Early Life, Family and Training

Clinton Nain arrived in the world on 18 December 1971, born in the suburb of Carlton within Melbourne, Victoria. He grew up as the second youngest among seven siblings in a household shaped by active conviction. His mother, Eleanor Harding, was a woman of significant purpose, working as a community service worker and a political activist. Through her, Nain’s lineage traces back to the Torres Strait Islands, specifically descending from the Meriam Mer people of the eastern Torres Strait and the ku-ku people of Cape York. This connection to his mother’s ancestry provided a foundation of identity that would later inform his perspective on the land and its history.

His path toward formal study began in the early years of the 1990s. In 1991, he earned an advanced certificate of the Arts from the Northern Metropolitan College of Tafe. This technical grounding led him to the Victorian College of the Arts, where he studied painting from 1992 to 1994. His time there was marked by a significant milestone, as he became the first indigenous graduate in the school of Fine Arts/ Painting. This achievement marked the beginning of a long engagement with the complexities of Australian identity and the visual language used to discuss it.

Seeking to deepen his understanding of his craft, Nain continued his academic pursuits into the new millennium. Between 2001 and 2003, he attended the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales. It was there that he completed a Master of Fine Art (Research), refining the intellectual and technical rigor that characterizes his later practice.

Technique and Artistic Style

Nain’s practice is defined by a profound engagement with the materials of the everyday, transforming the mundane into a medium for heavy discourse. He works as an abstract painter, yet his palette is drawn from the domestic and the industrial. He has been known to use heritage coloured house paint, bitumen paint, and even household bleach, such as White King, to mark his canvases. These substances are often layered with synthetic polymer paint, bitumen varnish, and enamel paint. By employing such tactile, gritty materials, he brings a physical presence to his explorations of history and identity.

His approach involves a clever, often biting use of symbolism to confront the legacies of colonisation. He draws upon the imagery of the dominant culture—symbols of religion, land, the crown, and the structures of law—to address the experiences of the dispossessed. There is a particular tension in how he handles these weighty subjects; he often injects a sense of wit and eroticism into themes that might otherwise remain purely bleak. This use of humour allows him to navigate the difficult terrain of racial and sexual stereotyping with a subtle, complex hand.

The artist frequently employs the specific palette of 'Heritage colours' to challenge the way history is curated and remembered. Rather than accepting these muted tones as mere decorative choices for the home, he uses them to construct a stinging critique of a manufactured past. Through this method, he uncovers the shadows hidden behind the polished facades of colonial history, using the very tools of domesticity to expose the truths of the land.

Key Works and Series

The artist’s creative inquiries often began with a confrontation of domesticity and history. In 1999, he commenced the White King, Blak Queen series, a body of work that utilized the language of household cleaners to explore the tensions of colonization. This investigation into the stains of the past continued through his 2001 exhibition at Sherman Galleries, titled Whitens, Removes Stains, Kills Germs. By using bleach and white paint, he sought to address the ways in which history is often scrubbed or sanitized to hide uncomfortable truths.

His focus shifted toward the shadows of the urban landscape in 2003 with the exhibition Living Under the Bridge at Sherman Galleries. It was during this period that he introduced the Mission Brown series, using the muted, muddy tones of heritage paint to provoke thought regarding those living on the fringes of society. This period of work examined the gap between the polished facades of a nation and the reality of those dwelling beneath its structures. His earlier efforts in the early 1990s had already begun to establish this habit of deconstructing symbols, such as in Dollar bill, which was acquired in 1994 through the assistance of the Alcoa Foundation.

Several of his significant canvases have found permanent homes in major collections. His work Desecrated was acquired in 2005 through the generosity of Supporters and Patrons of Indigenous Art, while run and jump was purchased by the NGV Supporters of Indigenous Art in 2008.

• Dollar bill (1994)
• Desecrated (2005)
• run and jump (2008)

Where to See the Works Today

To encounter the physical presence of his art, one might travel to Melbourne, where the National Gallery of Victoria holds several of his significant pieces. Within their halls, the viewer can find the work titled run and jump, alongside the piece known as Desecrated. These works reside in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, where they remain part of the permanent record of his creative output.

The same institution also preserves the work Dollar bill, which was acquired through the Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of the Alcoa Foundation. This piece, along with others, reflects the deep engagement of the gallery with the history of First Nations Australia. Such works are held within the department dedicated to that history, ensuring his visual language remains accessible to those who study the complexities of the Australian landscape and its people.

Beyond the streets of Melbourne, his influence extends to other significant repositories of culture. The Art Gallery of South Australia maintains works by the artist within its own collection. This presence in multiple states ensures that his contributions to contemporary discourse are preserved in different corners of the country, allowing his stories to be told across various regional landscapes.