# Vernon Ah Kee

Vernon Ah Kee (born 1967) is a contemporary Australian artist, political activist and founding member of ProppaNOW. Based primarily in Brisbane, Queensland, Ah Kee is an Aboriginal Australian man with ties to the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples in Queensland. His art practice typically focuses on his Aboriginal Australian identity and place within a modern Australian framework, and is concerned with themes of skin, skin colour, race, privilege and racism. Ah Kee has exhibited his art at numerous galleries across Australia, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and has also exhibited internationally, most notably representing Australia at the 2009 Venice Biennale and the 2015 Istanbul Biennial.
Ah Kee has a very diverse art practice, using a broad range of techniques and media such as painting, installation, photography and text-based art. He is particularly renowned for his manipulation of colonial language and imagery to highlight racial issues in Australia. His works are hosted in both public and private collections around the world.
In 2003, Ah Kee, along with other Indigenous Australian artists Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd and Joshua Herd, created ProppaNOW – an organisation dedicated to supporting urban Indigenous artists in Brisbane and combating cultural stereotypes.

## Personal life and education

Vernon Ah Kee was born in Innisfail, Queensland, in 1967 to Merv and Margaret Ah Kee, who were Indigenous rights activists. Like most other Indigenous people in Australia, the family was not included in the population census until 1971. As well as his Aboriginal heritage, he also has some Chinese ancestry from his great-grandfather, but Ah Kee has stated that he identifies more with his Indigenous heritage, saying "I think of myself as a Rainforest Aboriginal, a Buma".
His family moved to Cairns when he was 12 years old, and Ah Kee sketched avidly at this time. He attended only Catholic schools, in Cairns going to St Augustine's College (a Marist Brothers school).
After attending Cairns TAFE where he learned screen printing, Ah Kee started his Bachelor of Visual Art at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane in 1996. He majored in Contemporary Indigenous Australian art and earned his degree in 1998. He then went on to do honours in fine art from 1999 to 2000, and then completed a doctorate in fine art from 2001 to 2007. During his studies, he had two solo exhibitions hosted at his college's art gallery as part of his postgraduate work – whitefella normal blackfella me in 2000 and con Text in 2007.
In 2014, his father died in a car accident. In 2017 Ah Kee drew Portrait of My Father, a task that he described as a "labour of love".
Ah Kee suffered a heart attack in 2016 but managed to recover in time for his 2017 exhibition Not an animal or a plant.

