Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie says his message stick is a spraycan.
The artist's first retrospective - or REKOSPECTIVE - is at the National Gallery of Victoria opening Friday, with more than 100 works on show.
Raised in Melbourne's western suburbs, Reko Rennie started out tagging and making graffiti, then worked as a journalist before becoming a full time artist.
He represented Australia at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015 and has exhibited in cities including New York, Hong Kong and Paris.
His lurid colours and signature motifs (camouflage, crowns, a Kamilaroi diamond pattern and the land rights flag) are a wholly contemporary style of Aborginal art, the artist explained.
"I've never wanted to have that ochred kind of representation or play up to that stereotyped, romanticised notion of Aboriginality," said Rennie.
"The majority of us Aboriginal people, First Nations people, live in urban environments, we don't belong on the fringes of the desert or paint dots."
His biggest show is assertive in both style and subject, bringing street art style into the gallery using spray paint, stencils and neon.
These are deployed to address tough issues including frontier massacres, dispossession, and police brutality.
"There are few artists working today with Reko's insatiable spirit and curiosity, and passion for experimentation," said NGV director Tony Ellwood.
The show starts with a 1973 Rolls Royce spray-painted in Rennie's trademark camouflage, which has been installed on the gallery's ground floor.
One hard-to-miss highlight is REMEMBER ME, which spells out its title in 15-metre high red neon letters across the wall of the gallery.
It's a reference to the 250th anniversary of James Cook's arrival at Botany Bay and has recently been acquired by the NGV.
Another work is titled Three Little Pigs, which in Rennie's version (he was arrested at the age of 21) is anything but a fairy tale, addressing police violence.
"They are not going off to market, they are just going to bash some dude at a rally ... I'm sure that is going to upset some people," he said.
There's also his early artwork Big Red, a stencilled kangaroo that towers over the viewer. In 2008 it won a prestigious art award that kickstarted his career.
More recent work includes the video installation Initiation OA_RR, which shows the artist doing a series of burnouts in a Holden Monaro, and cruising through the western suburbs of his youth.
REKOSPECTIVE: The Art of Reko Rennie is on from Friday to January 27 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Fed Square.
