As I walk into a London gallery, the artist Adrian Jangala Robertson is painting a wild mountainous landscape of pinks and oranges.
The canvas in front of him stands in stark contrast to the grey streets and towers that can be seen through the gallery's glass doors. But Robertson, as Liz Pedersen explains, is painting his home country in central Australia.
Pedersen is the manager of Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists, an art studio in Alice Springs that provides a platform for First Nations artists with disability to develop and receive recognition for their artistic practice.
She has accompanied Robertson on his first overseas trip to London, for the opening of his solo exhibition Yalpirakinu at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery.
The pair have a close relationship, and Pedersen helps Robertson — who is non-verbal — explain the work that fills the walls of the room.
The paintings are based on his memories of home — the desert mountains, ridges and trees and the faces of his family.
When asked about how it feels to share his home with the people of London, over 15,000 kilometres away, Robertson sweeps his arm proudly around the room, as if inviting the viewer in.
Painting to maintain connection
For Robertson, a Warlpiri man, painting is in his blood.
Born in the remote Aboriginal community of Papunya, west of Alice Springs, he grew up amid the inception of the Western Desert painting movement, in which his father, Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, was a major figure.
His mother, Eunice Napangardi, was also a distinguished painter and it is her country, Yalpirakinu, that Robertson is always painting.
Now living in Alice Springs, almost 300km away from Yalpirakinu, Robertson paints to stay connected to and surrounded by his country and family.
"It's tricky to get home sometimes, so he's painting home all the time," Pedersen explains.
Robertson was also influenced by the late Billy Benn — an Alyawarre landscape painter with work in collections across Australia and overseas — who he lived with and describes as a mentor and friend.
Benn's artistic career began in the late 90s while he was working at what was then Bindi Enterprises, established to provide employment and community engagement opportunities for people with disability.
He began painting on wood offcuts and sheets of metal in Bindi's workshop, and in doing so, the Mwerre Arthurre Artist collective was born.
Robertson joined Benn and the collective in 2002, beginning his own artistic career and forging his distinctive style of landscapes, portraits and self-portraits, with a palette that is predominantly based on the colours of the desert.
He has painted at Bindi almost every day since, amassing hundreds of works.
"[Robertson is] there every day, sometimes before we're there," Pedersen says.
"He would paint all day if he could."
Robertson also reached career milestones at home this year, becoming the first Aboriginal artist to be a finalist in the Wynne, Archibald and Sulman prizes in the same year.
Bringing Aboriginal art to an international audience
It was outside the Bindi studio that Australian-born London-based gallerist Rebecca Hossack first met Robertson in 2020.
She says soon as she saw his work, she knew she wanted to show it in her gallery.
"The work is just so honest. He captures that essence of the landscapes so beautifully," she says.
"There's just such sincerity and truth that I think all great artists have."
The Rebecca Hossack Gallery has been bringing Aboriginal art, and artists like Robertson, to London since it opened in 1988.
"When I started, the pushback I had from the art establishment was phenomenal," Hossack says.
"It's taken a long, long time to build it all up. To make people realise it's a serious art movement."
She says she hopes the exhibition will also raise Robertson's profile in the international art world.
"This is not just some kind of…outsider artist — it's someone who has a real vision in the way that van Gogh had a real vision," Hossack says.
Triple finalist at home
For the painting that was a finalist for this year's Archibald Prize, Robertson painted his sister Julie Nangala Robertson, also an award-winning artist, standing in her white-rimmed sunglasses against the ancient mountainous landscape of their ancestors.
It was an opportunity for the pair, who remain close despite the 250km between their current homes, to paint together.
Becoming a finalist for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes this year is the latest feather in Robertson's cap, after he won the coveted Alice Prize in 2022, one of Australia's oldest and most prestigious contemporary art prizes, which is run biennially at the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs.
He also won the General Painting Award at the 2020 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAAs).
"At Bindi, at Adrian's workspace, he's got newspaper clippings and images of his different achievements and his family's achievements," Pedersen says.
"We really celebrate his success there. When people come to visit, he'll show them."
As he prepares for the long-haul flight back to Australia, Robertson is asked if he would consider deviating from his usual subject matter and palette to paint London.
Robertson lifts a hand to his chin in contemplation as if to say, the future is full of possibilities.
Yalpirakinu is showing at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London until July 13. The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes are showing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until September 8.
Source: ABC