Timo Hogan

Timo grew up with stories of life in the Spinifex Lands. His mother and family dug themselves into the sand dunes to try to avoid the smoke from the Maralinga atomic bomb. Before he was born she walked to a location close to Tjuntjuntjara and found a pile of tin meat left by the patrol officer. A white man came and picked all the people up in an old Landrover and drove them into Cundeelee Mission. Later his mother was driven from Cundeelee to the old hospital in Kalgoorlie for Timo’s birth in 1973.

After his birth his mother succumbed to the lure of alcohol in Kalgoorlie and struggled to look after a new baby properly. Timo’s father came and took him to Mt Margaret. He spent his formative years here with his father, Neville McCarthur, and his stepmother Alkawari. They lived at Mt Margaret until the family moved to Warburton, closer to his father’s traditional lands. Alkawari did not speak Pitjantjatjara or Ngaanyatjarra as she was from a different Aboriginal tribe, but spoke in English to Timo and he is now fluent in all three languages.

Once back in country Timo’s father took him to all the culturally significant places. He wanted to introduce him to the country, to the spirit caretakers and teach him the law. “My father took me to Lake Baker, all around, rockhole and all. I know all these places but I can’t show them. Millmillpa (dangerously sacred). I’m taking over this country now, as my father is getting old. I’m the only son and people say we are like twins, my father and me. We look the same. I know how to use spears – he taught me everything.”

Timo went through Men’s Business initiation at Warburton. The group travelled down to Tjuntjuntjara on the business run. “ My father’s really a Spinifex Man. His brothers are Hogan and Jamieson”. After going through business Timo settled in Tjuntjuntjara and lived with his mother. His father visited regularly before he got too old to make the long journey.

For a brief period in the 2000’s Timo lived at Kalka as his mother married a man from there. He did his first canvas, a painting of the Lake Baker with Ninuku Artists in 2004. After a long break of nearly 10 years he has started painting again. Painting his country, the vast salt lake, the place he now has cultural obligations to look after. A place of power and danger. “I’ve rediscovered my love for painting. I do painting all the time now. I’m painting my country Lake Baker”.

In 2021 Timo’s work ‘Lake Baker’ was the overall winner in prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art Awards. His works are highly sought after and hang in major public institutions and art museums as well as substantial private collections.

Solo Exhibitions
2023 Kumpilpa Ngaranyi- Unseen, with SDR Art Projects, Adelaide SA.
2022 TIMO HOGAN in conjunction with Salon Art Projects, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, NT.
2021 Pantutjara - Timo Hogan, Outstation Gallery, Darwin. NT.

