Reg Mombassa
Encyclopedia
Reg Mombassa is the pseudonym of Chris O'Doherty, a New Zealand
born artist
and musician
. Resident in Australia
, he is as well known there for his musical exploits — founder and former member of the popular Australian band Mental As Anything
and member of Dog Trumpet
(alongside his brother Peter O'Doherty
) - as he is for his art. Worldwide, he is perhaps better known for his irreverent designs for surfwear company Mambo Graphics
many of which were later adapted for use in a segment of the Sydney 2000 Olympics closing ceremony.
In Reg's words he is inspired by "the wind, semi-professional birthday clowns, heavy machinery and the behavior of domestic animals". He is married with three children and lives in the Sydney
suburb of Glebe
.
, New Zealand
on 14 August 1951. O'Doherty, his parents and younger brother Peter immigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1969. He enrolled in what is now the National Art School
in Darlinghurst in 1969 but left the following year. He returned again in 1975 and obtained his Diploma of Painting in 1977. Between his stints at college and whilst there he supported himself with menial jobs such as builder’s labouring, cleaning, house painting and working on the railways. In 1976 he formed the rock band Mental as Anything with four fellow art school students ostensibly to play art school parties. Whilst never intending to be a serious band, the Mentals, as they became known, eventually turned professional (after Mombassa's graduation from college) and went on to become one of Australia’s most popular bands, touring widely in Australia and overseas.
— almost cartoonish and in vivid colours, incorporating religious, political and popular culture themes — is probably the style he is most widely known for. However his landscapes
and portraits
, many of which are inspired by his childhood in New Zealand, are equally as sought after. His artworks can be found in the Art Gallery of New South Wales
, the National Gallery of Australia
and other important regional galleries. The late Patrick White
, Elton John
and Ewan McGregor
have all famously purchased his work.
Mombassa's first public showing was in a group exhibition held at Watters Gallery in Sydney in 1975 whilst he was still attending art college. It was at this exhibition that Patrick White purchased some works and subsequently became a patron, purchasing many others over his life. He first exhibited solo at Watters in 1986, the year he also began designing clothing for Mambo. His works were exhibited in three Mental as Anything collective exhibitions in 1982, 1990 and 1998. Further solo shows were held at Watters in 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1998. Alongside posters, record covers and merchandise for Mental As Anything and Dog Trumpet, he has designed record covers for the likes of PIL, Crowded House, Mondo Rock and Paul Kelly. He has gifted artwork to many charitable and environmental organisations including Greenpeace
and The Wilderness Society
.
As Mombassa's artistic output and demand increased it prompted him to make the difficult decision to cease touring with the Mentals in April 2000. He has continued to design for Mambo and hold sellout exhibitions at Watters in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009.
In January 2007, a career retrospective of his work was held in Sydney at the S. H. Ervin Gallery
. An 80 page catalogue was released by the National Trust
to coincide with this exhibition. It also saw the release of "Golden Sandals" directed by Haydn Keenan, a documentary on Mombassa featuring animated versions of his artwork. In March 2007 his self-portrait was selected as a finalist in the Archibald Prize
. 2 May 2007 saw the broadcast of "Golden Sandals" on SBS independent
Australia. One of his most famous works was "Self-Portrait with Spots and Veins" (2003) He was also featured on the ABC TV
profile show Talking Heads. In 2009 he was featured on BBC TV's Peschard't People. In November 2009 Harper Collins released a biography by Murray Waldren called "The mind and times of Reg Mombassa", which includes over 200 art works.
was deliberate or not. He has stated in interviews that some of his earlier pseudonyms included "Brett Orlando" and "Dorky Bladder".
with his brother Peter O’Doherty. Since leaving the Mentals this has been his sole musical outlet. Dog Trumpet has released five studio albums and two EPs. The band's latest album, River of Flowers was released in May 2010.
and members of GANGgajang
, he recorded a country music
album credited to The Stetsons
. Reg also supplied the iconic lead guitar in GANGgajang's 1985 hit The Sounds Of Then
.
He has also appeared in a number of small Australian films, including Tender Hooks (1989), Strange Planet (1999) and Love's Brother
(2004).
