Kambarni on his politically-charged artwork, fatherhood and journey to today

“You could be famous one day.”

Kamsani Bin Salleh still remembers the kind words and piece of card shared by his Year 4 teacher Ms Robertson, when working on his own personal project while his classmates did maths. He’d already finished his.

It came after Bin Salleh was working on a project about bushrangers, becoming engrossed in drawing a Ned Kelly poster, meticulously sketching the outlaw’s famous helmet, down to its rivets, cracks and dents.

Ms Robertson noticed the detail and ingrained talent, the first person outside his family to recognise his artistic ability.

“It was the first time I realised that, oh I could have talent here,” he tells STM.

More than two decades later, that childhood encouragement has proved prescient.

Under the artist name Kambarni, the 33-year-old has transformed his childhood penchant for drawing into a prolific career, with large-scale murals across Perth in Yagan Square, Subiaco, East Perth, Melville and commissions stretching as far as the Sydney Opera House.

Kambarni was awarded WA Young Person of the Year in 2018, created a mural for the AFL grand final in 2021 and was commissioned to paint a large-scale mural titled Homegrown, inside Optus Stadium earlier this year for the 2026 State of Origin.

But after years spent using public walls as his canvas — often translating stories of place, culture and history in collaboration with elders and community members — Kambarni is turning the lens inward.

The Ballardong Noongar artist, descended from the Bibbulmun Nation and paternally from the Nimunburr and Yawuru people of the Kimberley, is set to launch his first solo exhibition at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre as part of the 10 Nights in Port Festival.

Kambarni converted an outhouse building on the grounds of the arts centre into a studio during his residency, in order to create the exhibition material onsite. When STM visited, the space was sprinkled with partially-completed works, plants and open paint cans.

Titled Nullians, the collection of 17 politically-charged works explore Australian history, racial identity and cultural discourse through the bold, graphic visual language Kambarni has developed throughout his career.

And unlike many of his murals, where he describes himself as a “conduit” for the stories of others, this time there is nowhere to hide.

“Sometimes I’m collaborating with people, but this exhibition has just been solely of my work and of my mind, which is the most daunting aspect,” he reflects.

It also gives a physical home to characters that have gradually emerged throughout his practice.

Initially appearing in isolated comics responding to political or cultural events, Kambarni eventually realised they could inhabit a world of their own. He named them the Nullians.

While the works tackle weighty subject matter, he deliberately avoids prescribing how they should be interpreted. Instead, he wants viewers to bring their own understanding of Australia and its history to them.

“I try not to spell out too much for people,” he says.

“They can decipher their own meaning from it. But the more you learn, it’s a conversation starter.”

Humour helps open that conversation, with Kambarni describing comedy as the “Trojan horse” that makes challenging ideas more approachable.

And despite working as an artist for years, Kambarni admits he has only recently become comfortable calling himself an “artist”.

He registered an ABN in 2016, but the move was less a grand declaration of a new career and more a practical necessity: he had made some art and needed a way to invoice for it.

“It wasn’t necessarily chasing it. I think it was chasing me, the need to be an artist,” he says.

“Art was always my escape and my solace. But then, it became an expression and my identity, and then my career.”

That same year came his first paid mural, at Leederville’s Nowhereman Brewing Co, and a process of constant upskilling followed, from precarious early days on step ladders to working high above the ground on scissor lifts.

And while his work continues to evolve, so too has the life informing it.

Kambarni became a father five months ago, and his son Sani and partner joined him in the studio during the Fremantle art residency.

Amid an exhibition grappling with the past and present, having his son beside him inevitably brought the future into focus.

“It just reminded us that it’s artwork. It is the job, but it’s also about leaving a better world behind for him — and maybe a more open one, I guess,” he says.

Kambarni says history does not exist “in a vacuum”; the events he responds to today are connected to those that came before them. Likewise, his own practice is becoming an accumulation of experiences — childhood drawings, communications studies, public murals, community conversations, fatherhood and, now, his first solo exhibition.

And perhaps among those taking in the exhibition will be Ms Robertson, who first recognised his potential all those years ago.

10 Nights in Port Festival runs across Fremantle from August 20 to 30. For the full program, visit 10nightsinport.com.au.