Alick Tipoti

In 2021, the full-length documentary film Alick and Albert, by Brisbane film producer Trish Lake and co-written by Tipoti, was released. It includes stories of the Badulgal people of Badu Island as well as the Monégasque people of Monaco, who are concerned about climate change and the future of the oceans. Most of the filming was able to be done before the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–21 restricted people's movements. The film had its world premiere at the Brisbane International Film Festival in October 2021.

Tipoti has been active in informing the public about the dangers of the climate change crisis in the Torres Strait, as well as plastic pollution in the ocean. His exhibit for the Taba Naba - Australia, Oceania, Arts of the Sea People which began at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco in 2016 brought him into contact with Prince Albert II of Monaco, a keen environmentalist. The prince subsequently visited the Torres Strait and stayed with Tipoti and his family.

In 2015 he performed the Marimawa (spiritual mask dance) at the British Museum in London.

He was commissioned to design an artwork for the floor of the Cairns Airport domestic arrivals hall as well as other buildings, and nine railway carriages of the Tilt Train from Brisbane to Cairns in 2010.

In 2007 he started to make artistic versions of ceremonial masks out of fibreglass, inspired by the traditional turtleshell masks.

Tipoti has been honoured with a number of awards, starting when he was a student and in his early career. He was named as Townsville Pimlico TAFE College's Art Student of the Year in 1993, and Australian Capital Territory Scholar of the Year after his studies at ANU in 1997. In 1998 he won the Lin Onus Youth Prize in the 4th edition of the National Indigenous Heritage Art Award.

He went to primary school on Badu Island, before moving to Thursday Island, gaining an Advance Diploma in Arts at the TAFE college there in 1992 and later graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Printmaking) at the Australia National University in Canberra in 1998.

Tipoti's artistic practice was initially focused on printmaking, using linocuts. He began exhibiting in small galleries in North Queensland in the early 1990s.

Alick Tipoti (born 1975), whose traditional name is Zugub, is a Torres Strait Islander artist, linguist, and activist of the Kala Lagaw Ya people, from Badu Island, in the Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait). His work includes painting, installations, printmaking, sculpture and mask-making, and is focused on preserving the culture and languages of his people.

Tipoti was born in 1975 on Thursday Island and grew up on Badu Island (aka Mulgrave Island); he also has connections with Mabuiag Island. His father, Leniaso, was an artist and cultural adviser, and Alick developed an interest in art as a child. He was given the traditional name of Zugub in order to link him to the spirits of his ancestors, the Zugubal.

He has been a longtime friend of artist Dennis Nona (born 1973), who shares similar goals and influences. The work of both artists have been hugely influential in developing a "school of contemporary Torres Strait Islander art". Tipoti has also been a mentor and leader to younger artists in the Torres Strait Islands, who have been influenced by both artists' success.