemporary Indigenous Art Inspired By Bangara Dance Theatre, The Victorian Arts Centre Trust,
Melbourne, 2006, pp14-17.
Snelling, Michael: consent, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. June 12 – July 19 2003.
Snelling, Michael: “Vernon Ah Kee”, Spirit & Vision: Aboriginal Art, Sammlung Essl – Kunsthaus, Klosternburg, Austria, 2004, pp123-125.
Storer, Russell: MCA Collection: New Acquisitions 2006, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, pp2-4.
Storer, Russell: “MCA Collection: New Acquisitions 2006”, Art Matters: Museum of Contemporary Art Newsletter, Winter 06, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, pp5-7.
Quaill, Avril: “Vernon Ah Kee”, Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rain Forest, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2003, pp.174-75.
Quaill, Avril: “There Goes The Neighbourhood”, Brought to Light II, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2007, pp.349-352.
The Artist’s Voice 2006, DVD, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006.
Yours, Mine & Ours, DVD, ABC, Sydney, 2007.
Collections
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Art Bank, Sydney
University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
University of Technology Sydney
Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.A.
David Teplitzky and Peggy Scott Collection, Hong Kong
Kluge-ruhe Collection, University of Virginia, U.S.A