Billy Benn Perrurle

Billy Benn Perrurle was born circa 1943 in Artetyerre (Harts Range) and passed away 15/10/2012. His two older sisters, Ally and Gladdy Kemerre, taught Bill how to paint on skin when he was a teenager, while living at Kurrajong/Urapuntja (Utopia). Bill also remembered the Chinese wife of a mica miner, Jane, showing him how to paint. Their father, Jimmy Kemerre, was also an artist, making more traditional artifacts, wooden sculptures, boomerangs and spears. Jimmy worked in the mica mines and also mined for gold out at Altunga, transporting people and mail from Alice Springs to Altunga by camel whilst working for a man, Simon Reef. Bill worked extensively in his country. He began working as a young boy, aged approximately 10, in the mica mines of Harts Range with Simon Reef's younger brother Norman. He recalled a lot of Italian people working there, and the large flagons of wine they carried with them, imported from Italy. He also recalled the lunches of spaghetti "Good food, those Italian people"... Billy was not paid for his work, instead receiving tucker and clothes. Later he began pumping water for cattle, again being paid in flour, sugar and tea. He spent most of his working life in the North Eastern area of Central Australia, droving sheep and cattle for Pastoralists, Cameron Chalmers, Joe Mangel and Peter Hayes. It was whilst working with Chalmers that Bill grew up to be a man. He spoke in particular of a special trip, droving with his cousins from Arrkngenangkerre (Mount Swan), where they drove a herd of cattle to deliver to Neutral Junction Station, East of Barrow Creek, also returning on horse back.

Since 1981, Billy worked at Bindi Inc., an organisation established to provide employment opportunities, support and advocacy for people with a disability in Alice Springs. During his time constructing metal boxes in the Brown Street workshop, he identified a space which became his corner to paint in. He began to visually map out his father's country via the painted image, using old boards discarded by the Alice Springs Timber Mill. Working as many outsider artists do, with second rate materials, on any surface that appealed, Billy painted using his fingers, cloth, glue and varnish. Despite the brilliant landscapes being created, they were only shown once prior to 2000 in an exhibition of artworks done by people with a disability in the 'Beyond Passions' exhibition in Alice Springs. All his work sold, and yet, the low profile of the exhibition, meant that his work had still not been viewed by the wider market. The Mwerre Anthurre Artist collective was founded around his talent in 2000.

It was many years before Billy was able to return to his homeland. Meanwhile he continued to paint primarily Harts Range, his father's country. His images were found from memory and feeling. By painting his land, Billy brought the country into himself. Only when he had painted every hill from his country, would he stop and return home. Bill's paintings cover a wide scope of style, born of his own lack of preciousness, his vivid imagination and colour, texture and material experimentation strategies, rather than the study of other painterly influences. One sees hints of Turner, Cezzane, Van Gogh and the Orientalists within his work, yet these were images never seen by Bill. We are reminded of these other great painters in the variations of light that he captures, rolling ranges painted in deep reds, reminding viewers of the raging seas Turner exposed. From the Central Australian context, they remind one of the great inland sea which once existed here. Yet Bill remarked only on Albert Namatjira being a great painter.

Bill's paintings communicate a well informed knowledge and relationship of the space that exists in this country. Belgian Art Historian, Georges Petitjean, was excited by Bill's breadth and continuance of horizon, never curving at the edges but continuing their travel overland and on into the distance.

Solo Exhibitions
2025 Before I go home - 8 Hele Gallery, Alice Springs NT.
2014 Billy Benn: Returning Home - Art Leven. Redfern, NSW.
2011 Billy Benn - Alacaston Gallery. Melbourne, VIC.
2007 Magic - Alcaston Gallery. Melbourne, VIC.
2003 Billy Benn - Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi. Melbourne, VIC.
2002 Billy Benn - Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi. Melbourne, VIC.

Group Exhibitions
2025 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art - Potter Museum of Art, Parkville, VIC.
2019 Inbetween | the gaps | act I - Marché aux Vins. Beaune, France.
2015 In the Wild - Talapi Gallery. Alice Springs, NT.
2014 Bindi Magic - Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists. Alice Springs, NT.
2014 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2013 Bindi Eye - Tali Gallery. Rozelle, NSW.
2012 Bindi Magic - Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists. Alice Springs, NT.
2012 Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery - Melbourne, VIC.
2012 Desert Colour - Talapi Gallery. Alice Springs, NT.
2012 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2011 Bindi Magic - Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists. Alice Springs, NT.
2011 Ways of Seeing - Art Leven. Redfern, NSW.
2011 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi - Melbourne, VIC.
2011 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2011 Cross Cultural Art Exchange - Darwin, NT.
2010 Karen Brown Gallery - Darwin, NT.
2010 Karen Brown Gallery - Alice Springs NT.
2010 Woolloongabba Gallery - Brisbane, QLD.
2010 Gallery Gondwana - Alice Springs, NT.
2010 Alcaston Gallery - Melbourne, VIC.
2010 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2010 Raft Gallery - Alice Springs, NT.
2009 AP Bond Dealer - Adelaide, SA.
2009 Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery - Melbourne, VIC.
2009 Karen Brown Gallery - Darwin, NT.
2009 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2009 Indigenart - Perth, WA.
2008 Gallery Gondwana - Alice Springs, NT.
2008 Karen Brown Gallery - Darwin, NT.
2008 Big Country - Gallery Gondwana. Alice Springs, NT.
2008 Land Sea and the Universe - Melbourne Art Fair. Melbourne, VIC.
2008 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2007 Alcaston Gallery - Melbourne, VIC.
2007 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi - Melbourne, VIC.
2007 AP Bond Gallery - Adelaide, SA.
2007 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2007 Indigenart - Perth, WA.
2007 Big Country - Gallery Gondwana. Alice Springs, NT.
2007 Karen Brown Gallery - Darwin NT.
2006 Landmarks - National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne, VIC.
2006 Alcaston Gallery - Melbourne, VIC.
2006 Big Country - Gallery Gondwana. Alice Springs, NT.
2006 Salon des Refuses - S.H. Ervin Gallery. Sydney, NSW.
2006 Karen Brown Gallery - Darwin, NT.
2005 Desert Mob. - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2005 Big Country - Gallery Gondwana. Alice Springs, NT.
2005 Telstra Art Award - Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Darwin, NT.
2005 Gallery Gabrielle Pizze - Melbourne, VIC.
2004 Apmere - Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi. Melbourne, VIC.
2004 Big Country - Gallery Gondwana. Alice Springs, NT.
2004 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2004 Australian Culture Now - National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne, VIC.
2004 Telstra Art Award - Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Darwin, NT.
2004 Karen Brown Gallery - Darwin, NT.
2004 From little things big things grow - National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, ACT.
2003 Telstra Art Awards - Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Darwin, NT.
2003 The Bindi Perspective - Gallery Gondwana. Alice Springs, NT.
2002 Bindi The Bush And Beyond - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2002 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2002 Grant Pirrie Gallery - Sydney, NSW.
2002 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi - Melbourne, VIC.
2001 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.
2000 Desert Mob - Araluen Art Centre. Alice Springs, NT.

Collections
Araluen Art Centre

Art Gallery of New South Whales

Art Gallery and Museum of the Northern Territory

Art Gallery of South Australia

National Gallery of Australia

National Gallery of Queensland

National Gallery of Victoria

Awards
2009 Finalist - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Art Awards (NATSIAA - Telstra).
2006 Winner - 34th Alice Prize - Araluen, Alice Springs.
2002 Finalist - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Art Awards (NATSIAA - Telstra).