Reko Rennie’s Bright, Neon Works Redefine First Nations Art

Behind Reko Rennie’s striking artworks is a tale of hustle and grit. Over two decades, the Melbourne-based artist’s pieces have found a home in both top galleries and residential spaces. Fusing street art with First Nations designs, Rennie uses bright colours, sculptural forms and high-gloss finishes to “stop people” in their tracks. “I want them to take notice – to look at these beautiful colours and be pulled into the messages that go with them,” he says.

Art wasn’t Rennie’s original plan, but his early encounters left an impression. He loved visiting the NGV with his mother; as a teenager, he joined Melbourne’s graffiti community, finding power in writing his name on walls. “There’s a whole skill set that I acquired from the street,” Rennie says. “I never went to art school. I’m self-taught.”

The Kamilaroi artist was in his thirties before he pursued the gig full-time. He’d worked various jobs, including a stint as a journalist, while painting out of hours. Disillusioned with his day job, he doggedly emailed curators and entered his work into art prizes. And persistence paid off: first came gallery representation, then significant public art commissions. Last year, the NGV hosted his first retrospective show, Rekospective: The Art of Reko Rennie – a survey of more than 100 of his works spanning painting, sculpture, video and even cars.

Rennie uses bright colours to subvert the notion of “authentic” Indigenous art. “I wanted to smash that stereotype of Aboriginal art being ochre,” he says. “I grew up in an urban environment. I want to encapsulate those really beautiful colours that are available.”

He explores his Kamilaroi (an Indigenous people residing primarily in northwestern New South Wales) identity through recurring motifs like his distinctive diamond, a design inherited from his paternal grandmother and a homage to the Kamilaroi shield. Describing his work as a “saturated representation of identity”, Rennie cites influences such as Howard Arkley, Futura, Gordon Bennett, Trevor Nickolls and Destiny Deacon.

Sourced for both residential and commercial spaces, Rennie’s work is an electrifying jolt in any room. “A lot of clients buy works from exhibitions. They might have a certain vision in their head and want something bright,” Rennie says. “Other times, people want something bespoke, so we work together on that.” Not all commissions are brand new either. Recently he recreated an old painting on a larger scale for a client.

You’ll find Rennie’s neon paintings prominently displayed in Melbourne Italian restaurant Di Stasio in Carlton. A large-scale commission also sits in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton hotel, contrasting with tonal wood and marble interiors. For one particularly special residential commission, Rennie plated a painting with 24-carat gold leaf. Another work, in the dining space of a Sydney home, features abstract text on a distorted mirror.

Rennie doesn’t always know where his pieces end up, but he’s been lucky enough to see them in Attica chef Ben Shewry’s mid-century home and at architect and friend David Flack’s place. Next up, he hopes to be commissioned for a relief wall or fresco. “In Europe back in the day, artists were engaged to paint walls in a home. That could look really cool,” he says. “There’s a lot I haven’t done yet that I’d like to do.”

This article first appeared in Domain Prestige, in partnership with Broadsheet.