Richard Bell
Born 1953, Charleville, Australia
Lives and works between Sydney and Brisbane, Australia Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang 

Not Invited 2026
acrylic on canvas
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body
Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Meanjin (Brisbane) 

Richard Bell is a leading contemporary artist and activist of Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang heritage who has lent his creative force to deconstructing the colonial project for decades. A cause he first took up in his youth amidst the prominent political activities in Redfern at the time, Bell produces works that engage audiences in political conversation to imagine a more just reality for all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike. 

Not Invited tells the story of the first in a long line of petitions to Parliament House by Aboriginal protestors. In 1927, Wiradjuri elders Jimmy “King Billy” Clements and John Noble aka “Marvellous” walked 200 kilometres along the mountainous ridges from Brungle Aboriginal Mission to demonstrate their sovereign rights to “federal territory” during the opening ceremony of the new Australian Parliament House in Canberra. 

Not Invited recognises this act as a significant precursor to the Day of Mourning in 1938 and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. It was an early forerunner of many significant Indigenous political claims of the early 20th Century. The work depicts Jimmy Clements, also known as King Billy, one of two Aboriginal people present that day, standing on the steps of Parliament house alongside the Duke and Duchess of York, critically interrogating the exclusions embedded within the

Freedom Riders 2026
acrylic on canvas
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body
Courtesy of the Artist and Milani Gallery Meanjin (Brisbane)

In Freedom Riders, a rendering of the 1965 ‘Freedom Ride’, Bell celebrates the sovereign right to protest. Led by Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins and a group of University of Sydney students, the Freedom Ride was a pivotal civil rights initiative in Australia that challenged racial segregation and discrimination in regional towns across New South Wales. The Freedom Ride has evolved to become a dynamic example of what Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can accomplish. Bell invigorates these memories of black and white in bold colour and celebrates the power of protest through connection, community and working in tandem.