Lin Onus
1948 - 1996
Also know as: Gandadilla
Region: Southern Riverine
Community: Yorta Yorta
Language: Wiradjuri / Yorta Yorta
Art Centre: Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi
Lin Onus stands as a groundbreaking figure in the evolving narrative of the continent’s First Nations art, championing it as a contemporary and dynamic living culture. Before his untimely death at 47, Onus had become a prominent and vocal, though non-confrontational, force in re-examining Australia’s colonial and First Nations history.
PROFILE
Lin Onus
1948 - 1996
Region: Southern Riverine
Community: Yorta Yorta
Language: Wiradjuri / Yorta Yorta
Art Centre: Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi
Lin Onus stands as a groundbreaking figure in the evolving narrative of the continent’s First Nations art, championing it as a contemporary and dynamic living culture. Before his untimely death at 47, Onus had become a prominent and vocal, though non-confrontational, force in re-examining Australia’s colonial and First Nations history.
His father, Bill Onus, founded the Aboriginal Advancement League in Victoria and was a leading figure in Melbourne's Indigenous art scene. As a young Koori man, Lin Onus was immersed in an environment rich with cultural exchange, meeting significant figures like Albert Namatjira.
Onus began his artistic journey assisting his father in decorating artefacts, honing his skills as a panel beater and painter using airbrush techniques. By 1974, he had turned to painting photorealistic landscapes and watercolours. His early work in the 1970s included a series of paintings on Mosquito, an Aboriginal guerrilla fighter, which remain proudly displayed at the Advancement League in Melbourne.
By the early 1980s, Onus had emerged as a key advocate for the Aboriginal arts movement, playing a pivotal role in the formation of the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council. Despite representation by prominent galleries, his artistic career only truly flourished after a visit to Maningrida in Arnhem Land in 1986. That visit marked a profound shift in both his outlook and his artistic practice.
Accepted as kin by cultural custodians Jack Wunuwun and John Bullun Bulun, Onus was given permission to incorporate clan designs and stories into his work, enabling him to develop the unique visual language that would define his later career. His art, described as a “post-modern Bowerbird Dreaming,” (Nicholls 2001:536) melded Western and Aboriginal ways of organizing space and vision, often embedding traditional motifs with subtlety into photorealistic landscapes.
Critics noted how Onus’s work disrupted the traditional understanding of landscape art. As Radon remarked, “landscape art is no longer an unconscious carrier of myths of domination... [but] demands the artist deconstruct these approaches and display an awareness of history and ideology.” (Radon 1997:16) Onus’s works invite viewers to look beyond the visible surface to access a Dreaming reality, a deeper dimension that is accessible to all who open their minds.
His 1991 installation Fruit Bats, shown at the Australian Perspecta, featured a Hills Hoist adorned with fiberglass bats painted in ceremonial Arnhem Land crosshatch designs. His paintings of the Barmah Forest, near his Yorta Yorta homeland, often include crosshatched fish beneath the water’s surface or, in one case, a jigsaw puzzle piece that fails to fit— a metaphor for the damage done to the Murray River ecosystem.
A gifted communicator, Onus understood the desire among non-Indigenous audiences to grasp the concept of the Dreaming. However, his art extended beyond post-colonial commentary, providing an alternative vision of history. In his 1985 work Kapt’n Koori, he created an Indigenous superhero for his son, Tiriki. In 1988, he painted discarded beer cans littering the dry surface of an Aboriginal homeland, a striking comment on the erosion of culture.
Onus’s humour, described as “a postmodernism without tears,” was evident in his unapologetic appropriation of both Aboriginal and Western iconography. He deftly navigated debates on authenticity in Aboriginal art, countering criticisms with the argument that Aboriginal art, like any artistic tradition, should not be seen as static. In Language and Lasers, he refuted the notion that Aboriginal art should remain untouched by external influences, pointing out that Western art, too, evolved through a blend of traditions and innovations.
While some in the art world questioned his blending of traditional and contemporary elements, Onus was embraced by the Aboriginal community he was initiated into, with the Wunuwun family eager to help him find his path.
