U on Sunday’s Hot 19 for 2019: Ryan Presley

His debut in a graduate exhibition at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, in 2010 was the first sign that Ryan Presley was someone to watch.

His debut in a graduate exhibition at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, in 2010 was the first sign that Ryan Presley was someone to watch.

RYAN PRESLEY

31, visual artist

STAR FACTOR: An ability to cut to the chase in a confronting and entertaining manner

His paintings of Australian currency featuring leading Aboriginal figures were a way of embracing his indigenous heritage while commenting on our colonial history.

Since then Presley’s star has been on the rise and last year a solo exhibition at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane marked his arrival as an artist of note. Presley, who finished a PhD in 2016 and is currently doing post-doctoral research, is hot right now and his work is showing in Sydney currently in Primavera, the Museum of Contemporary Australian Art’s (Sydney) annual exhibition of young Australian artists aged 35 years and under.

His installation Blood Money Currency Exchange Terminal, which dispenses banknote sized versions of his Aboriginal currency art, will operate at the MCA all week (January 21-28) as part of the Sydney Festival.

“That project seems to have grabbed people’s imaginations,” Presley says, admitting that when it was shown at the Melbourne Art Fair last year there was some confusion when some people thought it was a real money changer. According to MCA curator Megan Robson, Ryan Presley’s Blood Money project “raises pertinent questions about what the persistent absence of Aboriginal heroes in official and folkloric representations of Australian history implies”.

As well as his richly layered currency watercolours, the artist, who lives at Springwood with his partner Shayna and works out of a studio at Yeronga, has turned his attention to other subjects including police brutality.

Collectors and institutions are keenly pursuing the work of this artist and 2018 was a turning point in his career.

“Last year was massive,” Presley says. “I went to Europe for a show in the Netherlands that I was part of. Now to be included in Primavera is exciting. People seem to appreciate the level of attention to detail in my work.”

Rather unusually, he doesn’t have a gallery or an agent yet but being a bit of a maverick, Ryan Presley is happy representing himself.

“I’m just doing the work and following any opportunity that presents itself,” he says.