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
born artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. Resident in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, he is as well known there for his musical exploits — founder and former member of the popular Australian band Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything are an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976. Their most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne "Bird"...
and member of Dog Trumpet
Dog Trumpet
Dog Trumpet is an Australian rock band, formed by brothers Peter O'Doherty and Reg Mombassa . Both Mombassa and O'Doherty were founder members of the iconic Australian band Mental as Anything, and they formed Dog Trumpet as an outlet for their original material...
(alongside his brother Peter O'Doherty
Peter O'Doherty
Peter O'Doherty is a musician with Australian band Dog Trumpet and formerly with Australian band Mental As Anything. He is also a recognised fine artist specialising in still life and everyday suburban scenes....
) - as he is for his art. Worldwide, he is perhaps better known for his irreverent designs for surfwear company Mambo Graphics
Mambo Graphics
Mambo is an Australian surf and street clothing brand. It was launched in 1984, by and business partner, Andrew Rich in the Sydney suburb of Alexandria.- Early Days :...
many of which were later adapted for use in a segment of the Sydney 2000 Olympics closing ceremony.
In Reg's words he is inspired by "the wind, semi-professional birthday clowns, heavy machinery and the behavior of domestic animals". He is married with three children and lives in the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
suburb of Glebe
Glebe, New South Wales
Glebe is an inner-city suburb of Sydney. Glebe is located 3 km south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney, in the Inner West region....
.
Early life
Mombassa was born Christopher O'Doherty in AucklandAuckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
on 14 August 1951. O'Doherty, his parents and younger brother Peter immigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1969. He enrolled in what is now the National Art School
National Art School
The National Art School is an art school in Sydney, Australia. It is a Public Company Limited by Guarantee with a board of directors. It has Institutional Registration and Course Accreditation supported by the DET Higher Education Directorate....
in Darlinghurst in 1969 but left the following year. He returned again in 1975 and obtained his Diploma of Painting in 1977. Between his stints at college and whilst there he supported himself with menial jobs such as builder’s labouring, cleaning, house painting and working on the railways. In 1976 he formed the rock band Mental as Anything with four fellow art school students ostensibly to play art school parties. Whilst never intending to be a serious band, the Mentals, as they became known, eventually turned professional (after Mombassa's graduation from college) and went on to become one of Australia’s most popular bands, touring widely in Australia and overseas.
Art career
Mombassa's artwork is in two distinctive styles. The type of artwork he designs for MamboMambo Graphics
Mambo is an Australian surf and street clothing brand. It was launched in 1984, by and business partner, Andrew Rich in the Sydney suburb of Alexandria.- Early Days :...
— almost cartoonish and in vivid colours, incorporating religious, political and popular culture themes — is probably the style he is most widely known for. However his landscapes
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
and portraits
Portrait painting
Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Beside human beings, animals, pets and even inanimate objects can be chosen as the subject for a portrait...
, many of which are inspired by his childhood in New Zealand, are equally as sought after. His artworks can be found in the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
, the National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
and other important regional galleries. The late Patrick White
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
have all famously purchased his work.
Mombassa's first public showing was in a group exhibition held at Watters Gallery in Sydney in 1975 whilst he was still attending art college. It was at this exhibition that Patrick White purchased some works and subsequently became a patron, purchasing many others over his life. He first exhibited solo at Watters in 1986, the year he also began designing clothing for Mambo. His works were exhibited in three Mental as Anything collective exhibitions in 1982, 1990 and 1998. Further solo shows were held at Watters in 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1998. Alongside posters, record covers and merchandise for Mental As Anything and Dog Trumpet, he has designed record covers for the likes of PIL, Crowded House, Mondo Rock and Paul Kelly. He has gifted artwork to many charitable and environmental organisations including Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
and The Wilderness Society
The Wilderness Society (Australia)
The Wilderness Society is an Australian, community-based, not-for-profit non-governmental environmental advocacy organisation. Its purpose is to protect, promote and restore wilderness and natural processes across Australia for the survival and ongoing evolution of life on Earth.It is a...
.
