LUCAS Grogan's pictures look indigenous but he is not Aboriginal.
The situation is causing a big fuss in the art world, leading a curator to quit an exhibition in which the young Newcastle artist's works were on display and to his drawings being barred from next month's Sydney Art Fair.
Grogan's drawings on irregular, bark-shaped boards depict stylised figures that instantly evoke a sense of Aboriginality.
But their highly detailed craftsmanship is deceptive.
With figures that may be smoking cigarettes, cavorting among discarded bottles or engaged in confronting sexual acts, the pictures are very modern and very confronting.
Summing up the response of many critics, visiting Canadian professor David Gameau wrote in Art Monthly Australia that he had considered buying one of Grogan's drawings until he discovered the artist was a white man.
"I was intrigued, because they were pushing the tradition to include some remarkably salient content, alcohol and sex," Professor Gameau wrote.
"I was interested and so asked more about the artist.
"I was thinking about buying a piece. It echoes similar strategies that are happening and that I want to encourage in our contemporary, Canadian aboriginal art community.
"Anyway, my jaw dropped to the floor when I was told that the artist, Lucas Grogan, is not Aboriginal but a white guy appropriating the Arnhem Land rarrk style."
Grogan was one of 15 finalists chosen from about 300 entrants across Australia in the Off the Wall emerging artists' exhibition to have their work displayed at next month's Sydney art fair.
Objections by unnamed people led to his selection being overturned.
Grogan said he had been elated to be chosen as a finalist but felt crushed when about a week later he was told in a phone call his work had been excluded.
The Newcastle Region Art Gallery assistant is frustrated by what he calls "an unsaid rule or taboo" against non-Aboriginal artists using traditional indigenous design.
Off the Wall co-ordinator Cash Brown said "certain people had ethical concerns and issues", which led to Grogan's choice being vetoed.
Ms Brown said consultation with senior curators in the indigenous community led to the decision.
She personally admired Grogan's work but it was decided that the risk of negative publicity was too great.
Grogan was trying to open the debate about whether white artists should be allowed to use Aboriginal styles.
Ms Brown said it was an important debate but one in which she could not afford to become involved.
Herald art critic Jill Stowell said Grogan's work should not be suppressed, provided it avoided being shallow or cartoon-like.
She said the artist appropriated elements of Aboriginal drawing style to "express human activities common to us all, often with scurrilous humour".
"He aims to provoke but his drawings utilise the delicate cross-hatched patterns of the bark painters with reverent skill," Stowell said.
"These are not parodies but a kind of homage to an exciting form of traditional art.
"To date, Aboriginal communities have lodged no complaints."
Drawing a parallel to the recent debate over photographer Bill Henson's works of naked children, Stowell said "moral indignation can get out of hand".
Lucas Grogan's artworks are on display at John Miller Gallery, in Newcastle.
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