INAUGURAL EXHIBITION

A Secondary Eye is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Rover Thomas’ work in Sydney since the 2004 retrospective at the AGNSW

ROVER JOOLAMA THOMAS

A Secondary Eye is pleased to announce the inaugural exhibition at our Sydney gallery space: ROVER. This will be the first solo exhibition of the important Gija artist Rover Joolama Thomas in Sydney since his retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2004.

A revered elder from the Kimberley region, Rover Thomas was the first Indigenous artist to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1990, alongside Trevor Nickolls. Rover Thomas is viewed as the founding figure for what became known as the East Kimberley school of painting and continues to greatly influence the aesthetic of painting from that region to this day, which focuses heavily on the use of natural earth pigments. His work has gained international recognition through his powerful and unique display of modernist abstraction, portraying ancestral land and Indigenous life. 

The first solo presentation of Rover Thomas’ work in Sydney in almost 20 years, the exhibition will present works created from the 1980s and 1990s, with the majority of which have never been shown to the public before. 

ROVER
3 May – 14 June 2024
101-103 Queen St, Woollahra