Danie Mellor came to national prominence when he won the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2009, with his piece titled, From Rite to Ritual.
For his latest showcase, Mellor drew from his North Queensland rainforest heritage for inspiration.
The Exotic Lies Sacred Ties exhibition at the University of Queenland features 50 works he's produced over the past ten years.
"It covers around two to three hundred years, so some of my work looks at that first contact period, pre-settlement and how country was transformed through that process of settlement and when the country was opened up for land and mining and settlement," Mellor tells NITV News.
"The work really takes a broadbrush view of history and how that kind of affected cultural practice, how it affected cultural practice, how it affected language and how it affected people as well."
As well as paintings, the exhibition features animals sculptures, shields and even taxidermy.
The blue Wedgewood colour represents colonisation's effect on the lush green north Queensland environment.
"I'm very interested in Wedgewood... and how it was an adoption of Chinese porcelain painting. I've used that as an artist to begin talking about a visual language where the blue represents a transformed landscape and environment." he says.
"That the blue that you see talks about the idea of the changed space of country and the way that people were sort of interacting within that space and also how that affected them."
The Art Director of the UQ Art Museum, Dr Campbell Gray says Mellor's exhibition raises important questions about identity and place.
"There are multiple layers in the work. It connects with multiple questions about identity and place, and that the fact that we're not all pure cultural beings. We are hybrids and our experiences with one another influences us as well."
The Exotic Lies Sacred Ties exhibition continues in Brisbane until April 27 and then visits Melbourne and Darwin.
