Dharug artist Billy Bain, 33, is reclaiming the beach as an Aboriginal space through his upcoming solo exhibition 'By the River' at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), featuring 11 colourful clay sculptures of Indigenous figures in beach attire.
Experiences of Exclusion on the Northern Beaches
As a teenager in the mid-2000s, Bain surfed Sydney's northern beaches, near his home in Avalon. Despite being minutes away, he was often made to feel unwelcome. "I'd be told that I'm not from there, so I need to go in [to shore]," he recalls, interpreting these warnings as veiled threats of violence. "Otherwise, you know, 'something's gonna happen to you'."
Bain sees his presence as an Aboriginal surfer as a form of reclaiming space. "The northern beaches are quite an isolated and predominantly white place," he explains. "The beach was and still is an Aboriginal space, but in popular culture it has been represented as a very white space. There's obviously the bronze Aussie, which is your typical tan, athletic white male, but it's not seen as being a space that Aboriginal people inhabit any more."
The Exhibition: 'By the River' at AGNSW
Opening from 4 July to 8 November, 'By the River' at AGNSW features new works including five landscape paintings of the Dyarubbin/Hawkesbury River, a location connecting Bain to his ancestral country. The exhibition also showcases 11 clay sculptures of Indigenous family members and a dog, dressed in bikinis, shorts, and budgie smugglers painted in Aboriginal colours: red, black, and yellow.
These figures hold aloft a four-metre soft sculpture of a long-finned eel, a totem animal known in Dharug as 'burra', symbolising resilience. The eel is adorned with 200 textile elements handwoven by Bain's mother, Kathleen Bain, a Dharug woman from Balgowlah.
Artistic Process and Family Influence
Bain's mother encouraged creativity from a young age, and he would sculpt faces and figures from surfboard wax. His father, champion surfer Rob Bain, assisted in gathering inspiration for the landscape paintings by taking a small boat up the Dyarubbin to find ancient Aboriginal handprints in caves. Bain noted a graffiti warning: "Do not deface Aboriginal rock art," which he found more overbearing than the tags themselves.
Painting landscapes is a new direction for Bain, who previously painted portraits. His oil work of western Aranda deaf artist Rona Panangka Rubuntja and her dog, Pig, was a finalist in the 2025 Archibald Prize.
Art as Healing and Colour-Blindness
Bain describes his art practice as "a healing thing" and a crucial part of learning to express himself. He is colour-blind, like some other men in his family, which has challenged his confidence with painting. "Being colour-blind has probably hindered me, in a way, as far as confidence with painting, because I felt maybe I'd be getting something wrong," he says.
In 2023, he used pink tones for a self-portrait depicting his anger and sadness after the failed Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum. The portrait is now owned by a private collector. "I find it funny, someone looking at my grumpy face on their wall," he laughs.
Humour and Hope in Indigenous Art
Bain believes that "fun, seductive" humour in art can convey serious ideas. "I don't exactly know what reconciliation looks like," he says. "But I am hopeful and I do have quite a positive look on the human spirit and people's ability to be good-natured and embrace other people. I think that's intrinsic in us as humans."
