Christopher Pease and Reko Rennie
Christopher Pease – Survey Exhibition
In 2026, the John Curtin Gallery will present Pease’s first major survey exhibition, featuring significant loans from major public and private institutions, alongside new large-scale paintings. Drawing from Museum archives and his own cultural lineage, Chris Pease explores legacies of colonisation, themes of social justice, land use, and Noongar identity and resilience.
Water is the Ngoorp (blood) of the land that feeds the Koort (heart). The Boodjar (land) is the body, and the body cannot live without blood. If blood cannot flow to one part of the body it will die. If the blood is poisoned the body will die. – Christopher Pease
Reko Rennie – OA_RR
OA_RR (which stands for Original Aboriginal Reko Rennie), is a three-channel video work with a soundtrack by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The work documents, Reko’s emotional journey back to Country in a reclaimed 1973 Rolls-Royce Corniche which he hand painted in his signature camouflage. Rennie drove donuts, or circle-work, into the red earth as the sun sets, the markings simultaneously recalled urban car culture and traditional Kamilaroi sand engravings.
Exhibition Details
Exhibition Open: 29 May – 23 August 2026
Supported By:
The Artists
Christopher Pease is a Minang/Wardandi/Bibbulmun man from Southwestern Australia, whose visual language is at once deeply embedded within the western history of figurative oil painting and traditional Indigenous storytelling.
Reko Rennie is an interdisciplinary Australian artist who explores personal and political narratives through the lens of his Aboriginal (Kamilaroi) heritage. Informed by 1970–80s American graffiti culture, Rennie started his practice as a teenage graffiti artist, finding his voice on the surfaces of Melbourne’s city buildings, trains and laneways.
Header image credits: The Whalers, Christopher Pease, image courtesy artist.
