Reko rennie biography sample

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Rennie-Gwaybilla’s art, which has followed a trajectory characterized by discipline, experimentation and innovation, has produced a highly intelligent language that successfully reinterprets aboriginal identity within a urban world. For example, in Message Stick (Totem Pole) (2011), Rainey stacked a series of spray paint cans to form his version of the message stick, a device carried by Australia’s Aboriginal people for long-distance communication.

Rennie is best known for his reimagining of the Kamilaroi diamond pattern, which was often carved into trees as a male initiation symbol to maintain the continuity of Aboriginal culture to this day. His work is often deeply personal and explores his Aboriginal identity, combining the iconography of his Kamilaroi heritage with street art and graffiti styles.

Granted permission to use the scar tree diamond design of the Kamilaroi people through his familial connections, he sampled this symbology in bright, pop colours, often featuring neon pink. The accompanying video work “OA_RR” (2017) sees Rainey driving donuts through the countryside of Camila Roy as an homage embedded in contemporary car culture.

the difference. His great dedication to his art during this period was reflected by the prolific number of group exhibitions in which he participated: around thirteen in the space of a year alone. His paste-ups also grace public walls all over the world from Paris to Jakarta, New York to Mumbai and Berlin where you may find his striking Big Red, the infamous, anthropomorphic, proud pink roo: a symbol of resistance and testament to the survival of Aboriginal culture and its people.

Whilst he ended his days as a self-proclaimed ‘young punk,’ in his 20s, his concern for notions of dislocation felt by Aboriginal people in urban environments never left him, as expressed by Rennie-Gwaybilla himself: “I grew up in the city, and I’ve got that connection. For example, Reni’s use of camouflage prints in ALWAYS (2021) (a set of four canvases) is continued in the custom wallpaper behind the work, metaphorically breaking away from his painterly expression and away from the museum object.

Collaborating with several young artists on a mural that looked at the past, the present and the future of the area, Rennie-Gwaybilla not only provided participants with the ‘tricks of the trade,’ to realise their artistic intentions, he also demonstrated the importance of belief in yourself, goals and the role of art as a ‘way out’ and powerful tool for reinterpreting and expressing aboriginality.

Largely self-taught, Rennie's practice is diverse, working across sculpture, painting, video work and installation.

I’m an urban Aboriginal dude, I’m comfortable with my identity, and that’s what I try to portray in my work.”

Following the advice of his father to “get a career behind you before you start doing art”, Rennie-Gwaybilla entered the workforce as a print journalist for The Age newspaper, which exposed him to a range of socio-political and economic issues affecting Aboriginal people.

Due to its highly favourable reception, this facade has become a long-term addition to the streetscape. 'As an urban Indigenous Australian, my work often references the hip-hop and graffiti subcultures that were influential on my artistic practice in my formative years.' The spray can acts as a material and a message stick in Rennie's works, alongside the Aboriginal flag, crowns and diamonds he uses to question sovereignty and power in Australian post-colonial discourses of art.