Kedela wer kalyakoorl ngalak Wadjak boodjak yaak.

Today and always, we stand on the traditional land of the Whadjuk Noongar people.

Tyrown Waigana Overgrown 2021 (detail). Acrylic paint, 500 x 680 cm. Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation 2021, with support from The Next Collective and Minderoo Foundation. Photo by Tim Palman.

Tyrown Waigana

AGWA Next Collective Commission
Foyer Mural Wall
Until 13 June

AGWA's new foyer mural wall is unveiled, showcasing an abstract work by an emerging Noongar and Torres Strait Islander artist.

Through his surreal concepts and abstract painting, Wardandi and Saibai Islander multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer Tyrown Waigana probes themes like identity, feelings, politics and art history.

Waigana’s work, Overgrown, welcomes AGWA’s visitors, taking up pride of place on the Gallery’s new Mural Wall upon entrance through the revamped foyer.  It references the tendency of “high art” and “high culture” to strive for unstoppable growth—and the idea of new things covering old things or old things becoming new things.

“The mural is really expressive. I like to blur the line between form and figure, where you don’t really know where things start and end.” — Tyrown Waigana

Waigana explores storytelling through illustration and animation under his brand Crawlin Crocodile. He won the 2020 National NAIDOC poster competition and was named the 2020 NAIDOC artist of the year.