CLINTON NAIN - RED CROWN BLAK FLOWERS
CLINTON NAIN
RED CROWN BLAK FLOWERS, 2011
112 x 77 cm
acrylic, enamel and ink on Belgian linen
REGION
Melbourne, Vic
PROVENANCE
Commissioned from the artist
Corporate Collection, Vic
Private Collection, Vic
STORY
Born in Melbourne, of Torres Strait Islander heritage, the artist Clinton Nain creates vivid abstract canvasses using domestic materials for his mediums, such as heritage coloured house paint, bitumen paint and household bleach. He employs a range of motifs in his art that refer to the dominant culture and are symbolic of its power, ranging from language, religion, land, country, crown to colonisation of the dispossessed.
Nain is well known for his White King, Blak Queen series, a visual pun on colour and sexuality, which explored the tainted path of colonisation through a black feminine perspective. Since his earliest days as an art school graduate, Clinton Nain has established a significant profile in the critical debates of contemporary Australian art. Though his works have a naive and unfinished quality, they are aesthetically and conceptually intellectual and highly developed.
ARTIST PROFILE
