Billy Doolan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Frederick William "Billy" Doolan Jnr (also known as Billy Doo, 1952-) is an Australian Indigenous artist who lives in Townsville, Queensland but does most of his current artwork in Melbourne, Victoria. From June 2011 he will be painting at the City of Port Phillip's Art Studios in the Veg Out Community Gardens close to St Kilda Beach.

He is featured in two current exhibitions, a one man show at the Italian Institute of Culture in Melbourne which commenced on 28 October 2010 and is due to finalise 31 July 2011 and a major show currently touring Italy titled "Dreamtime". It opened at MAN Museum Nuoro in Sardinia in February 2011and will close there on 28 August 2011. It is scheduled to run in Italy for two years.

Early life

Doolan's mother came from Gulf of Carpentaria

Gulf of Carpentaria

The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...

country and his father, for whom he is named, from Central Queensland, Australia.

Doolan was born in 1952 on Palm Island, Queensland

Palm Island, Queensland

Palm Island is an Aboriginal community located on Great Palm Island, also called by the Aboriginal name "Bwgcolman", an island on the Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland, Australia The settlement is also known by a variety of other names including "the Mission", Palm Island Settlement or Palm...

which was the site of a penal settlement from 1918 and is one of the largest Aboriginal communities in Australia with Indigenous people making up 96.6% of the population (ABS, 2006). Bwgcolman

Bwgcolman

Bwgcolman people is the name given to the indigenous Australians who were resettled on the Palm Island group after establishment of a reserve there in 1914. The original inhabitants of Palm Island are the Manbarra people...

is the name given to Aboriginals resettled on Palm Island but the young Doolan lived only a few years on the island before his family was evicted to the Australian mainland.

Billy's father Frederick William, was a ringleader in the 1957 Palm Island Labourer's Strike. This political activity resulted in the family being removed from Palm Island to Townsville on the mainland coast where they settled in Happy Valley.

Career

The Dictionary of Australian Artists Online states that Doolan's works were showcased in 2001 exhibition "Gatherings", Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art from Queensland, Australia and that Doolan works are in synthetic polymer on linen. The exhibition was held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. The book launched at the show and carrying the same title was written by Marion Demozay and published by Keearia Press, Southport, Queensland.

"Gatherings 11" again featured Doolans' works and was shown at The Queensland Art Gallery in 2006. The accompanying book of the same title was launched at the opening night. Author was Marion Demozay and publisher Keearia Press.

In 2009 the artist was a finalist in the 2009 Victorian Aboriginal Art Awards held at Boscia Gallery, Melbourne. The exhibition was supported by the Victorian Government and accompanied by a booklet featuring Billy's work.

The Dreamtime Catalogue published in February 2011 is an Italian edition and supports the travelling exhibition of the same title. 22 of Billys' pieces are featured in the exhibition and illustrated in the catalogue. Contributing authors are Maree Clarke, senior curator at The Koorie Heritage Trust, Amanda Reynolds, Dr Davide Sandrini, Giovanna Gotti, senior curator of the Turin Egyptian Museum and Hans Sip.

The Italian Institute of Culture in Melbourne held Billy Doolan's first major solo public exhibition titled Between Sea and Sky: Songs of a Voyage in 2010 with the paintings '...the result of a cultural exchange project initiated by Melbourne-based Sicilian-born arts promoter Mario Sanciolo-Bell'. All eight of Doolan's Sicilian themed paintings included in the IAI were painted between the George Wright Aboriginal Hostel in Melbourne and his Townsville home. The works presented a unique set of challenges for the artist who gained his inspiration from his trip to Sicily in 2009. He was mindful of presenting a sensitive and respectful rendering of Sicilian history and life and the project took over a year to complete.

The remaining seven works in the show were contributed by Hans Sip who is the artist's representative. The Sicilian project led to the biggest non-commercial travelling exhibition of indigenous artwork to leave Australia as of 2011 initially titled "The Rainbow Serpent" and later renamed Dreamtime. Doolan was one of 90 artists included in the $3 million exhibition and is its greatest contributor with 22 pieces out of the total 262 exhibits. Over 200 pieces were donated to the show by Hans Sip with the remainder donated by Adam Williams, another major private collector and 9 individual artists.

Doolan is currently working on a cross cultural project instigated by Peta Lowry of AFL "F" in Italy for which he is producing two art works, principally to assist in bringing out the women's Italian AFL football team to Australia. The team has a shortfall in their funding to bring out a complete side for the official AFL sponsored international womens competition to be held in Melbourne and Sydney in August 2011. The art works are " The Seven Sisters" and "Possum Skin Football" and each are to be reproduced in limited editions of 100. The sale of the prints will be principaly through AFL clubs West Coast and Port Adelaide who are great supporters of womens AFL.

Elements of the Seven Sisters work are to be featured on the "Female Fit" womens sports range recently announced by world renowned designer Peter Morrissey. It will be worn by the international visitors to the August competition. Morrissey has also released a general range of "Female Fit" womens' sportswear which features "Fish Spwning" a work of Billy's which is currently featured in the Italian Dreamtime exhibition.

Early life

Career

See also