## Career
### Art practice

While Ah Kee incorporates a broad range of different art mediums, from life drawings to video installations, a consistent theme across all of his artworks is his examination of racism in Australia. Ah Kee has said that his art practice has been influenced by a wide range of artists and styles, but most significantly by other Indigenous artists such as Kevin Gilbert, Trevor Nickolls, Richard Bell and Gordon Bennett, stating that "I can see my own life and history" in their artworks. In particular, Bell and Bennett's manipulation of colonial text and images encouraged him to broaden his art practice and experiment with media beyond drawing - the text art, in particular, is a common technique among ProppaNOW artists. He also credits the politics of Malcolm X and James Baldwin, two prominent African American activists, as early inspirations for both his art practice and personal activism, as well as Barbara Kruger's propaganda-inspired art.
Many of his text-based artworks ("word art") contain colonial language that have been manipulated and rewritten to create a secondary meaning, such as his 2003 austracism being a play on the word "ostracism", and 2009 becauseitisbitter appropriating a poem from American poet Stephen Crane to portray an Indigenous experience of contemporary Australia. It has been suggested that the black and white text introduces the concept of racial relations in Australia and that the word play makes the audience think more deeply on the issues represented. The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia described his text-based art as "...point[ing] to prejudices and agendas embedded in Australian society and politics. These puns and words-within-words fuse the history and language of colonisation with contemporary experiences and issues".
Ah Kee has also engaged with drawing and painting mediums to highlight the modern Indigenous experience. fantasies of the good (2004) is a series of 13 detailed charcoal life drawings of different members of Ah Kee's family, who are all identified by name. The series uses a mug-shot style and is suggested to reference the documentation of Indigenous Australians by some anthropologists in the twentieth century; the Indigenous people who were documented were unnamed and the works were rather referred to by numbers. Ah Kee wanted to convey Australia's history of racism and has stated that "These drawings and what they represent are my evidence". His 2012 portrait, I see deadly people: Lex Wotton, depicted the titular man through bold paint strokes. Ah Kee explained that Wotton's actions during the Palm Island Riots led to him being negatively misrepresented in the media, and the artist decided that "Lex should look bold and brave" in his portrait. His 2012 exhibition of large, detailed charcoal and crayon portraits featured in the exhibition Transforming Tindale at the State Library of Queensland was based on that library's collection of anthropological photographs taken by Norman Tindale, and included some of Ah Kee's relatives.
Ah Kee has used video installation art, most notably in his exhibition Tall Man, to create confronting reflections of Australian racism. In Tall Man, Ah Kee collected and edited, alongside filmmaker and producer Alex Barnes, footage from the Palm Island riots, an event that occurred after the death of Indigenous man Cameron Doomadgee in police custody, and retold the controversial story from an Indigenous perspective. The installation played across four screens and juxtaposed a peaceful representation of Palm Island with the chaos of the riots, concluding with footage of protesters holding up signs with Christian-related statements such as "Thou shalt not covet the land no more". Maura Reilly suggests this was to reference the hypocrisy of white Australian Christians in their treatment of Indigenous peoples. In 2021, Tall Man was included in Tate Modern's 2021 exhibition A Year in Art: Australia 1992, an exhibition dedicated to Indigenous art relating to land rights and the 1992 Eddie Mabo High Court Decision.
His recent work, the island, also features a video installation, in which Ah Kee highlights Australia's "brutal" immigration system through the recounting of an Afghan refugee couple's story, rather than wholly focusing on the experiences of Indigenous Australians.

### proppaNOW

Along with Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd and Joshua Herd, all artists based in Brisbane, Ah Kee is a founding member of proppaNOW. Bell had stated in 2002: "Aboriginal art – its a white thing", saying that the industry was controlled by white people, a sentiment echoed by Ah Kee. The ProppaNOW artists seek to refute the white belief that remote Indigenous Australians are the only true Aboriginal people, and to re-establish the presence of urban Indigenous people in society. The founding members created the organisation after the government's Queensland Indigenous Artists Marketing Export Agency (QIAMEA) appeared to focus more on Indigenous artists from rural communities than on those from urban areas.
At a Canberra proppaNOW exhibition in 2007, Ah Kee displayed his artwork You Deicide. Senior Curator at the National Museum of Australia, Margo Neale, suggested that the work's deliberate misuse of deicide was a comment on the role of Christian-based religions in the "cultural terrorism" of Aboriginal people, and that the manipulation of colonial language in the work was a common "tactical device used by the proppaNOW artists".

### Dark + Disturbing

Dark + Disturbing is a curatorial project by Ah Kee. In August 2015, he mounted the exhibition Dark + Disturbing: Gordon Hookey for proppaNOW at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, featuring the work of fellow collaborator in proppaNow, Gordon Hookey.

## Reception
### Reviews and criticisms of his art

Ah Kee has generally received positive reviews of his art, often being praised for his clever reinventions of colonial language to highlight racism in Australia and noted for the dual personal and political nature of his art. His Tall Man exhibition, a video and text installation of the Palm Island Riots, was called a "smartly composed yet painful examination of racial relations in Australia" by Art Asia Pacific Magazine.
Art critic and broadcaster Andrew Frost reviewed some of Ah Kee's works at the Sydney Festival and quotes the artist: "this is not history, this is my life" and "this is not political, it's personal". Frost gave particular praise for the artist's charcoal drawings of his family, the form referencing the documentation of Indigenous peoples by 20th century anthropologists, finding that Ah Kee was personalising a traditionally impersonal genre.
When Ah Kee was awarded the Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize, one of the judges, National Art School curator Judith Blackall, also noted the dual political and personal nature of Ah Kee's work and how it impacts the audience. In regard to his portrait of Lex Wotton, she stated that “Vernon’s masterful drawing technique of charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas goes from strength to strength. This portrait is particularly powerful as it shows Lex Wotton – who the artist knows well as he is married to Vernon’s cousin – in profile, with an intense gaze. Importantly, the story behind the portrait is of great significance, both personally for the artist and politically for Australia".
In Ah Kee's 2020 exhibition, The Island, Andrew Brooks suggested that the show was criticising the romanticised, white settler mythology of Australia and was trying to remind the audience of Australia's indigenous presence. Unlike Frost, Brooks determined the inclusion of the Yuendumu doors to be "a powerful statement about the continuity of Indigenous sovereignty in this country", especially in their juxtaposition with the Walpiri Dreamtime paintings. Brooks judged that the contrast between the racist graffiti of Yuendumu doors and the "vibrant" Dreamtime paintings indicated that indigenous culture was more than what white Australian culture limited it to be.

