Brian McKinnon
My use of art to engage with the world is a deep internal struggle that stems from my early years and the eventual need to run to survive. The paintings show a journey of pain and, the pain caused by racism and lack of compassion or charity for a group of people, lost on their path to becoming accepted for who they are. My work reflects on my travels as I am one of these people caught between two races.
—Brian McKinnon, 2019
The School of Art welcomes our inaugural Vice Chancellor’s Pre-doctoral Indigenous Fellow
Born to an Amungu mother and Wongai father, Brian McKinnon grew up in a Geraldton fringe camp named Blood Alley at the foot of Mount Misery, and left home at the age of twelve to work along Western Australia’s coast wherever he could. At 18 he settled in Geelong, Victoria and has exhibited widely since 1996, nationally and internationally showing powerful work that addresses his experiences of growing up in Western Australia’s Mid West and the ongoing challenges of Aboriginality in today's world.
Brian McKinnon: My Story, Geraldton Regional Art Gallery