PC: Jade Goodwin

Travis De Vries

Travis De Vries is a concept artist, podcaster, writer and producer known for fusing Gamilaroi storytelling with modern tropes, characters and themes. Travis works across multiple areas of practice using varying mediums to bring his ideas to life.

 

As an artist, Travis has created three solo exhibitions including Lost Tales, IDEAS& DRAFTS & LOOPS and The Hidden Garden, taking over Gallery Lane Cove and Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre with a large experiential storytelling and sculptural work telling the story of Adam and Eve through a post-colonial Indigenous Futurism lens. He has also been a part of numerous group shows and art prizes. Travis creates unique, narrative led large-scale exhibitions combining multiple forms; paintings, drawings, projections and experiential sculptures focusing on recreating and evolving Indigenous and Western Mythologies for a modern era. Storytelling is at the heart of his practice, through the use of fable, metaphor, symbolism and storytelling tropes he invokes a deep connection with audiences to create an experiential style of work that is both unique and familiar.

Travis holds numerous awards and fellowships including; the Create NSW Aboriginal Arts Fellow 2018, The NASIDA Chairman’s Award 2012, and has been the recipient of many artist and writers residencies.

Throughout his career Travis has sought out international opportunities and collaborations and was notably an alumni of The British Council’s ACCELERATE in 2016, travelling to the United Kingdom to meet with like-minded creatives, exploring future collaborations. Travis also organised and participated in numerous international arts residencies, he travelled to Paris, France, Barcelona, Spain and Dublin, Ireland in 2015 to visit art galleries, venues and arts organisations through the Sydney Opera House.

In addition to his work as an artist Travis has a wealth of producing experience; having worked as a producer for the Sydney Opera House and as an Independent consultant on a range of arts programmes. He has worked across large festivals including; Vivid Live, Graphic and Homeground, contemporary music, theatre and dance tours including; Damon Albarn, Flying Lotus and Hofesh Shector, and smaller, niche community projects such as Dance Rites, where Travis engaged Indigenous community dance groups across the country to converge on the Sydney Opera House for a two-day traditional dance competition, the first of it’s kind in the country.

Alongside his brother Texas, Travis is the co-host and producer of Broriginals, a comedy podcast that has grown a cult and has performed live at the Spotify Headquarters, Sydney, The Australian Museum, The Canberra Theatre Centre and The Toff in Town, Melbourne.

In 2020 Travis founded Awesome Black as a platform for First Nations digital based creative, podcasters and gamers, overseeing a building network, setting the standard for independent digital content produced and created by First Nations artists.