Jimmy Pike

Jimmy Pike grew up as a hunter gatherer. Living as a fringe-dweller around Cherrabun Station he eventually joined relatives at the station camp and worked as a stockman. He was named Jimmy Pike, after Phar Lap's jockey, by a cattle station manager.

Pike learned to use western art materials whilst in Fremantle Prison. Even before he was released from prison his work was exhibited in major Australian galleries.

Pike and his wife Pat Lowe published a book about Queen Elizabeth II coming to visit them in the desert, a fantasy entitled Jimmy and Pat Meet the Queen. During a solo show at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in 1991, Rebecca Hossack arranged for Pike and Lowe to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace where they met the Queen, a case of life imitating art.

A Desert Cowboy in London

Jimmy Pike

25 June - 30 August 2014

London

Rebecca Hossack Gallery will be presenting a retrospective of paintings and drawings by Jimmy Pike (1940-2002), a celebrated Aboriginal painter from Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia. Pike's work - like most Aboriginal painting- is concerned with the land, its sacred history and its present use. Jimmy Pike's work is known...