### Awards

In 2012, Ah Kee was a finalist for the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Archibald Prize with his portrait I see deadly people: Lex Wotton. Wootton man is Ah Kee's cousin-in-law and was a key figure in the Palm Island Riots of 2004. In the same year, Ah Kee was also awarded Visual Artist of the Year in the Deadly Awards, the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Entertainment & Community Awards.
In 2014, the A$25,000 Redlands Konika Minolta established artist prize was awarded to Ah Kee for his charcoal rendition of Lex Wotton.
In 2018, Ah Kee was awarded a Visual Arts Fellowship by the Australia Council for the Arts. The fellowship is worth up to A$80,000 and awarded to prominent artists in mid-career. Ah Kee planned to use his fellowship grant to exhibit his work in England and at other galleries abroad, as well as to produce new artworks.

## Media

In 2020 Ah Kee featured as one of six Indigenous artists in the ABC TV series This Place: Artist Series. The series is a partnership between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Gallery of Australia, in which the producers travelled to the countries of "some of Australia's greatest Indigenous artists to share stories about their work, their country, and their communities".
In 2010 Ah Kee was also featured in the ABC Arts documentary "Not A Willing Participant" directed by Alex Barnes and Produced by Justin Morrissey, which followed his exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

## Exhibitions

As of 31 December 2019, Ah Kee had displayed his art at 30 solo exhibitions and 100 group exhibitions, all around the world. He continues to create and exhibit his art in 2020, with plans to exhibit more of his work abroad. His exhibitions include:
Exhibition History :
| Year | Exhibition | Exhibition Type | Gallery | Place | Country |
| 1999 | If I was White | Solo | Metro Arts Centre | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2000 | The Which Way | Solo | Queensland College of Art Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2001 | whitefella normal blackfella me | Solo (Postgraduate) | Queensland College of Art Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2002 | non-People | Solo | Bellas Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2002 | Transit Narratives | Group | Centro per la Arti Visive LE VENEZIE | Treviso | Italy |
| 2002 | Transit Narratives | Group | Salone espositivo | Auronzo di Cadore | Italy |
| 2002 | Municipio | Group | Queensland College of Art Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2002 | Municipio | Group | Victorian College of the Arts | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2003 | consent | Solo | Gallery 1 of the Institute of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2003 | Places That Name Us | Group | Ian Potter Museum of Art | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2003 | 1 Square Mile, Brisbane Boundaries | Group | Museum of Brisbane | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2003 | Abstractions | Group | The Drill Hall | Canberra, ACT | Australia |
| 2003 | This Is Not America | Group | (unmentioned) | Düsseldorf | Germany |
| 2003 | This Is Not America | Group | Queensland College of Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2003 | Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest | Group | Queensland Art Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2003 | 4 x 4 | Group | Institute of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2003 | 5 White Cubes | Group | Forum Kunst Art Residency | Rottweil | Germany |
| 2003 | Feedback: Art, Social Consciousness and Resistance | Group | Museum of Art | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2004 | fantasies of the good | Solo | Bellas Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2004 | skin | Group | Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre | Hobart, Tas. | Australia |
| 2004 | Cultural Copy: Visual Conversations on Indigenous Art and Cultural Appropriation | Group | Fowler Museum of Cultural History | Los Angeles | USA |
| 2004 | blak insights: Contemporary Indigenous Art from the Queensland Art Gallery | Group | Queensland Art Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2004 | ART TV 2004: Australian Culture Now | Group | Australian Centre for the Moving Image | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2004 | Spirit and Vision: Aboriginal Art | Group | Sammlung Essl—Kunsthaus | Klosterneuburg | Austria |
