The term, urban artists, are used to describe the Aboriginal artists who come from areas outside the traditional tribal areas are:

Nyoongah – South-west Australia
Nunga – The costal area of South Australia
Murri – North-east Australia
Koori – South-east Australia

The Aboriginal people who grew up in the cities or the rural  ‘developed’ areas in the 1960’s and 1970’s lived between two cultures, Aboriginal and European.  They were confronted with discrimination and intolerance by the majority of non Aboriginal Australians who had no interest  in Aboriginal  people or their culture.

A lot of artwork done during this time depicted the prejudice and social injustice that the urban artists and  their families had to endure.  These works have a distinctively European style but have been painted by artists who have communicated their own message about their lifestyle through their paintings.

Today the paintings by these urban artists are confident and strong showing a positive direction.  While elements of the traditional styles are seen in their works, they have a distinctive character of their own as well as their own objective.