Stephen Gray Stephen Gray i(A864 works by)
Born: Established: 1966 ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Stephen Gray was educated at Monash and Melbourne Universities, taking a masters degree in law from the latter. In 1989 he moved to Darwin where he lectured in law at the Northern Territory University. Specialising in copyright law, he drew on his interest in issues relating to indigenous art for his second novel The Artist is a Thief (2001). Gray's first novel Lungfish was well-received, winning the Jessie Litchfield Award. Adding to this success, The Artist is a Thief won the Australian/Vogel Award. This examination of the indigenous art industry contributes a powerful story to contemporary debates on the ownership and value of Aboriginal art.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Artist Is a Thief Australia : Allen and Unwin , 2001 Z800291 2001 single work novel detective

'Margaret Thatcher Gandarrwuy is an internationally renowned Aboriginal artist from the remote Mission Hole community in the Northern Territory. Her works command high prices - until a new painting is unveiled. It is discovered slashed, with the words hastily scrawled across it, 'The artist is a thief'. Is the artist a thief? Is she to blame, or is she the victim of somebody else's fraud?

'This is a philosophical detective novel with a difference, set in a world where everyone but the 'detective' knows the rules. Jean-Loup Wild, a Melbourne financial consultant sent by ATSIC to Mission Hole, is caught between the art world, with its wealth, fashions, heroes and sophisticated private language, and the Aboriginal community with its poverty, social problems, kinship ties and unchanging traditional law. If Jean-Loup can find the artist he can begin to find the secret of what has been happening at Mission Hole. He can begin, also, to understand how the layers of that mystery lie deep in the bedrock of Australian society.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.
2003 nominated for shortlisting International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
2002 joint winner The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist of the Year
2000 winner The Australian / Vogel National Literary Award (for an unpublished manuscript)
y separately published work icon Lungfish Darwin : Northern Territory University Press , 1999 Z669161 1999 single work novel
2000 winner Jessie Litchfield Award for Literature
VIEW ALL AWARDS
Last amended 15 Mar 2021 09:44:09
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