The DREAM

Black Fella's Dreaming Museum was the fantasy if you will of one man, Gordon Frederick Syron, one of 16 children. Both grandfathers were white one Scottish, one Irish, his two grandmothers were Aboriginal. So Gordon grew up on a dairy farm where they owned the land. This was rare in for the times 1950s-70s. Gordon grew up without the mission mentality that a lot of Aboriginal people have today. Gordon always dreamed a lot and early on became a top boxer. He won the NSW Golden Glove Award and he cannot recall the correct number of times, either 2 or 3 times.

Gordon's trainer for 3 or 4 years was Ernie McQuillan. Gordon was representing Australia, at the top of his career when he got hurt. He worked at a variety of jobs truck driver, taxi driver, electrician, linesman for Telecom. He learned to paint while serving a Life Sentence in prison. He was in maximum security for six years. He taught himself to paint and got tips from convicted forgers and studied library art books of old masters. He only paints in oils but has a few watercolours and acrylic pieces. Black Fella's Dreaming Museum is the dream of one man to keep special pieces of Aboriginal art.

Gordon does not paint dots. "My strength in painting is political, I use satire and raw imagery to send a message that Australian History has left out the Aboriginal people and their stories. Art is a way to convey and tell these stories. By turning around the picture for instance to dress Aboriginal people in Redcoats and black boots and have white people standing naked holding spears on the shore when the first fleet arrived,as in my painting ;The Black Bastards Are Coming' well it makes people understand and comprehend history in a different way." Black Fella's Dreaming Museum is one black fella's dream to not sell all of his retrospective but to keep as much as possible intact and keep the history. So Black Fella's Dreaming Museum was an extension of this dream to keep the most important works of other black fellas work and especially pieces that tell a story, as Gordon Hookey's work does. Gordon Syron says, " I love Gordon Hookey's work because he makes me look like a real gentleman." The five artworks by Hookey are 5 of his best that are in our museum collection.

Articles Specifically about Gordon Syron's Paintings

"I have worked on this painting off and on, starting in 1997, re-doing this or that part. Well, I will never forget her."

Curriculum Vitae

Language Group – Biripi

Born. 1941

Exhibitions

2005    “First People: First State”, Group Exhibition

            NSW Parliament House, Sydney

            “Black Fairies and Black Room Politics”, Solo Exhibition

            Black Fella's Dreaming Aboriginal Art Gallery and Museum, Darlinghurst

2004    “Our Place: Indigenous Australia Now”, Group Exhibition

            Cultural Olympiad, Athens, Greece – exhibition touring to Beijing and other       international venues

            “Diversity”, Group Exhibition, International Indigenous Convention

            Fowler Musuem of Cultural History, University of California, USA

            “Spirit”, Group Exhibition featuring works by Gordon Syron, Lila Kirby,                 Walangari Karntawarra, Yondee, Darren Cooper, John Bilyarra James

            Black Fella's Dreaming Aboriginal Art Gallery and Museum, Darlinghurst

            “The Re-writing of Australian History”, Gordon Syron and Walangari                         Karntawarra

            Black Fella's Dreaming Aboriginal Art Gallery and Museum, Darlinghurst

            “Black Fairies for Aboriginal Kids”, Solo Exhibition

            Black Fella's Dreaming Aboriginal Art Gallery and Musuem, Bangalow

2003    “Private Clubs and Politics”, paintings by Gordon Syron and James P. Simon            with photographs by Elaine Pelot.

            Black Fella's Dreaming Aboriginal Art Gallery and Museum

            “New Works”, Group Exhibition

            Black Fella's Dreaming Aboriginal Art Gallery and Museum, Darlinghurst

            “This Land is Me”, Gordon Syron, Clifford Possum, Walangari Karntawarra

            Black Fella's Dreaming Aboriginal Art Gallery and Museum, Darlinghurst

            “All Us Now”, Group Exhibition

            Gallery Amici, Sydney

2002    “Reconciliation”, Solo Exhibition

            Black Fella's Dreaming Aboriginal Art Gallery and Museum, Darlinghurst

Exhibitions cont.

