Blak Douglas : The Halfway Line

A Mid-Career Survey of the Pioneering Aboriginal Artist

The Halfway Line is a survey exhibition that traces the expansive and incisive career of First Nations artist Blak Douglas. From his early interest in graphic art and design, through to his award winning portraiture, Douglas has maintained a passionate interest in foregrounding the histories and lived experiences of Aboriginal Australians. For Douglas, art is a powerful, striking means to affect real and symbolic change.

Blak Douglas was born Adam Douglas Hill in Blacktown in 1970 to a Dhungutti father and Scottish mother. In many ways, the first ‘half’ of Douglas’ life as an artist has centred around Western Sydney, studying at the University of Western Sydney, before realising his first commercial exhibition in the industrial estate of Jamistown, Penrith.

Since the mid-1990s, Douglas has established a reputation as one of the most visible, vocal and consistent artists in Australia, amassing a body of work that spans painting, photography, drawings, sculpture, major public artworks and performance.

However the influence of Blak Douglas should be considered as much greater than this individual outputs. For over thirty years, Douglas has used his public persona and platforms to raise and address social and political realities, especially for Aboriginal Australians. And in many ways, his dedication was manifest and recognised in his Archibald Prize winning portrait of fellow artist, Karla Dickens.

The Halfway Line takes this milestone as an opportunity to reflect and reconsider from the artists perspective, the significance of his career and the enduring impact that Douglas has had on generations of Australian artists.

Featuring loans from major institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, as well as recently commissioned works, the Halfway Line is the largest single presentation of Douglas’ work ever, presented in the artist’s hometown of Western Sydney.