| 2005 | you must hit | Solo | Bellas Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2005 | mythunderstanding | Solo | Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia | Adelaide | Australia |
| 2005 | ARC Art | Group | Design & Craft Biennial, Brisbane City Hall | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2005 | Thick and Fast | Group | The Powerhouse | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2005 | Art Urbain du Pacific | Group | Diff’ Art Pacific, The Castle of St-Auvent | Saint Auvent | France |
| 2005 | The Grey Voice | Group | Tin Sheds Gallery | Sydney | Australia |
| 2005 | Untitled | Group | The Lane Gallery | Auckland | New Zealand |
| 2005 | Face Value: Video portraiture from the Pacific | Group | Ivan Dougherty Gallery | Sydney | Australia |
| 2005 | Face Value: Video portraiture from the Pacific | Group | Museum of Brisbane | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2006 | not an animal or a plant | Solo | Bellas Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2006 | Yours, Mine, Ours: The ABC of Everything | Group | Campbelltown Arts Centre | Sydney | Australia |
| 2006 | There Goes the Neighbourhood | Group | Ambleside Street Studio | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2006 | Colonial to Contemporary | Group | Dell Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2006 | The Sixth Drawing Biennale | Group | Drill Hall Gallery, ANU | Canberra | Australia |
| 2006 | MCA Collection: New Acquisitions 2006 | Group | Museum of Contemporary Art | Sydney | Australia |
| 2006 | Radical Regionalism: The Empire of Shadows | Group | Museum of London | London | United Kingdom |
| 2006 | Radical Regionalism: The Empire of Shadows | Group | (unmentioned) | Ontario | Canada |
| 2006 | Queensland Live | Group (tour) | Queensland Art Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2006 | Queensland Live | Group (tour) | (unmentioned) | Gladstone, Qld | Australia |
| 2006 | Queensland Live | Group (tour) | (unmentioned) | Logan, Vic. | Australia |
| 2006 | Queensland Live | Group (tour) | (unmentioned) | Bundaberg | Australia |
| 2006 | Queensland Live | Group (tour) | (unmentioned) | Cairns | Australia |
| 2006 | Queensland Live | Group (tour) | (unmentioned) | Ipswich, Qld | Australia |
| 2006 | Queensland Live | Group (tour) | (unmentioned) | Cleveland, Qld | Australia |
| 2006 | Queensland Live | Group (tour) | (unmentioned) | Mackay, Qld | Australia |
| 2006 | Queensland Live | Group (tour) | (unmentioned) | Toowoomba, Qld | Australia |
| 2006 | Dancelines | Group | George Adams Gallery, The Arts Centre | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2007 | cant chant | Solo | Institute of Modern Art (IMA) | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2007 | unwritten | Solo | Bellas Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2007 | conText | Solo (Postgraduate) | Queensland College of Art Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2007 | Drawings | Solo | Brisbane State High School | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2007 | Power & Beauty: Indigenous Art Now | Group | Heide Museum of Modern Art | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2007 | Regionalisms | Group | University of Queensland Art Museum | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2007 | National Indigenous Art Triennial: Culture Warriors | Group | National Gallery of Art | Canberra | Australia |
| 2007 | The Amersham Trophy | Group | Ambleside Street Studio, West End | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2007 | Sunshine State | Group | Smart State, Campbelltown Arts Centre | Sydney | Australia |
| 2007 | Friendly Fire | Group (ProppaNOW) | George Petelin Gallery | Gold Coast, Qld | Australia |
| 2007 | Thresholds of Tolerance | Group | School of Art Gallery | Canberra | Australia |
| 2007 | Raised by Wolves | Group | Art Gallery of Western Australia | Perth | Australia |
| 2008 | belief suspension | Solo | Artspace | Sydney | Australia |
| 2008 | borninthisskin | Solo | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2008 | Revolutions: Forms that Turn | Group | 2008 Biennale of Sydney | Sydney | Australia |
| 2008 | In the space of elsewhere | Group | Stanley Picker Gallery | London | England |
| 2008 | New Millennium | Group | Lismore Regional Gallery | Lismore, NSW | Australia |
