Omar Musa, Fixed Fight, 2026, woodcut on paper, 40 x 50cm, edition 10, printer: Narit Tananon. Photo: Megalo.
Omar Musa’s star is in ascendency. He is a celebrated writer, poet, visual artist and hip-hop artist who grew up in Queanbeyan and has spent many years in the United States before returning to Australia.
At 41, he emerges from his Megalo exhibition as an angry young man, speaking with fiery passion and clenching his fist in defiance. If the time has come to stand up and be counted, Musa stands at the forefront to denounce the insanity and violence that has gripped our world.
The title of his current exhibition, The Hurt Business, is taken from boxing lingo. He explains that this show “refers to the violence and competing forces commonplace in our news cycles and social media feeds, from the genocide in Gaza, the invasion of Venezuela, death squads in the Philippines, War on Drugs, to ICE raids on families and children in the US”.
This is quite a large exhibition of 29 pieces and consists of woodcuts, lithographs, cast glass sculptures, polymer photogravure, digital prints and cyanotypes with some pieces enlivened with bits of gold leaf.
Despite the diversity, the show is pulled together by a unifying artistic personality, dynamic energy and a strong reliance on word and wit as well as a celebration of the absurd that is frequently disguised within our news cycle.
The woodcuts are the strongest part of the exhibition and as Musa, a Bornean-Australian, once explained: “My ancestors sailed in wood. I carve my stories in wood. They will carry me out in wood.”
Fixed Fight is a bold, expressively carved woodcut printed in blue ink. A bull with sharpened horns and a tiger with its mouth sewn up confront one another. Above is the inscription, “They rig the fight so the tiger loses. Yet still, they fear the tiger”.
Omar Musa, If you are not cheating, You’re not trying, 2026, woodcut on paper, 40 x 50cm, edition 10 printer: Narit Tananon. Photo: Megalo.
Musa explains that in South-East Asia, rulers often would stage animal fights for the public, frequently a tiger versus a buffalo. “This was done not just as entertainment, but reinforcement of the status quo.
“The fights would be fixed so the tiger (representing the outsider, wilderness and the enemy of the state) would be declawed and de-toothed, or even tied to a stake and the buffalo, representing stability of the state, would always win.”
In the print, while the tiger may be the victim, his spirit is not broken and he will eventually rise and triumph.
In another woodcut printed in blue, If you’re not cheating, You’re not trying, the whole scene is treated on a more allegorical level.
There is the lone boxer, juxtaposed by a crocodile (a symbol in South-East Asia of corrupt politicians), suspended dice of chance, a petrol can pouring fuel onto the fire and stars and flowers, possibly referring to those that have fallen before.
Omar Musa, International Law, 2026, woodcut on paper, 40 x 50cm, edition 10 printer: Narit Tananon. Photo: Megalo
The ethical dilemma is who has the right to referee this fight, who will call out the cheating and call for a stop. For Musa, this touches on a global problem in which bullies can dominate world affairs and it may be up to us to call them out and demand a stop.
This becomes more explicit in the woodcut International Law, where the boxer is involved in a hopeless contest with a skeleton and what separates them is the inscription, “Who Says Stop?”.
This is a bold, even courageous exhibition by a young poet and committed humanist who now sees it as his role to call out the evil and corruption he sees around the world. While some will point out that a picture or a poem will not stop a bullet, Musa appears to belong to those artists who feel that it is their duty to call out evil and reflect and expose it in the mirror of art.
Omar Musa, The star of the sea, 2026, lithograph and gold leaf on paper, 40 x 30cm, edition 20 printer: Tim Pauszek. Photo: Megalo.
Omar Musa’s exhibition The Hurt Business is at Megalo Print Studio & Gallery, 21 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston until 4 February. The gallery is open from 9:30 am to 5 pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