Onus’s manual dexterity and innovative spirit were evident in his use of new materials like fibreglass and silicone, along with his creation of time-saving tools such as Rarrk stamps and dotting machines. His work sought to challenge the notion that technological advances would erode Indigenous culture. On the contrary, he argued, technology—such as the widespread use of four-wheel-drive vehicles—had enhanced ceremonial activities.
Beyond his role as an artist, Onus was an influential figure in the broader arts community, serving as the chair of the Aboriginal Arts Board and as a founding member of the artist copyright agency, “Viscopy.” He was a sought-after speaker, representing First Nations artists at prestigious gatherings, including the National Press Club.
Ultimately, Lin Onus’s work transcended the political and the aesthetic, forever altering perceptions of Aboriginal art. As Christine Nicholls noted, his efforts “put urban Aboriginal art onto the cultural map in Australia.” His legacy was cemented with the retrospective exhibition Urban Dingo: The Art of Lin Onus 1948-1996, part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival. Developed before his passing, the exhibition celebrated his remarkable career, brought to completion with the support of his family.
ARTIST CV
Selected Collections:
Aborigines Advancement League, Melbourne [Musquito series]
Artbank, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
City of Melbourne Collection
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Loyola College, Montreal, Canada
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Maritime Museum, Sydney
Podgor Collection
Qantas Airways collection
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
World Congress Centre, Melbourne
Selected Solo Exhibition:
2022 - Lin Onus: The Land Within, SAM (Shepparton Art Museum), Shepparton, Victoria.
2009 - Lin Onus: Meaning of Life, Marroondah Art Gallery, touring exhibition.
2008 - It All Started from Black, in Memory of Lin Onus, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art, Sydney.
1990 - Painters Gallery, Sydney
1989 - Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1988 - Koori Kollij, Melbourne; Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1982 - Auburn Galleries, Melbourne
1979 - Gallery 333, Melbourne
1978 - Hesley Gallery, Canberra
1977 - Holdsworth Gallery, Sydney
1976 - Taurinus Gallery, Melbourne
1975 - Aboriginal Advancement League, Melbourne
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1994 - Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria.; Yiribana, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
1993/4 - ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark
1992/3 - New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal Australia, touring USA and Australia
1991 - Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra; Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Flash Painting, National Gallery of Australia
1990 - Balance 1990:views, visions, influences, QAG, Brisbane.; Tagari Lia: My Family, Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 -from Australia, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK
1989 - Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Hurst Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania; A Koori Perspective, Artspace Sydney; Crosscurrents - a survey of Traditional and Urban Aboriginal Art, Sydney; Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art]
1988 - A changing relationship: Aboriginal Themes in Australian Art 1938-1988, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney; Koori Art, Doncaster Gallery in conjunction with the Victorian Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Trust, Melbourne; The Fifth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; Bulawirri / Bugaja- A Special Place, NGV, Melbourne; Urban Aboriginal Art: A Selective View, Contemporary Arts Centre of South Australia, Adelaide; Long Water, Aboriginal Artists Gallery, Sydney
1987 - Dalkuna Mnunuway Nhe Rom, Seven Maori Artists - Seven Aboriginal Artists, Foreign Exchange, Melbourne; Art and Aboriginality, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, England; The Fourth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1985 - Morwell Regional Gallery, Morwell, Victoria.
1984 - The First National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; Musqito Series in conjunction with Koorie Art '84, AGNSW, Sydney; Koori Art '84, Artspace, Sydney
Bibliography:
A Koori Perspective, exhib. cat., Artspace, Sydney, 1989.
'Aboriginal Art', National Gallery News, 10th Birthday edition, September/October 1992, p. 5-7.
