Alick Tipoti Biography

Alick Tipoti was born in 1975 on Waiben Island in the Torres Strait. He became interested in art from an early age and through the development of his practice has become one of the Torres Strait Isands most innovative artists. His art draws on traditional Torres Strait religious stories and features events from the past, when fighting was glorified and warriors enjoyed the esteem of their people. Legendary heroes appear along with weapons of war, dhari headdresses, masks, drums and other artefacts associated with ritual dance and ceremony.

In 1994 he was awarded a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Printmaking) from the Canberra Institute of Art, Australian National University. In 1998 he was awarded the Lin Onus Youth Prize in the fourth National Indigenous Heritage Art Awards for his linoprint, Aralpaia ar Zenikula.

Selected bibliography

The Fourth National Indigenous Heritage Art Awards 1998 [exhibition catalogue], Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra, 1998.
Mosby, Tom and Robinson, Brian, Illan Pasin (This is our way): Torres Strait Art [exhibition catalogue], Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns, 1998.
Win-Nemou Sandra, Maillot, ‘Blood brothers’, Art Asia Pacific, No. 14, 1997, pp. 32–33.

Group exhibitions

1999: ‘Illan Pasin (This is our way): Torres Strait Art’, Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns; touring 1999–2000 Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville; University of Melbourne Gallery, Melbourne; Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide; Australian Contemporary Craft Centre, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

1998: ‘The Fourth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award 1998’, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra.1996‘Art ou Artifice? (Art or Artifice)’, Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea, New Caledonia.