Rupert Betheras

Born 1975 in Melbourne, Australia and lives and works in Alice Springs, Melbourne and Tennant Creek, Australia.
As a teenager, Betheras admired many of the older street artists in collectives such as Future 4, USA (United Street Artists), and DMA (Da Mad Artists). He was attracted to the early innovators, the prolific and the rebellious. Rupert’s first solo show was in 2002 (at 4Cats Gallery, Melbourne) while he was a full-time professional AFL player (for Collingwood).

In 2016 Rupert began working with a group of Aboriginal artists from Tennant Creek as part of a collective later known as the Tennant Creek Brio. The cross-cultural collaborative ethos of the Brio has long been a driving force in Rupert’s work through his engagement with Aboriginal communities (Pirlangimpi [Garden Point], Yuendumu, Oenpelli), with Aboriginal artists such as the late Lionel Possum (1972-2019), and with Indonesian artists with whom he worked as part of a Top End artists’ camp in 2015 which visited several locations/communities in the NT, culminating with a major exhibition in 2016.

All of Rupert’s work in this collection are a collaboration with Fabian Brown.