Clan group: Dauareb
Language group: Meriam Mir
Segar Passi was born in 1942 and grew up on Mer (formerly Murray Island) in the Torres Strait. He is one of the most respected Torres Strait Islander artists and the Cairns Art Gallery is the only institution in Australia to have presented two major solo exhibitions of his work.
Passi is renowned for his meticulously detailed paintings and watercolours depicting life and culture on his island home of Mer. He is a self-taught artist who, at a very early age, demonstrated an extraordinary ability to paint the weather systems, cultural knowledge, mythology, Indigenous astrology, marine and bird life, and day-to-day life on the islands.
In 2014, Passi had his first solo exhibition entitled Segar Passi: Bakei – 1960s to the Present. Held at the Cairns Art Gallery it brought together a large body of works that included thirteen works commissioned by the Gallery and Foundation for the Gallery Collection.
In 2022, the Cairns Art Gallery mounted a second solo exhibition of Passi’s work entitled Meriba Ged A Gur (Our Land Our Sea) that marked two significant anniversaries – the artist’s 80th birthday, and the 30th anniversary of the Australian High Court's landmark Mabo determination that paved the way for the recognition and protection of native title across Australia.
Passi is no longer a practising artist. The Cairns Art Gallery and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art together have the most extensive collections of this important artist’s work.
Segar Passi: Meriba Ged A Gur
8 Oct – 11 Dec 2022
View exhibition
Segar Passi: Bakei
11 Jul – 21 Sep 2014
View exhibition
Reimagining: Between Tradition and Innovation
17 Oct 2020 – 10 Jan 2021
View exhibition
ARTNOW FNQ 2015
27 Nov 2015 – 7 Feb 2016
View exhibition
Ilan Pasin: Torres Strait Art
6 Nov – 31 Jan 1998
View exhibition
The Cairns Art Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and live. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, names or voices of deceased persons in photographs, film or text.