Group Exhibitions
2025 Rawa Tjunguku - working together a long time, Redot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.
2024 Spinifex People: Art and stories from Pila Nguru, WA Museum Boola Bardip, Perth, WA.
2024 Sovereigns of the Memory, Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery, Brussels.
2024 From the Spinifex Country, Aboriginal and Pacific Art, Sydney NSW.
2024 Pila: the Space Between the Dunes, Salon Art Projects, Darwin, NT.
2024 Wynne Prize 2024, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
2024 Spinifex 2024 - Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA.
2024 Uwankara Utulu - All Together, DLan Contemporary New York, USA.
2023 Tarnanthi 2023 - Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide SA.
2023 Sun and Shadow Art of the Spinifex People, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle. WA.
2023 New Work from the Spinifex Arts Project, D’Lan Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary.
2023 Sun and Shadow - Art of the Spinifex People, Raft Artspace, Alice Springs, NT.
2023 Artists of Tjuntjuntjara, Aboriginal and Pacific Arts, Sydney, NSW.
2023 New Work from the Spinifex Arts Project, D’Lan Contemporary, New York.
2023 Voir l’Invisible, Museum d’Angoulême, in conjunction with Aboriginal Signature • Estrangin Gallery and supported by the Australian Embassy in France, the French Embassy in Australia, Angoulême, France.
2022 Living Water, Raft Artspace, Alice Springs, NT.
2022 Short Street Gallery Broome WA.
2022 Spinifex Arts Project 25 year anniversary show, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, VIC.
2022 We, Us, Them, Belfast Exposed, Belfast.
2022 UK We, Us, Them, CCP, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Fitzroy, Australia.
2022 Aluni - Resonance - Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery, Brussels, Belgium.
2021 Spinifex Wati Tjuta, Aboriginal and Pacific Arts, Sydney NSW.
2021 Art Gallery of South Australia. Tarnanthi - Festival of Comtemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art.  Adelaide SA.
2021 DesertMob 2021, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs NT.
2021 38th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of NT. Darwin. NT.
2021 Making a Mark, ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.
2021 Zeitreise, ARTKELCH, Freiburg, Germany.
2020 Spinifex Artists - On Our Country, Japingka gallery fremantle. WA.
2020 Paris Art Fair inconjunction with ArtKelch Gallery, Paris, France.
2020 37th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of NT. Darwin NT
2020 Smart Art, ARTKELCH, Freiburg, Germany.
2020 The Magic of Black and White, ARTKELCH at KUNSTWERK, Eberdingen-Nussdorf, Germany.
2020 Paris, Paris!, ARTKELCH, Freiburg, Germany.
2020 Art Paris 2020, ARTKELCH at Art Paris 2020, Paris, France.
2019 Journey through Culture, for Tarnanthi Festival in conjunction with Redot Gallery and nthspace Adelaide SA.
2019 “Wati: Men from Spinifex” Aboriginal and pacific Arts, Sydney, NSW.
2019 Desert Mob 2019, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT.
2019 36th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of NT. Darwin. NT
2019 Explosion, Aboriginal Signature • Estrangin Gallery, Brussels, Belgium.
2019 Art Karlsruhe 2019, ARTKELCH at art Karlsruhe 2019, Karlsruhe, Germany.
2018 Spinifex People Spinifex Land - A Collection of Fine Spinifex Indigenous Art, ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore..
2018 In Kürze: Pila Nguruku Kapi Walkatjara - Painted Waters of Spinifex Country, Artkelch, Skulpturenpark Wesenberg| Künstler Bei Wu, Wesenberg (near Berlin) Germany.
2017 Wuste - Meer - Schpfermythen ArtKelch Gallery presented at The Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum Cologne, Germany.
2017 Spinifex Arts 20th Anniversary, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle. WA.
2016 Pila Nguratja - In Spinifex Country Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC.
2016 Rawa Nyinanyi- Unbroken. Outstation Gallery, Darwin. NT.
2016 Revealed Emerging Aboriginal Artists of WA, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA.
2013 Kuwaritja - New Works of the Spinifex People Outstation Gallery, Darwin, NT.

Awards
2024 Finalist Wynne Prize Award 2024, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
2021 Overall Winner 38th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museums and Art Galleries, Darwin, NT.
2020 Finalist 37th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museums and Art Galleries, Darwin, NT.
2019 Finalist 36th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museums and Art Galleries, Darwin, NT.
2017 Port Hedland Art Awards - finalist.

Collections
ART GALLERY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
ARTBANK, AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT COLLECTION. AUSTRALIA.
ARTHUR ROE COLLECTION, AUSTRALIA
KERRY STOKES COLLECTION
KLUGE-RUHE ABORIGINAL ART COLLECTION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, USA
MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY, DARWIN, AUSTRALIA.
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, AUSTRALIA, SYDNEY, NSW.
NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA
NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE, VICTORIA.
OPALE FOUNDATION, SWITZERLAND
QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY, BRISBANE, QLD.
RICHARD AND HARRIETT ENGLAND COLLECTION, AUSTRALIA
STEVE MARTIN PRIVATE COLLECTION, NY, USA.
THE ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, SYDNEY, NSW
THE KAPLAN-LEVI COLLECTION, USA