Badra Aji’s practice functions as a site of visual poetry where personal history and collective memory intersect. Working across drawing, painting, writing, and video, he constructs poetic semi-narratives that explore the instability between autobiography and fiction. In his work, the act of processing memory and internal experience becomes the primary artistic process, resulting in compositions that navigate the blurred boundaries between the intimate and the political.
By recontextualising archives and speculative imagery, Aji explores the complexities of lived experience against shifting cultural and political landscapes. He is particularly interested in the productive tension between image and language, focusing on the gaps where meaning is not fixed. These spaces allow for new interpretations to emerge, inviting the viewer to actively negotiate the narrative fragments while positioning them as both witness and outsider.
Aji has exhibited extensively across Melbourne, Sydney, and Paris, and was the recipient of the Majlis Travelling Scholarship from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2016. His work has been recognized in major prizes, including as a finalist in the Paul Guest Drawing Prize (2018), the Dobell Drawing Prize (2019, 2025), and the Ramsay Art Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia (2023). Aji completed a residency at Draw International in 2017 and is a recipient of both the City of Melbourne Art Grants and Creative Victoria's Creative Project Fund.
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art), Victorian College of The Arts, University of Melbourne, 2016.
Diploma of Visual Art, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 2013.
Exhibitions
Get the boy a dog and call it a day, Heide Project Space, Melbourne, Australia, 2026
Ghosts Are Always With Me, REDBASE Art, Sydney, Australia 2026
Sign O’ The Times, Sarah Scout Present, Melbourne, Australia 2025
No More Dreaming Tonight, Mailbox Artspace, Melbourne, Australia, 2025
Dobell Drawing Prize #24, National Art School Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2025
Baby Star, Prop Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2024
Ramsay Art Prize 2023, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 2023
Foreign Objects, This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne, Australia, 2022
Lonely Is Not Always Quiet, BLINDSIDE ARI, Melbourne, Australia, 2020
Rindu (Longing), SEVENTH Gallery, Melbourne, 2019
L’au-Dela Des Possibles, FIAP Paris, Paris, 2019
Dobell Drawing Prize, National Art School Gallery, Sydney, 2019
Lovesick Rodeo, At Current ARI, Melbourne, Australia, 2019
Paul Guest Drawing Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Australia, 2018
Sans Direction, TCB Art Inc, Melbourne, Australia, 2017
Cut and Paste, Red Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2017
Liminoid, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2017
Majlis Travelling Scholarship 2016, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2016
Australian Landscape Painting, VCA Student Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2016
Space-Age Lovers, VCA Student Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2015
Halfway There, Melbourne City Library, Melbourne, Australia, 2015
Observation and Normality, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2014
CCP Salon 2013, CCP, Melbourne, Australia, 2013
Transubstantiation, RMIT TAFE Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2013
Life Drawing, No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2012
Awards
Creative Victoria, Creative Project Fund Recipient, 2025
City of Melbourne Arts Grants Recipient, 2025
Dobell Drawing Prize #24 (Finalist), National Art School Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2025
Ramsay Art Prize (Finalist), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 2023
City of Melbourne Arts Grants Recipient, 2020
Dobell Drawing Prize (Finalist), National Art School Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2019
Paul Guest Drawing Prize (Finalist), Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, Australia, 2018
Blair Trenthowan TCB Art Inc Awards, TCB, Melbourne, Australia, 2016
Garry Grossbard Drawing Prize, VCA, Melbourne, Australia, 2016
Majlis Travelling Scholarship, VCA, Melbourne, Australia, 2016
Residencies
DrawInternational, Caylus, France, 2017.