Bayadyinyang budyari Dharug yiyura Dharug Ngurra.
Bayady’u budyari Dharug Warunggadgu baranyiin barribugu.
Bayady’u budyari wagulgu yiyuragu Ngurra bimalgu Blacktown City. Flannel flowers dyurali bulbuwul.
Yanmannyang mudayi Dharug Ngurrawa. Walama ngyini budbud dali Dharug Ngurra Dharug yiyura baranyiin barribugu.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this Land, the Dharug people, and their continued connection to Country.
We pay our respects to Elders from yesterday to tomorrow.
We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Blacktown City where the flannel flowers still grow proud and strong.
We will walk softly on this land and open our hearts to Country as the Dharug people have for tens of thousands of years.
Credit to: Dharug woman Rhiannon Wright, daughter of Leanne ‘Mulgo’ Watson Redpath and granddaughter of Aunty Edna Watson
Blacktown Arts are thrilled to present a collection of portraits by western Sydney-based Ngunnawal and Yuin photographer and artist, Darren Bell alongside Mervyn Bishop: celebrating one of Australia’s most prolific photographers.
Darren’s unique style of photography captures portraits of western Sydney Elders, knowledge holders and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Many of the portraits are of Darren’s friends and depict an intimacy and closeness. They allow us into the world of Darren’s communities that are rarely seen in mainstream media or exhibitions.
On Saturday 27 May, presented as part of the Blacktown City Festival, Darren will be at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre capturing photos for Family Photographs with Darren Bell.
This event has ended.
Sign up to our newsletter to find out about upcoming events.
Darren Bell is a First Nations artist and western Sydney resident who held his first exhibition in 2010 with Blacktown Arts. The following year he was featured in a Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative exhibition. He was included in Cold Eels and Distant Thoughts in Paddington and had his first solo exhibition at DNA Gallery in Chippendale in 2013.
Darren’s artworks are held in state and private collections, and he was a finalist in the Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize every year from 2012 to 2015. At the Blacktown Native Institution Artist Camps in 2014 and 2015, Bell took countless photographs of people.
This project is presented by Blacktown Arts and supported by Blacktown City Council and the NSW Government through Create NSW.
An innovative multi-arts hub in the heart of Blacktown City.
Blacktown Arts supports artists through annual opportunities across prizes, exhibitions, funding opportunities, and studio spaces for local creatives.
Explore Blacktown City’s rich arts and cultural collections.
Blacktown City’s annual acquisitive art prize open to artists across Australia, with a prize pool of over $23,500.