As Mombassa's artistic output and demand increased it prompted him to make the difficult decision to cease touring with the Mentals in April 2000. He has continued to design for Mambo and hold sellout exhibitions at Watters in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009.
In January 2007, a career retrospective of his work was held in Sydney at the S. H. Ervin Gallery
S. H. Ervin Gallery
The S.H. Ervin Gallery is a major public art institution housed in the historic National Trust Centre on Observatory Hill, The Rocks in Sydney, Australia.It is the venue for the Salon des Refuses, for portraits rejected by the Archibald Prize....
. An 80 page catalogue was released by the National Trust
National Trust of Australia
The Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
to coincide with this exhibition. It also saw the release of "Golden Sandals" directed by Haydn Keenan, a documentary on Mombassa featuring animated versions of his artwork. In March 2007 his self-portrait was selected as a finalist in the Archibald Prize
Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...
. 2 May 2007 saw the broadcast of "Golden Sandals" on SBS independent
SBS independent
SBS independent is the primary production unit of SBS "home-baked" primetime programming.All productions are commissioned in association with the independent sector of the Australian film and television industry....
Australia. One of his most famous works was "Self-Portrait with Spots and Veins" (2003) He was also featured on the ABC TV
ABC1
ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...
profile show Talking Heads. In 2009 he was featured on BBC TV's Peschard't People. In November 2009 Harper Collins released a biography by Murray Waldren called "The mind and times of Reg Mombassa", which includes over 200 art works.
The origin of the name Reg Mombassa
In the early days of the Mentals, the band would often invent pseudonyms for each other that combined an exotic lastname with a common Australian firstname. "Reg Mombassa" was one of the products of that amusement. It is unknown if the extra "s" in MombasaMombasa
Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....
was deliberate or not. He has stated in interviews that some of his earlier pseudonyms included "Brett Orlando" and "Dorky Bladder".
Dog Trumpet
In 1991, Mombassa formed the band Dog TrumpetDog Trumpet
Dog Trumpet is an Australian rock band, formed by brothers Peter O'Doherty and Reg Mombassa . Both Mombassa and O'Doherty were founder members of the iconic Australian band Mental as Anything, and they formed Dog Trumpet as an outlet for their original material...
with his brother Peter O’Doherty. Since leaving the Mentals this has been his sole musical outlet. Dog Trumpet has released five studio albums and two EPs. The band's latest album, River of Flowers was released in May 2010.
Other Music & Movies
In 1987, with Peter, Martin PlazaMartin Plaza
Martin Plaza is the pseudonym of Martin Edward Murphy , who is a vocalist/guitarist/songwriter with Australian pop/R&B band Mental As Anything. Plaza also has a solo music career and in 1986 had a #2 hit in Australia with his cover of the 1960s Unit 4+2 song "Concrete and Clay"...
and members of GANGgajang
GANGgajang
Gang Gajang are an Australian rock band who formed in 1984. The three principal figures in the original lineup were former Riptides frontman Mark "Cal" Callaghan and two former members of popular Australian hard rock band The Angels, bassist Chris Bailey and drummer Graham "Buzz"...
, he recorded a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
album credited to The Stetsons
The Stetsons
The Stetsons are an Australian country and western band formed by members of GANGgajang, Mental As Anything and Flying Emus. The released a selftitled album in 1987. In 1997 many some of the original members got back together and released a second album called Their Most Successful Album...Ever...
. Reg also supplied the iconic lead guitar in GANGgajang's 1985 hit The Sounds Of Then
Sounds of Then
"This is Australia" is a 1985 song by Australian band Gang Gajang from their self-titled debut album, Gang Gajang. "Sounds of Then" was written by frontman Mark "Cal" Callaghan....
.
He has also appeared in a number of small Australian films, including Tender Hooks (1989), Strange Planet (1999) and Love's Brother
Love's Brother
Love's Brother is a 2004 film written and directed by Jan Sardi.-Main cast:*Giovanni Ribisi - Angelo Donnini*Adam Garcia - Gino Donnini*Joe Petruzzi - Zio Luigi*Amelia Warner - Rosetta*Silvia De Santis - Connie*Barry Otto - Father Alfredo-Plot:...
(2004).