Billy Bain

Working with @billy_bain to create this design has been one of the most enjoyable experiences in my 10+ years of running WAH-WAH. To be able to share his story through knitwear has been an absolute honour! But enough from me, here is what Billy has to say about his design, BLAK SUMMER: “Blak Summer is a wearable love letter to my city, where the waves meet the skyscrapers. It draws on the bright, graphic nostalgia of late 90s and early 2000s surfwear, the visual language that first pulled me toward art and fashion. Growing up Dharug in Sydney, I was surrounded by Aboriginal souvenir art that never felt like it represented me or my community. It flattened our cultures into a single aesthetic, a homogenised version of something far more complex and specific. Blak Summer is a reclamation of that space. This piece stands strong in Dharug identity. Dharug land was ground zero for colonisation in Australia, yet we are still here, caring for and playing on Dharug Ngurra. Presence is power. Joy is resistance. Style is sovereignty. “Warami budyari naady’unya” “Hello, welcome, good to see you” in Dharug Dhalang.” —— This jumper is an ally-friendly purchase, as approved by Billy Bain: “This jumper is for community. For friends, family, lovers. It’s for the homies. The allies. Culture is best shared :)” 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊 Photographed on Gadigal land by @lexilaphorphoto

Sundowners

Real excited to announce that my painting “Rona & Pig at Palm Valley” has been acquired by @artgalleryofnsw for their collection. It fills me with great pride as a Dharug artist and Aboriginal person from Sydney to be representing our mob in such an important cultural space within our city, and on country. A huge thanks to @erin.vink for your advocacy and backing my work in. I’m so happy that this portrait of Rona Rubuntja @hermannsburgpotters will now sit alongside her amazing ceramic pieces in the collection. ✊🏽🥹

✍️ Bain’s family had been displaced from their traditional lands at the top of the Hawkesbury River [and he] had grown up feeling disconnected from Dharug Country. But his love of surfing led him to realise that the Broken Bay estuary behind Palm Beach is where Dyarubbin meets the sea. “That water flows upriver to where my family is from. I grew up surfing those beaches and playing in the mangroves. The Dharug see that waterway as a living entity and I’d always been part of it. This exhibition is about a journey back upriver.” ✍️ I interviewed @billy_bain for the May edition of Creative Process in Qantas Magazine/@qftravelinsider in seatbacks now. His solo exhibition, By The River, runs at Art Gallery of New South Wales from July 4 until November 8. @artgalleryofnsw @amesyavuz 📸 credit: 1. Billy with Dog Walker (plan B), 2023. Image: @nationalgalleryaus 3. @lexilaphorphoto 4. Studio One Two

Seasons of life.. heavily in production/studio mode for upcoming shows. Surfing Kindve goes out the window a bit working in the western suburbs, but it’s nice to know there’s always another wave to swing into when the time is right. @maxzappas 🎥

The most special package arrived today. Thankyou so much Rona Rubuntja @hermannsburgpotters for this surprise surfing pot. It’s the most amazing gift. Your art and friendship makes me so happy. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Bush Bash

Thankyou @ganggangresidencies for a beautiful month away on Yuin Country. 🦘🦆🌲🌞 Sometimes all you need is a change of scenery to shake things up and remind you of what’s important (surfing, bird watching and doing paintings). Back to the rat race now 🐀

Cannot begin to describe the joy that working on this project with the fantastic Kaylene Milner of @wah_wah_australia has brought me. We met at a creative careers expo at Maitland where we shared a stage yarning about our weird lives as “creatives” in front of 200 impressionable high school students a few years back. Her list of collabs is pretty much the hall of fame of my favourite artists and bands. (Silverchair, Dinosaur Jr, Tony Albert, Noel Fielding, Amyl & the Sniffers to name a few) . Since we first met I’ve been pretty much holding my breath hoping for the day that working together might materialise. I’ve been hit up a fair few times over the years to put my art on clothing but hadn’t done so since I was a teenager for O’Neill. I think Kaylene’s attention to detail, alongside a deep respect and care for the artists practice made this experience so special to me. It’s more than just creating another fast fashion garment but a collaborative wearable artwork that I’ll cherish forever. Thanks Kaylene! 💙

Getting down to Bondi Beach at 5.30am was worth it for that sunrise. 😎🌅🌊 Thanks @billy_bain for sharing your world with us. ❤️🖤💛 Music by @royce___coolidge 😎

Pink pony girl

. 2026 GANG GANG RESIDENCIES BILLY BAIN Billy Bain is a Dharug artist working across painting, ceramics, installation, and printmaking. His practice centres Indigenous perspectives within coastal and urban environments, using these mediums to re-Indigenise spaces often understood through colonial or recreational frames. Surfing forms a core part of his practice, functioning as both a way of connecting with Country and a method of research and observation. At Gang Gang Residencies, Bain will develop a new body of paintings informed by close engagement with the South Coast landscape. The residency provides time and space to experiment with scale, materials, and process in his painting practice, allowing new ideas to be tested and refined in response to place. @billy_bain @ganggangresidencies