Billy Thomas Biography
Billy was born around 1920 in the bush near Billiluna, WA. His group had no contact with non-Aboriginal people. He saw his first white person as a boy when he was cooking a goanna and a stockman rode up to him on a horse and offered him an apple. As a teenager he worked as a stockman droving cattle along the Canning Stock Route. At one point he met up with the late Rover Thomas who was then a young boy filling water buckets at Kuka Banyu (Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route). The two worked together on and off during their time on the Canning. Around the time of the Second World War, Billy's stock work brought him to Derby where he was hired as a police tracker. Travelling unarmed through the bush in search of fugitives he often had to subdue them with his bare hands. During one of his 'holidays' from police work he was shot through the leg by a crook at Rugan (Crocodile Hole) near Turkey Creek, WA and has walked with a limp ever since. After his days as a tracker, Billy went back to stock work and worked for many years as a drover before retiring to the Mud Springs Aboriginal community near Kununurra, WA.
Billy did not begin painting until 1995 when he walked into Waringarri Arts and asked if he could have some 'cardboard' (as he calls canvases), to paint on.
Shortly thereafter, Billy's artwork was exhibited in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in Darwin. He held his first solo exhibition at Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs. Having held several successful solo exhibitions, including two sell out shows with William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, in 1997 and the other in Sydney in 1998, Billy has emerged as one of Australia's leading Aboriginal painters. He now occasionally paints for Warlayirti Artists in Balgo.
As a senior medicine man, Billy's role is crucial in traditional ceremonies, decision making and the initiation of boys into Aboriginal law. Subsequently, his knowledge of sacred sites, stories and ceremony is immense and in some of his painting, comprises a major part of the 'hidden' iconography. Billy 'dots' over the entire work and scrapes back parts of the white ochre to uncover only the aspects of his history and knowledge he wishes to reveal. His work incorporates this Western desert iconography with a vibrance and energy that is uniquely his own.
COLLECTIONS
Australian National Gallery, CanberraNational Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Kerry Stokes Collection
Mary M'acha Collection
Australian Capital Equity, Perth
Wesfarmers Collection, Perth
Edith Cowan University, Perth
Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Utrecht
Kununurra Police Station Public Art Project, Kununurra (Commission)
Halls Creek Police Station Public Art Project, Halls Creek (Commission)
Private Collections in Australia, Japan, Germany, USA, Belgium and France
EXHIBITIONS
2006 L’art aborigène contemporain, Arts d’Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Médiathèque Cathédrale de Reims, Reims
2004 Colour Power - Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Federation Square, Melbourne
2004 EXPLAINED, A closer look at Aboriginal art, Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, Holland
2002 An Artists Survey, Balgo Hills, at Hogarth Galleries, Paddington
2001 Dixième Biennale Internationale de la Gravure, Arts d'Australie,Stéphane Jacob, Sarcelles
2001 Australie,Visages d’un continent, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob, Galerie Visages de l'Art, Marly-le-Roi
2001 Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Thornquest Gallery, Gold Coast
2001 Red Rock Art, Cullen Bay Gallery, Darwin
2001 Red Rock Art, Depot Gallery, Sydney
2000 Cowara House, Brisbane
2000 17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Northern Territory Museum and Art Galleries, Darwin
2000 Arts d’Australie, Stéphane Jacob, Espace Mezzo, Avenue des Champs-Elysées, Paris
2000 Accents Australiens, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob, Espace Adamski Designs, Paris.
1999 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Northern Territory Museum and Art Galleries, Darwin
1999 Australie – Art, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob, J.L. Amsler - Bastille, Paris.
1998 15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Northern Territory Museum and Art Galleries, Darwin
1998 William Mora Galleries, Sydney - Held at the Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
1998 Le Temps du Rêve, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob, Bibliothèque municipale, Le Perreux-sur-Marne
1998 Propositions Australiennes, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / galerie Luc Queyrel, Paris
1997 William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
1997 14th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Northern Territory Museum and Art Galleries, Darwin
1996 13th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Northern Territory Museum and Art Galleries, Darwin
1996 William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
1996 Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
