The Most Stolen Race On Earthis an installation-based exhibition by Sydney-based artist duo Blak Douglas (aka Adam Hill) and Adam Geczy. Taking up most of NCCA’s gallery spaces, this exhibition will present a mix of 2D, 3D and screen-based works which challenge the idea of a lucky, fair-go Australia, exposing the nation’s racial myths and fault-lines and continuing/escalating socio-political disempowerment of Indigenous Australians. Drawing on humour, satire and shock, this black-and-white duo shifts the ‘post’ in postcolonial and effectively maintains the rage. The Most Stolen Race On Earth> follows on from Douglas and Geczy’s The Most Gaoled Race On Earth exhibition at the Lock-Up Cultural Centre in Newcastle earlier this year, and from their Blakattak and BOMB exhibitions shown at the Sydney College of the Arts gallery (2015), and Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Utrecht (2014) respectively. The duo has been collaborating on artworks and exhibitions for almost a decade as well as maintaining their own practices. The Most Stolen Race On Earth marks their first major exhibition at NCCA after previously showing their video work Australia – the Trailer in NCCA’s Screenroom.
Blak Douglas (aka Adam Hill)grew up in Blacktown (Blaktown), western Sydney on Booreberongal (Dharug) country and of predominantly Dhungatti (mid-north coast, NSW) and Scottish heritage. A Graphic Design graduate from the University of Western Sydney in 1994, Douglas held his first solo exhibition in 1999 and has since exhibited in numerous solo, duo and group exhibitions throughout Australia and internationally with his work held in key public and private collections. Douglas works with diverse media: painting, graphic design, sculpture, photography, performance, video and installation. Exhibitions include: Not a proper Aborigine, ‘10-year Survey’, 2010, Mosman Art Gallery; This is why we don’t stand for the anthem, 2008, Arc One, Melbourne; BOMB (with Adam Geczy), 2014-15, Museum of contemporary Aboriginal art, Utrecht; and Archibald Prize finalist, 2015, Art Gallery of NSW. Douglas is also a highly accomplished yidaki (didgeridoo) player with extensive national and international performing experience. He runs the BLAK• active gallery space in Redfern, Sydney.
Adam Geczy is a Sydney-based artist, writer and lecturer of Austro-Hungarian and English descent. He graduated in Painting from Sydney College of the Arts and in the late 1990s his practice moved more into installation, performance and collaboration. He has engaged in several ongoing collaborative projects since 2000 – with artist Mike Parr, musicians Thomas Gerwin (Berlin) and Peter Sculthorpe, and artist Blak Douglas (aka Adam Hill).
Geczy identifies two key strands of his practice: one abstract and tactile, the other conceptual and political. He is primarily interested in working across concerns and disciplines. Recent exhibitions include S/M Wonderland (solo), 2014, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; participation in the 11th International Sound Festival Berlin, Mitte Museum, Berlin, 2014; and (with Blak Douglas) Blakattak, Sydney College of the Arts, SCA Galleries, 2015.
Geczy is also a prolific writer and art critic, and has authored and edited numerous books on art. Recent publications include: (authored with Vicky Karaminas) Fashion’s Double: Representations of Fashion in Painting, Photography and Film, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015 (hardback); and (authored with Jacqueline Millner) Fashionable Art, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015 (paperback). He is currently a Senior Lecturer, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.