Artist Arone Meeks has always been hunting for lost pieces of himself, he says.
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A Kukumidiji man of Laura, Far North Queensland, he has always been informed by his indigenous culture, the environment, identity, sexuality, and how those fluid structures have impacted on his life in different places and at different times.
His mother died when he was 11 and he was raised by an uncle, sharing a bedroom with his grandfather who first fostered his creativity.
In high school and later at art school in Brisbane he struggled with finding his place, and what part art would play in his life, eventually finding direction at the City Art Institute in Sydney. Returning to Queensland he studied with tribal elders including those of the Lardil people of Mornington Island.
In 1989 he won a Australia Council fellowship to study in Paris and he went on to exhibit through Europe and North America. His distinctive works are held in some of the most prestigious galleries in the world.
And just this week he has finished a six-week artist residency at Megalo Print Studio + Gallery in Kingston, where he has worked closely with the Megalo staff to produce a new suite of etchings and lithographs.
This work, as well as a selection of monoprints, relief prints, lithographs and etchings produced throughout his career, will be exhibited in Beyond the Blue: Unbroken, which runs until May 27, 2017.
Meeks said growing up in Far North Queensland there was always this sense of disconnection, that structures were in place to break down families, "and connections with country and culture and language or ceremony".
"I believe the work I'm doing at the moment, the work I have been doing up to this point, is about re-connection," Meeks says.
"It's about collaborating with people, their stories, and developing a language of symbols. It's important not to be insular."
Meeks says was blessed to get the residency at Megalo, where he has been collaborating with press studio manager John Hart and technical assistant Clare Jackson on the various lithographs and etchings.
Over the years Meeks has also worked in remote Indigenous communities using art as a vehicle for the promotion of such issues as sexual health and domestic violence.
Beyond the Blue: Unbroken. An artistic anthology of works on paper. By Arone Meeks. Megalo Print Studio + Gallery, Wentworth Avenue, Kingston. Until May 27. Gallery hours Tuesday to Saturday, 930am-5pm.
