John Prince Siddon

We’re celebrating the borderless creative thinking of Aboriginal and First Nations artists with a new initiative. Discover transformative, immersive experiences from artists who are facilitating the most important conversations of our time. 

Now in its third year, Boorloo Contemporary brings together First Nations artists making, questioning and reshaping contemporary art in bold and unexpected ways. The program champions ambitious new ideas and gives artists the opportunity to experiment across form, places and scale. From major public works to intimate exhibitions, Boorloo Contemporary brings First Nations contemporary art into unexpected spaces across the city.

Kait James’ Blak Flags is back, while John Prince Siddon takes the Power Station Commission into its next chapter. Kwop Ben returns with a takeover of Boorloo Bridge, alongside a series of exhibitions, commissions and presentations across Perth’s galleries and arts spaces.

Together, these works reflect the breadth of First Nations contemporary practice today – ambitious, playful, challenging, deeply personal and always evolving.

John Prince Siddon

A Walmajarri man of the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia, John Prince Siddon (b. 1964) came to painting later in life. Having spent his younger years working on cattle stations, a horse-riding accident truncated Prince’s life as a stockman and instead led him to Mangkaja Arts in Fitzroy Crossing. Although Prince only joined the art centre in 2009, his connection to Mangkaja runs deep. His father, Jirtin Pompey Siddon, was among one of its founding members – an artist in his own right.

As a painter, Prince is as distinct as he is prolific; “Once I learnt to paint, I just couldn’t stop.”

His riotous mix of surreal figuration and traditional mark-making, psychedelic compositions painted in technicolour tones, has forged a unique narrative style. Using whatever surface is close at hand – canvas and board, but also bullock skulls, possum and kangaroo pelts, ngurti (coolamon), scrap tin, even satellite dishes – Prince collapses his personal history with national stories and narrangkarni (ancestral creation stories) to create kaleidoscopic visions of contemporary Australian life

Prince’s work has received growing national recognition. He was the 2017 recipient of the Jimmy Pike Trust award, was Highly Commended in the KWM Art Prize (2018), and won second prize in the 45th Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award (2021) for Purlkartu (Spider), a hand-painted 3D-printed cow skull. He has been a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (2018–2021), the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2022) and the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2023). His solo exhibition All Mixed Up at Fremantle Arts Centre was a highlight of Perth Festival 2020, and in 2026 he exhibited in the Biennale of Sydney and unveiled Worra Munga! Ernie and Bert Dreamtime voice, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s Foyer Wall Commission and the largest work of his career. His work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia and Artbank.

Studio Gilay

Jake Duczynski and James Hackett joined forces to become Studio Gilay in 2021. The team came out firing with the short adult animation series, COOKED, released on many platforms such as the ABC and TikTok. Studio Gilay pushes original stories with memorable characters and contemporary design. All of this is driven by a super agile, diverse, collaborative and multi-skilled creative team.

Mangkaja

Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency is located in the centre of Fitzroy Crossing and functions as a fine art gallery, specialty store and studio space for their artists to paint and make cultural artefacts.

Mangkaja artists are renowned for their uninhibited style and lively use of colour, they paint images of country that share stories of culture and identity. Mangkaja Arts represent artists across four language groups within the Fitzroy Valley region; Bunuba and Gooniyandi of Martuwarra (river country), and Walmajarri and Wangkajunga from the jilji (sand-hill country of the Great Sandy Desert). It is this coming together of both river and desert people that gives Mangkaja Arts its unique range of styles. Whilst Mangkaja artists are most well known for their vibrant acrylic works on both paper and canvas, they also enjoy other mediums including printmaking, traditional artefact making, carving and basket weaving.

Emilia Galatis Projects

Emilia Galatis Projects is an Australian art platform dedicated to working closely with Indigenous artists—particularly those without access to traditional market representation and constrained by geography. With a commitment to ethical representation and a sharp eye for talent, EG Projects amplifies unique voices often overlooked in mainstream galleries.

EG Projects also produces activations that move beyond the canvas—encompassing traditional dining experiences, on-country documentaries, ethical homewares, and publications—and consults on major exhibitions for Boola Bardip (Museum of Western Australia), Fremantle Biennale, Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA), and the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA). With over 19 years’ experience working across urban and remote areas, she has received three international scholarships including a Churchill Fellowship undertaken in 2022, developing international creative business opportunities for WA artists. Her clients are museums, peak bodies and Indigenous owned arts organisations, building pathways for artists to exhibit with maximum impact. She has founded and its the director of a textile business called Flash Minky and a commercial gallery concept: EG Projects, exhibiting WA artists nationally and internationally