| 2008 | On Paper | Group | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2008 | Optimism | Group | Gallery of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2009 | Once Removed | Group | 53rd Venice Biennale of Art | Venice, Italy | Australia |
| 2009 | Terra Nullius: Contemporary Art from Australia | Group | ACC Galerie | Weimar | Germany |
| 2009 | I walk the line: new Australian drawing | Group | Museum of Contemporary Art | Sydney | Australia |
| 2009 | Avoiding myth and message: Australian artists & the literary world | Group | Museum of Contemporary Art | Sydney | Australia |
| 2010 | Tall Man | Solo | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2010 | Vernon Ah Kee | Solo | City Gallery | Wellington | New Zealand |
| 2010 | Waru | Solo | Gallery of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2010 | Waru | Solo | Kick Arts, Contemporary Arts | Cairns, Qld | Australia |
| 2010 | Blow your house in | Solo | Mackenzie Art Gallery | Regina | Canada |
| 2010 | becauseitisbitter | Solo | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2010 | roundabout. | Group | City Gallery Wellington | Wellington | New Zealand |
| 2010 | Basil Sellers Art Prize, | Group | Ian Potter Museum of Art | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2010 | National Works on Paper Award | Group | Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2010 | Jus’ Drawn, | Group | Linden Contemporary Arts Centre | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2010 | PUTSCH proppaNOW | Group (proppaNOW | Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute | Adelaide | Australia |
| 2011 | Tall Man | Solo | Gertrude Contemporary | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2011 | Bad Sign | Solo | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2011 | Barack Commissions | Group | National Gallery of Victoria | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2011 | The Black Sea. | Group | Kickarts Contemporary Arts | Cairns, Qld | Australia |
| 2011 | Counting Coup, | Group | Museum of Contemporary Native Art | New Mexico | USA |
| 2011 | Evolving Identities: Contemporary Indigenous Art | Group | John Curtin Gallery | Perth, WA | Australia |
| 2011 | Erased: Contemporary Australian Drawing | Group (Asialink) | Nanwang Academy of Fine Arts Gallery (NAFA) | (unmentioned) | Singapore |
| 2011 | Erased: Contemporary Australian Drawing | Group (Asialink) | PSG Art Gallery, Silpakorn University | Bangkok | Thailand |
| 2011 | Erased: Contemporary Australian Drawing | Group (Asialink) | Chiang Mai University Faculty of Fine Art Gallery | Chiang Mai | Thailand |
| 2011 | Erased: Contemporary Australian Drawing | Group (Asialink) | Khon Kaen University Art Gallery | Khon Kaen | Thailand |
| 2011 | Erased: Contemporary Australian Drawing | Group (Asialink) | National Art School | Sydney | Australia |
| 2011 | Ten Years of Contemporary Art: The James Sourris Collection | Group | Gallery of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2012 | Hallmarks of the Hungry | Solo | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2012 | Everything Falls Apart | Group | Artspace | Sydney | Australia |
| 2012 | Propositions Part 2 | Group | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2012 | Negotiating this World: Contemporary Australian Art | Group | National Gallery of Victoria | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2012 | unDisclosed: 2nd National Indigenous Art Triennial | Group | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra | Australia |
| 2012 | The Future’s Not What it Used to Be | Group | Touring Chapter Gallery | Cardiff, Wales | Australia |
| 2012 | The Future’s Not What it Used to Be | Group | Newlyn Art Gallery and Exchange | Cornwall | England |
| 2012 | Making Change: Celebrating the 40 Years of Australia-China Diplomatic Relations | Group | NAMOC | Beijing | China |
| 2012 | Making Change: Celebrating the 40 Years of Australia-China Diplomatic Relations | Group | COFA | Sydney | Australia |
| | Transforming Tindale | Solo | State Library of Queensland | Brisbane | Queensland |
| 2013 | Invasion Paintings | Solo | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2013 | My Country: I Still Call Australia Home | Group | Gallery of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2013 | Voice and Reason | Group | Gallery of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2013 | Sakahan: 1st International Quinquennial of New Indigenous Art | Group | National Gallery of Canada | Ottawa | Canada |
