Marcus ‘Double O’ Camphoo Kemarre

Marcus ‘Double O’ Camphoo Kemarre was born at Murray Downs in 1992. He is a Kaytetye and Alywarr man who lives and works between Ali Curung (Kaytetye Country) and Tennant Creek (Warumungu Country). Double O began painting in 2017 as part of the Tennant Creek Men’s Centre art program which would go on to become the much-acclaimed Tennant Creek Brio and has painted with Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre since 2020.

Double O’s painting practice consists predominantly of a small handful of deceptively simple grid-and-band compositions, seemingly guided by a set of fluid formulas and mental mathematics that he applies to his work. Active, loose brushstrokes apply a border around the canvas before lines are carved across, creating the skeleton of the work. Paint is pushed and poured across the empty space, bleeding into the frame.

At scale, the work forces an intimacy with the viewer and resonate like portals reaching into space, the artist’s psyche or an altogether different dimension. They have been likened to the aesthetic of central desert ceremonial body painting, the structural frames upon which they are painted and window or building shapes of children’s painting – a common remark from the ladies’ painting studio says that he is painting the windows of all the houses he visits as he roams around Ali Curung. Many have drawn a line between Double O’s grids and his namesake Mark(us) Rothko’s colour field paintings, while his rapid mark making has drawn allusion to that of preeminent Australian abstract expressionist Tony Tuckson.

Marcus has exhibited prolifically alongside the Tennant Creek Brio and made his solo debut at 8 Hele in 2024. His work has been collected in Australia by Araluen Art Centre and the NGV and by Foundation Opale in Switzerland. Marcus' work also belongs to multiple important private collections.

Solo Exhibitions
2024 MARKUSOOH, MAKUSOOH, MARUSOOH, June 2024, 8 Hele, Alice Springs, NT, Australia

Group Exhibitions
2024 Tennant Creek Brio: Juparnta Ngattu Minjinypa Iconocrisis, September 2024, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Southbank, VIC, Australia.
2024 Sydney Contemporary 2024 with Cassandra Bird, September 2024, Carriageworks, Eveleigh, NSW, Australia.
2024 Desert Mob 2024, September 2024, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2024 Revelation & Concealment, July 2024, JGM Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
2024 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards 2024, June 2024, Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory, The Gardens, NT, Australia.
2024 Cross Section, March 2024, Cassandra Bird Gallery, Potts Point, NSW, Australia.
2024 Gangstars of Art, Sydney Biennale 2020, NIRIN, March 2020, Artspace, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
2023 Ngurra, December 2023, JGM Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
2023 Desert Mob 2023, September 2023, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2023 Ayamalke/Jinta-kari (Many Different Ways), June 2023, Modern Times, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia.
2023 Control Point presented by Raft Art Space, June 2023, Delmar Gallery, Summer Hill, NSW, Australia.
2023 Remember Now Old Man Nomad, May 2023, Chapman & Bailey Gallery, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2023 Aotearoa Art Fair 2023 with NAP Contemporary, March 2023, The Cloud, Auckland, New Zealand.
2023 Black Sky, Perth Festival, February 2022, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Crawley, WA, Australia.
2023 Radioactive Anomolies, February 2023, Niagra Galleries, Richmond, VIC, Australia.
2022 Love and Fear, September 2022, Thom Gallery, Byron Bay, NSW, Australia.
2022 Desert Mob 2022, September 2022, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2022 Shock & Ore, August 2022, CDU Art Gallery, Brinkin, NT, Australia and Coconut Studios, Coconut Grove, NT Australia.
2022 Taking Care of Business, July 2022, Raft Art Space, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2022 Arlpwe Artists: Off the Beaten Track, April 2022, Japingka Aboriginal Art, Fremantle, WA, Australia.
2022 The Borderers, Melbourne Design Week 2022 with Modern Times, March 2022, Modern Times, Fitzroy, VIC, Australia.
2022 The Myth Makers, February 2022, Chapman & Bailey Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
2022 Roger Kemp and the Tennant Creek Brio, Melbourne Art Fair 2022 with Chapman and Bailey, February 2022, Melbourne
Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
2021 Desert Mob 2021, September 2021, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2021 Are You Looking At Me?, April 2021, Raft Art Space, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2020 Desert Mob 2020, September 2020, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2020 Salon Des Refuse, August 2020, CDU Gallery, Darwin, NT, Australia.
2020 Ignite: Reimagining Connections through Covid, August 2020, Hilton Double Tree, Darwin, NT, Australia.
2020 We Are The Living History, Sydney Biennale 2020, NIRIN, March 2020, Cockatoo Island, NSW, Australia.
2020 Brio to Biennale, March 2020, Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Cultural Centre, Tennant Creek, NT, Australia.
2019 Desert Mob 2019, September 2019, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2019 Tennant Creek Superstars, April 2019, Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Cultural Centre, Tennant Creek, NT, Australia.
2019 King of the Roosters, April 2019, Raft Artspace, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.
2017 Tennant Presence, Present Tense, August 2017, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, NT Australia.
2017 Stockman Spirit, June 2017, Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Cultural Centre, Tennant Creek, NT, Australia.

Collections
Foundation Opale, Lens, Switzerland
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, Australia