Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, March 3, 2021: Reko Rennie, an Aboriginal artist, sculptor

Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Artist of the Day, March 3, 2021: Reko Rennie, an Aboriginal artist, sculptor

Reko Rennie (1974) is an interdisciplinary artist who explores his Aboriginal identity through contemporary media.

Through his art, Rennie provokes discussion surrounding Indigenous culture and identity in contemporary urban environments.

Largely autobiographical, his commanding works combine the iconography of his Kamilaroi heritage with stylistic elements of graffiti. Merging traditional diamond-shaped designs, hand-drawn symbols and repetitive patterning to subvert romantic ideologies of Aboriginal identity.

Informed by 1980s American culture, Rennie started his practice as a teenage graffiti artist, finding his voice on the surfaces of Melbourne city’s buildings, trains and laneways. The epic Initiation recalls the urban landscape where Rennie was born and grew up, the working-class suburb of Footscray, evoked through retro symbols aggregated to create a sense of home.

The fluorescent pinks, greens and blues jar with the white of the gallery to remind us of Rennie’s brash beginnings, while collectively the colours and imagery tell an intimate story of place. In this way, Rennie has retained the ideology of street art, which seeks to personalise the public.

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