Brook Andrew was born in Sydney and is of the Wiradjuri people of New South Wales. He has a kinship connection to his mother's country in Cowra.
Andrew is a multidisciplinary artist who uses words and images displayed on signs, billboards and flags to recast Indigenous and non-Indigenous language into a social commentary on being Aboriginal in contemporary Australia.
His use of animated or flashing neon text creates powerful contemporary images of Indigenous identity in street and interior contexts. Using ambient light with other elements in public spaces allows the viewer to 'fall' into the artwork - to dream and up lift the cultural, physical and aesthetic feelings of both the viewer and the space.
Andrew's other art works include digital photography and sound, film, neon, performance and other multi-media art work that comment on 'best world' cultural strategies in a contemporary popular and global society.
While created from a Wiradjuri perspective, Andrew's choice of themes, concepts and medium results in his work commenting through multi-diverse views. It is, therefore, dangerous to pigeonhole Brook in an Indigenous artistic practice.
Andrew completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the University of Western Sydney in 1999 and a Master of Fine Arts by research at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University in 1997.
He held his first solo exhibition Livin' It Up Series at Artspace in 1993 and has participated in numerous group shows since 1992. He has been the recipient of several grants and awards, including in 1997 a New Work Grant from the Visual Arts Craft Fund of the Australia Council and The Kate Challis RAKA Award 1998 and in 2004 Andrew's Tensio (Currawongs and snake) 2002 won the Works on Paper section of the 21st National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.