Australian Perspecta 1989, A Biennial Survey of Contemporary Australian Art, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1989. (C)
Balance 1990: Views, Visions, Influences, exhib. cat., Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1990. (C)
Caruana, W., Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London, 1993. (C)
Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 - from Australia (presented by the Aboriginal Arts Committee, Australia Council and Third Eye Centre, Glasgow), exhib. cat., Aboriginal Arts Management Association, Redfern, New South Wales, 1990. (C)
Crossman, S. and Barou, J-P. (eds), L'ete Australien a Montpellier: 100 Chefs d'Oevre de la Peinture Australienne, Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France, 1990. (C)
Crumlin, R., (ed.), Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Collins Dove, North Blackburn, Victoria, 1991. (C)
Diggins, L. (ed.), A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria, 1989.
Eather, M., 'Lin Onus - cultural mechanic,' Special Double Issue Artlink 10(1&2), 80, 1990.
Hill, M., and McLeod, N., From the Ochres of Mungo, Aboriginal Art Today, Dorr McLeod Publishing, West Heidleberg, Victoria, 1984. (C)
Isaacs, J., Aboriginality: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings and Prints, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland, 1989. (C)
Jackomos, A. and Fowell, D., Living Aboriginal History of Victoria: Stories in the Oral Tradition, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1991. (C)
Johnson, T. and Johnson, V., Koori Art '84, exhib. cat., Art Space, Sydney, 1984. (C)
Johnson, V., Art and Aboriginality, exhib. cat, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, UK, 1987.
Koorie Art, Contemporary Work by Victorian Aboriginal Artists, exhib. cat., Doncaster Gallery 18 May-26 June 1988, Melbourne. (C)
McCulloch, A., & McCulloch, S., The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, St Leonards, New South Wales, 1994.
McQueen, Humphrey, 'Flashlight on trivial pursuit of authentic blackness', The Weekend Australian, 11 January 1992
Megaw, R., Nothing to celebrate?, Australian Aboriginal Political Art and the Bicentennial, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, 1989.
Mundine, D., 'The first Koori', Art Monthly Australia 76, 22, 1994. (C)
Neale, M., Yiribana, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1994. (C)
Nicholls, Christine, 'Commentary: Lin Onus � urban dingo', in Art & Australia, Art Quarterly, Volume 38, Number 4, June 2001, pp. 536-538.
Nothing to Celebrate? Australian Aboriginal Political Art and the Bicentennial, exhib. cat., Flinders University Art Museum, 1989 (C)
Onus, L., 'Language and lasers,' Art Monthly Australia Supplement (The land, the city - the emergence of urban Aboriginal art), 14-15, 19, 1990. (C)
Onus, L., Southwest, Southeast Australia and Tasmania, essay for ARATJARA catalogue, 1993.
Onus, L., 'A clockwise stroll through Australia, review of Aboriginal Art - the Continuing Tradition,' Tension 17, 38, 1989. (C)
Perkins, H., 'Beyond the Year of Indigenous Peoples' in Art and Australia, Vol 31 No 1, 1993, p 98-101.
Scott-Mundine, D., 'Black on Black: an Aboriginal perspective on Koori art,' Art Monthly Australia Supplement (The land, the city - the emergence of urban Aboriginal art), 7-9, 1990. (C)
Strangers in Paradise, exhib. cat., National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea, 1992. (C)
Watson, C., 'The Bicentenary and beyond: recent developments in Aboriginal printmaking,' Special Double Issue Artlink 10(1&2), 1990, 70-73. (C)
MARKET ANALYSIS
Analysing the auction results for Lin Onus's works fin the recent decade, rom 2015 to 2024 reveals strong performance with some minor fluctuations in both the total value of sales and the clearance rates, which reflect the percentage of works sold at auction. Overall, the period highlights Onus’s market strength, particularly during peak years like 2021 and 2022, and demonstrates resilience even through periods of lower sales, with strong sales evident in 2024.
In 2015, Onus saw a strong performance with a clearance rate of 79%, as 11 of 14 works sold, generating A$1,307,617. However, in 2016, the market dipped, with only 10 works offered and a clearance rate of 70% amounting to A$272,172. The following year, 2017, witnessed a rebound, achieving a clearance rate of 69% and generating A$908,711 in total sales.
The market for Onus's works surged in 2018, with a higher clearance rate of 81%, as 13 of 16 works sold, contributing to an impressive total of A$1,969,694. This strong demand persisted into 2019, though with a lower clearance rate of 75%, with 6 of 8 works sold, but the total sales value still reached A$1,121,077, indicating the value of individual pieces.
