Cultural warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that the following contains the name of a deceased person.

‘His style came out of the rock art, body painting and designs for public ceremonies of the [East Kimberley] region, but he was innovative: his works were loaded with information but he was constantly stripping away detail, paring down elements of landscape and myths and blending them into elemental visions.’ – Judith Ryan AM, former Senior Curator Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Victoria, quoted in Rover Thomas’s obituary, The Age, 16 April 1998.

Rover Thomas
Rover Thomas (Kukatja, Wangkajunga peoples) began painting regularly in his 50s on Country at Gunawaggi near Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route in the East Kimberley Region, where he was a stockman. Thomas’s works are held in most major Australian collections including Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia and Art Gallery of Western Australia. In 1990, with Trevor Nickolls, he was one of the first two Aboriginal artists to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale.