Billy Bain

Billy Bain

Billy Bain (b. 1992, Manly) is a Dharug artist working across ceramic sculpture, painting and installation. His practice explores Indigenous identity, material storytelling and contemporary Dharug culture, drawing on lineage, family histories and surfing to examine relationships to Country, community and belonging through the lived experience of urban Dharug identity.

Bain has exhibited nationally, with major presentations at the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Australian Museum, Ngununggula, Maitland Regional Art Gallery and Penrith Regional Gallery. He has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize (2025), the Wynne Prize (2023, 2024, 2025) and the Sulman Prize (2023). His work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artbank, Western Sydney University, Macquarie Group and Manly Art Gallery & Museum.

Bain’s achievements include the FBi SMAC Artist of the Year Award (2023) and the Macquarie Emerging Artist Prize (2022). He has created major projects for organisations including Apple and the ABC, curated exhibitions at Artbank Sydney and Verge Gallery, and in 2025 was appointed to the National Gallery of Australia’s First Nations Advisory Group.