In 2020, Onus achieved a perfect 100% clearance rate, as all 8 works offered were sold, generating A$684,758 in total sales, demonstrating strong and consistent demand for his art even in a quieter year. In 2021, the market hit a peak with a clearance rate of 90%, as 19 of 21 works sold for a remarkable A$2,143,112, marking the highest sales value of the decade.
This upward trajectory continued in 2022, with a clearance rate of 93%, as 28 of 30 works sold for A$2,354,987, establishing Onus as one of the top-selling artists in the Australian art market. However, in 2023, the clearance rate dropped significantly to 56%, with mostly prints and works on paper offered resulting in a much lower total of A$499,920.
By 2024, the market showed signs of recovery, with a clearance rate of 86%, as 12 of 14 works sold for A$1,478,892, indicating renewed interest in Onus’s work and a rebound from the previous year’s downturn.
Lin Onus passed away at only 47 just as he was preparing for his debut exhibition with Australian Galleries, having recently parted ways with his previous representative, Gabrielle Pizzi. Though he had established himself as a key figure in the indigenous art community, his career had slowed during the early 1980s. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that his career regained momentum, largely due to his participation in important exhibitions like Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989 and A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art in 1990. From there, a series of exhibitions in major international venues, including Glasgow, Düsseldorf, London, and Denmark, solidified his growing global reputation by the mid-1990s. At the time of his death in 1996, few of Onus’s works had been auctioned, with major paintings selling for less than $10,000. Yet, as his artistic legacy grew, so did the market value of his works, particularly his large canvases featuring his distinctive blend of photorealism and Aboriginal iconography.
In the years following his death, Onus’s market value climbed rapidly. By 1999, Barmah Forest (182.5 x 182.5 cm) sold for $57,500 at Christie’s Melbourne, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate. In 2006, his large-scale Water Lillies and Evening Reflections, Dingo Springs achieved $396,000 at Deutscher~Menzies. The upward trend continued in 2013 when Robyn (1995) set a new record, selling for $414,800. In 2017, Riddle of the Koi (1994) fetched $561,200 at Deutscher & Hackett, and in 2019, Fish and Storm Clouds (1994), which had sold for $288,000 in 2007, reappeared at Menzies and sold for $515,454, underscoring the consistent appreciation of his major works.
Recent results from 2024 confirm this ongoing demand. In April, Yellow Lilies (1993), a synthetic polymer on canvas measuring 182 x 182 cm, sold for A$552,273 at Deutscher and Hackett’s Important Australian + International Fine Art auction in Melbourne, surpassing its $350,000-$450,000 estimate. Similarly, The Joy of Fish - The Ripple (1994), a large 182.5 x 182.5 cm canvas, sold at Menzies’ Important Australian & International Art auction in June for A$392,727, slightly below its estimate of $350,000-$450,000. Another notable sale from this year, Wirrirr Wirrirr (Rainbow Birds), a four-panel synthetic polymer work, fetched A$331,364 at Smith & Singer's Important Australian Art auction in Sydney, comfortably above its pre-sale estimate.
Onus’s smaller works, including prints and paintings on board, continue to perform well but at more modest price points. In August 2024, Butterflies and Rocks (1993) and Butterflies and Flowers (1993), both synthetic polymer pieces on board, each sold for A$39,886 at Smith & Singer’s Important Australian Art auction, slightly under their $35,000-$45,000 estimates.
Lin Onus’s art has continued to gain recognition for its distinctive combination of Aboriginal and Western influences, and his market reflects the growing demand for these works. His large canvases, which once sold for under $10,000, now regularly fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, with the likelihood of surpassing $1 million soon. His appeal remains strong among collectors, both for his breathtaking landscapes and his politically charged social commentary pieces, many of which are still to be tested at auction. The trajectory of his market performance, especially in 2024, shows that his legacy as a trailblazer in Aboriginal art is secure, and the value of his works is expected to rise further.
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