Kevin Atkinson b. 1957

Also known as Kubi
  • Artist ,
  • Artist (Carver),
  • Artist (Printmaker),
  • Artist (Painter)
Kevin Atkinson is an artist of the Bangerang nation (Moiradu tribe) who works as a designer, painter, printmaker, possum skin cloak maker and carver of didjeridoos.
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Kevin Atkinson of the Moiradu tribe of the Bangerang language group was born in 1957. He spent most of his life (with the exception of two years in Sydney) living and working near the Murray (Tongala) River in northern Victoria. Prior to working as an artist, Atkinson worked as a shearer’s rouseabout, a shearer and from 1998 to 2007 as the Cultural Officer for the North East Cultural Heritage Program for Aboriginal Affairs Victoria. In 2008 he was working as the Aboriginal Housing Officer (Shepparton) for Aboriginal Housing Victoria.

He enrolled in a Koorie Art and Design course at the Goulburn Ovens TAFE college in 1984 and was greatly influenced by his teacher, Jan Fogarty. He first exhibited his paintings of acrylic on canvas in the students’ end of year show at the TAFE college. Atkinson was also strongly influenced by his mother, Mary Josesphine Atkinson, his father, Kevin Atkinson Snr, and his grandfather, Dan Atkinson.

In 1999 Atkinson participated in a printmaking workshop run by the Australian Print Workshop in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne. His tutor for this workshop was artist Judy Watson, and through her guidance he learned the processes involved in etching and printing and created two etched prints, Bogong dreaming and Family dreaming, that were purchased by the National Gallery of Australia through the Gordon Darling Australasian Print Fund in 2002.

In 2005 Atkinson participated in the Possum Skin Cloak Project. This project, managed by Regional Arts Victoria, was “conceived and developed by Victorian Indigenous artists with the approval of a number of Victorian Elders” whose aim was to reintroduce cloak-making and its ceremonial role to the Aboriginal communities of Victoria (Tribal Expressions, 2006). Renowned possum skin cloak maker Vicki Couzens worked alongside Atkinson who created a cloak that was included in the project’s display when Victorian Elders paraded them during the Opening Ceremony of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. The cloaks were then exhibited at the Koorie Heritage Trust for the duration of the Games, after which Atkinson’s cloak was returned to him and then displayed at the Bangerang Cultural Centre in Shepparton.

In 2008, Atkinson was living and working in Shepparton, Victoria.




Writers:
Allas, Tess Note:
Date written:
2008
Last updated:
2011
Status:
peer-reviewed