Richard Bell
Richard Bell is a member of the Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang communities.
Bell grew out of a generation of Aboriginal activists and has remained committed to the politics of Aboriginal emancipation and self-determination. One of Australia’s most significant artists, Bell’s work is unapologetically political, and has its roots in activism, which — for Bell — took flight in Redfern in the 1970s, and continues today with deliberately provocative artworks that call for Aboriginal self-determination and compensation.
His art and his attitude have attracted all the usual appellations over the course of the last 50 years: provocative, confrontational, iconoclastic, angry.
I’m an activist masquerading as an artist