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 Foundateion Opale in Switzerland. Marcus' work also belongs to multiple important private collections.

Courtesy of Arlpwe Art and Culture

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Joseph Williams is an artist, master carver and an emerging cultural leader who works at Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre as a tour guide, arts worker and Cultural Liaison Officer. He began his artistic practice as a teenager with his grandfather during the mid-1990s. His grandfather taught him to make sculptures and carvings ‘the hard way’, says Williams, with an axe and wood rasp whereas now Williams combines a more modern range of tools. Williams is a natural spokesperson for his community, is a member of the board of Desart, speaks several languages and is a singer for ceremonial dance. His work includes paintings and a contemporary perpetuation of traditional objects including kayin (boomerangs), wartikirri (number 7 boomerang), clapping sticks and purnu (coolamons) fashioned from hardwood.

Williams participated in the 2020 biennale of Sydney with the The Tennant Creek Brio collective as well as shows in Darwin and Alice Springs. He believes in the value of the collective’s artists as role models for the younger generation. As a solo artist, Williams draws inspiration from his Warumungu and Croatian heritages. He has shown works through Croatia House in Sydney and was shown in the 2021 Vincent Lingiari Art Award with an installation at Tangentyere Art Gallery in Alice Springs.