| 2013 | Shadowlife | Group | Bendigo Art Gallery | Bendigo, Vic. | Australia |
| 2014 | Brutalities | Solo | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2014 | Saltwater Country | Group | Gold Coast City Gallery | Gold Coast, Qld | Australia |
| 2014 | Subject to Ruin | Group | Casula Power House | Casula, NSW | Australia |
| 2014 | Four Rooms | Group | Adelaide Festival | Adelaide | Australia |
| 2015 | Encounters | Group | National Museum of Australia | Canberra | Australia |
| 2015 | Propositions Three | Group | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2015 | When Silence Falls | Group | Art Gallery of New South Wales | Sydney | Australia |
| 2015 | Brutal Truths, | Group | Griffith University Art Museum | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2015 | The 14th Istanbul Biennial SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms | Group | (multiple venues) | Istanbul | Turkey |
| 2015 | GOMA Q | Group | Gallery of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2015 | Imaginary Accord | Group | Institute of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2015 | Blackout | Group | Sydney College of the Arts | Sydney | Australia |
| 2015 | See You at the Barricades | Group | Art Gallery of New South Wales | Sydney | Australia |
| 2016 | Sugar Spin: You, me, art and everything | Group | Gallery of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2016 | Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, | Group | Harvard Art Museums | Cambridge, Massachusetts | USA |
| 2016 | With Secrecy and Despatch | Group | Campbelltown Arts Centre | Sydney | Australia |
| 2016 | Frontier Imaginaries | Group | Institute of Modern Art and QUT Art Museum | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2016 | Black,White & Restive | Group | Newcastle Art Gallery | Newcastle, NSW | Australia |
| 2016 | Endless Circulation: Tarrawarra Biennial, | Group | TarraWarra Museum of Art | TarraWarra, Victoria | Australia |
| 2016 | Over the Fence | Group | UQ Art Museum | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2016 | On the Origin of Art | Group | Museum of Old and New Art | Hobart, Tas. | Australia |
| 2016 | Shut Up and Paint | Group | National Gallery of Victoria | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2017 | Ode | Solo | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2017 | Will I Live | Solo | Apartment der Kunst | Munich | Germany |
| 2017 | Not a plant or an animal | Solo | National Art School Gallery | Sydney | Australia |
| 2017 | A Change Is Gonna Come | Group | National Museum of Australia | Canberra | Australia |
| 2017 | Australian Collection | Group | Permanent Hang, Queensland Art Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2017 | BOARD: Surf and Skate Cultures Meet Contemporary Art | Group | Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery | Lake Macquarie, NSW | Australia |
| 2018 | Boundary Lines | Group | Griffith University Art Museum | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2018 | 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Divided Worlds | Group | Art Gallery of South Australia | Adelaide | Australia |
| 2018 | Riots: Slow Cancellation of the Future | Group | ifa-Galerie | Berlin | Germany |
| 2018 | Playback, Dobell | Group | Australian Drawing Biennial, Art Gallery of NSW | Sydney | Australia |
| 2018 | Hunter Red: Corpus | Group | Newcastle Gallery | Newcastle, NSW | Australia |
| 2019 | Shadow Light | Group | Milani Gallery | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2019 | cantchant | Group | Art Gallery of Alberta | Alberta | Canada |
| 2019 | Body Language | Group | National Gallery of Australia | Canberra | Australia |
| 2019 | I, Object | Group | Gallery of Modern Art | Brisbane | Australia |
| 2019 | Hope Dies Last: Art at the End of Optimism, | Group | Gertrude Contemporary | Melbourne | Australia |
| 2019 | Australia. Antipodean Stories | Group | Padiglione D'Arte Contemporanea Milano | Milan | Italy |
| 2020 | The Island | Solo | Campbelltown Arts Centre | Sydney | Australia |
In 2010 Vernon Ah Kee was interviewed in a digital story and oral history for the State Library of Queensland's James C Sourris AM Collection. In the interview Ah Kee talks to journalist Daniel Browning about his art, his family, the artist group proppaNOW, and being an Aboriginal artist.