Marcus Camphoo, 'Untitled II', 2023, acrylic on transparency (mining map) framed, 106cm x 73cm. Image courtesy of JGM Gallery.
Marcus ‘Double O’ Camphoo Kemarre was born at Murray Downs in 1992. He is a Kaytetye and Alywarr man who lives and works between Ali Curung (Kaytetye Country) and Tennant Creek (Warumungu Country). Double O began painting in 2017 as part of the Tennant Creek Men’s Centre art program which would go on to become the much-acclaimed Tennant Creek Brio and has painted with Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre since 2020.
Double O’s painting practice consists predominantly of a small handful of deceptively simple grid-and-band compositions, seemingly guided by a set of fluid formulas and mental mathematics that he applies to his work. Active, loose brushstrokes apply a border around the canvas before lines are carved across, creating the skeleton of the work. Paint is pushed and poured across the empty space, bleeding into the frame.
At scale, the work forces an intimacy with the viewer and resonate like portals reaching into space, the artist’s psyche or an altogether different dimension. They have been likened to the aesthetic of central desert ceremonial body painting, the structural frames upon which they are painted and window or building shapes of children’s painting – a common remark from the ladies’ painting studio says that he is painting the windows of all the houses he visits as he roams around Ali Curung. Many have drawn a line between Double O’s grids and his namesake Mark(us) Rothko’s colour field paintings, while his rapid mark making has drawn allusion to that of preeminent Australian abstract expressionist Tony Tuckson.
Camphoo has exhibited prolifically alongside the Tennant Creek Brio and made his solo debut at 8 Hele in 2024. His work has been collected in Australia by Araluen Art Centre and the NGV and by Foundateion Opale in Switzerland. Marcus’ work also belongs to multiple important private collections.