2001    “In Ya Face”, Gordon Syron and Gordon Hookey

            Boomali, Annandale

2000    “The Rightful Owner”, Solo Exhibition

            International Convention Humanist Society, University of Technology, Sydney

            “A Tribute to Mum Shirl”, Group Exhibitions  at Boomali Gallery, Annandale and       Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

            “Festival of the Dreaming, Cultural Olympiad, Sydney 2000 Olympics”,

            Group Exhibition, Australian Pavillion, Sydney Olympic Games

1999    “The Quiet Achiever”, Solo Exhibition

            Australian Musuem, Sydney

            “Bamaradbanga”, Group Exhibition

            Museum of Sydney

1998    “My Rally Against Racism”, Solo Exhibition

            DQ Art on Oxford Gallery, Sydney

            “Australian Heritage Exhibition”, Group Exhibition

            Old Parliament House, Canberra

            “Dreaming the Republic, Aboriginal Responses to the Coming of the Republic”

            Group Exhibition, Newcastle Regional Art Gallery

1997    “The Rainbow Serpent”, Gordon Syron and Elaine Pelot

            DQ Art on Oxford Gallery, Sydney

            “I Shoulda Been A Statistic – Aboriginal Deaths in Custody”

            Paintings by Gordon Syron and photographs by Elaine Pelot Kitchener

            North Adelaide School of Arts Gallery, South Australia

            “Aboriginal Reconciliation”, Solo Exhibition

            DQ Art on Oxford Gallery, Sydney

            “A Perspective”, Solo Exhibition

            DQ Art on Oxford Gallery, Sydney

1996    “Aboriginal Deaths in Custody – A History”, paintings by Gordon Syron and photographs by Elaine Pelot Kitchener, NSW Parliament House, Sydney

1995    “Lithographs of Urban Aboriginal Art”, Group Exhibition

            Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney

Exhibitions cont.

1994-95           “Black Deaths in Custody”, Solo Exhibition

            Balmain Community Centre

            Featured in “Shimmer in the City”, SBS Television Documentary on Urban           Aboriginal Art

1992-93           Produced lithographs in collobaration with Theo Themblay, Lecturer in              Printmaking, University of Sydney and Canberra College of the Arts.

1989-91           Painting: experimenting with primitivism, impressionism and surrealism.

1987-88           Lecturer in Fine Arts, Aboriginal Education Unit, University of Sydney

            “A Changing Relationship: Aboriginal Themes in Australian Art c1938-1988”

            S H Ervin Gallery, National Trust of Australia, NSW

1982-86           Co-Founder and Head Teacher (Visual Arts), Eora College of Aboriginal Arts,             Chippendale    

1984    “Koori Art”, Group Exhibition, Art Space, Surry Hills

1983    Group Exhibition, organised by APMIRA, Paddington Town Hall

1977-82           Solo Exhibitions, Murawina, Redfern

1972    Group Exhibition

            Ball and Chain Gallery, Argyle Art Centre, The Rocks, Sydney

Collections

·       Flinders University, South Australia - “Howard's Way”

·       Western Australian University – two paintings

·       University of New England

·       Aboriginal Legal Service – paintings in offices throughout Australia

·       Maritime Museum, Sydney

·       Museum of Sydney

·       US Consulate - Australia

Judgement by his Peers – formerly on loan to:

·       Aboriginal Legal Service - Redfern

·       Commonwealth Aboriginal Arts Board

·       NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)

·       Sydney's Bicentennial Head Offices

·       Adelaide University, Aboriginal Programs

Commissions

1982    Painted backdrop for Face, Masks & Costume Jewellery Pavillion,               Commonwealth Games, Brisbane

            Painted backdrop for The Cakeman, Black Theatre, Sydney

1984    Works featured in film The City's Edge, starring Hugo Weaving.

Publications

Bogias, Jonathon, Australian Art Collector, 1 July – September 1997, p.55

Croft, Brenda, Periphery, no. 40-41, Spring/Summer 1999/2000, p.52-55.

de Lorenzo, Catherine, “A Changing Relationship: Aboriginal Themes in Australian Art cc1938-1988”, Exhibition Catalogue, S H Ervin Gallery, National Trust of Australia, NSW

Hazelhurst, Kathleen M (ed), Ivory Scales: Black Australia and the Law,  NSW University Press, 1987 – painting “Judgement by His Peers” reproduced on front cover.

Johnson, Vivien, "Koori Art '84", Art Network, Summer/Autumn 1985

Johnson, Vivien, “Into the Urbane: Aboriginal Art in the Australian Art Context”, Art Monthly, 1990, pp.20-23.  Johnson examines Syron's work at the Eora Aboriginal Art Centre and states that Syron “deserves recognition as the pioneer of a westernised, overtly political urban Aboriginal art”.

Nicholls, Christine, Artlink, v.20, no.1, 2000, pp.36-39.

Powerhouse Museum and Museum Victoria, Our Place: Indigenous Australia Now – Australia's Contribution to the Cultural Olympiad of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, Powerhouse Publishing, 2004.