Lin Onus, a Yorta Yorta artist of Aboriginal and Scottish descent, represents a singular voice in Australia’s cultural life. Esteemed for his wit, talent and panache, Onus’s work is a negotiation of cultural identity, employing both Aboriginal and Western techniques to unsettle categorisation.

With a title translating to “Wish you were here”, ‘Djalng Baltjigi Nyuni Djinigima’ is a work of loss and discovery. It reaches across generations – started by Onus and posthumously completed by his son, Tiriki Onus, who is an artist himself. Lin Onus is responsible for the rocks below, scattered against black pigment symbolic of his cultural identity. After Onus unexpectedly passed in 1996, his son finished the work by adding the stingray and its shadow, an animal that held resonance for father and son.

When speaking about the work, Tiriki described his experience of living beneath the shadow of his father, their artistic practices perennially compared. While this idea echoes in the stingray’s shadow, its story is more complex. Tiriki’s stingray glides beyond the constraints of the image, serene and weightless; it is a reminder that we are both contained by our parents and fated to transcend them. With freedom can come loss.

Detailed, multi-coloured and impeccably composed, ‘Djalng Baltjigi Nyuni Djinigima’ testifies to an art whose artistic vision was only matched by his activism. Caught between different worlds, Lin Onus wrote in 1990 that he hoped to be remembered as a “bridge between cultures, technology and ideas”. With representation in most major Australian collections and an OBE, it is undoubtable that he has.

For collectors of important Australian, Aboriginal and contemporary art, ‘Djalng Baltjigi Nyuni Djinigima (Wish You Were Here)’ is a genuinely special find. It has an unbroken chain of ownership and is embossed with the Lin Onus Estate stamp.

Lin ONUS (1948 - 1996) & Tiriki ONUS
'Djalng Baltjigi Nyuni Djinigima (Wish You Were Here)' 1996
screenprint on paper
Image Size: 30 x 70 cm
Dimensions: 50 x 70 cm
Signed: Signed 'Onus' by Tiriki Onus, dated, and editioned in pencil in margin below image: bears the seal of The Estate of Lin Onus lower right.
Comes with Letter of Provenance. 

This work was created in collaboration with Lin Onus's son, Tiriki Onus who has signed the work.

Condition is Excellent.

(c) Lin Onus / Copyright Agency