May 2021 sees Onespace Gallery launch a solo exhibition entitled, Evidence, by Cairns based artist, Arone Meeks. Creating works of art that speak of cross cultural interaction, relationships, gender, traditional and modern spirituality and his environment – this body of work also delves into notions of anthropological fetishisation of First Nations people.
Paintings and prints punctuated by an intense ultramarine blue signal Meeks’ latest body of work that draws as much on his heritage and narratives as a Kuku Miidiji man from Cape York, as his ongoing personal quest of discovery.
As Arone suggests, “My work has always challenged where I come from, where we come from, where we go”. This exhibition includes some earlier signature works leading up to the more recent paintings and prints, following a period of delving into a piece of his heritage that he was totally unaware of, “a missing link exposing challenging parallels regarding European ‘discoveries’ of Indigenous lands and cultures.”
From his early art training and considerable domestic and international success in Europe and the USA from the 1980’s onward, Meeks has continued exploring, and often confronting contemporary issues facing an ancient culture head on. A bridging point between his past work and his most recent was catalysed by the discovery that his great grandfather was the renowned English ornithologist/entomologist, Albert Meek.
Image: Arone Meeks, Evidence (detail), 2021, Mixed media on canvas. Photo: Michael Marzik. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace Gallery.
