Billy Bain (b. 1992, Australia) is currently working on Dharug land as a resident artist at Parramatta Artist Studios Granville. Through his distinctive ceramics, painting and printmaking practice, Bain builds new narratives of Australian Indigeneity. Charged with expressive power, political resolve and tongue-in-cheek humour, Bain’s figures reclaim spaces for erased peoples and stories, reimagining classically white Australian domains, such as the beach, pub and sports fields, as thriving centres of Aboriginal life.
Bain’s works have been recently shown in several celebrated institutional exhibitions across Australia including at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2025), The Art Gallery of New South Wales (2025), the Australian Museum (2024) and Penrith Regional Gallery (2024). Bain is an Archibald Prize finalist (2025) and a multiple Wynne and Sulman Prize finalist. He was awarded Artist of the Year at the FBI SMAC Awards (2023), the Macquarie Emerging Art Prize (2022) and was a finalist in Shepparton Art Museums Indigenous Ceramic Awards (2022). His work is held in major collections in Australia including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, Western Sydney University Collection, Artbank, the Macquarie Collection and Manly Regional Art Gallery & Museum.