Indigenous leaders in Wollongong, south of Sydney, are demanding a local gallery shut down an exhibition of paintings they say are offensive to Aboriginal people.

The paintings, by nine-time Archibald finalist Paul Ryan, use confronting sexual and violent images, as well as dark humour to criticise the way colonisers treated Indigenous Australians.

But local Aborigines say the paintings are causing a lot of distress in the local community and must go.

The No Country For Dreaming exhibition opened earlier this month at the Wollongong City Gallery, but it did not start causing controversy until yesterday when a group of Indigenous people became upset and angry about the confronting paintings.

The gallery's program director, John Monteleone, says the exhibition was temporarily closed following the complaints, but re-opened as usual today.

"We closed the exhibition only for that afternoon because there was a security issue in regards to the people that were there and just the general behaviour; just so that we could curtail any issues in terms of safety either to the public, or to staff, or to the visitors themselves," he said.

One of the paintings that caused offence depicted an Aboriginal boy hanging from a tree and is titled, Local Boys Just Seem To Hang Around All Day.

Sharralyn Robinson, CEO of the Illawarra Land Council, says she went to see the exhibition yesterday after hearing how upsetting it was for some people.

She says she was appalled and did not find any humour in the paintings.

"I think that we need to start looking at where we draw the line when it comes to art," she said.

"Like another image there is of an Aboriginal person performing oral sex on an officer; is that okay? Is that okay for children to be able to go into an exhibition and look at that on a wall? Is it okay: is that where we've got to in this country?

"And I realise that artists fight for freedom of speech, but seriously, these images are offensive to Aboriginal people."

Artist explains

Mr Ryan is currently on holiday in Bali but told ABC local radio in Wollongong his intention had not been to denigrate anyone, but to highlight denigration.

"They're [the paintings] not actually intended to offend Indigenous Australians, they really are actually in support of Indigenous Australians," he said.

"They are tough images and some of the titles are very difficult, and I did expect that there would be a reaction to these works that was not always positive."

But he says not everyone is against his exhibition.

"A well-known local Indigenous elder, Vic Chapman, who also happens to be the very first Indigenous principal of a school in Australia did the Welcome to Country for this show and was incredibly supportive of this show - shook my hand," he said.

"He said it's some of the best paintings he'd ever seen and that he was just so glad to see a white Australian coming out in defence of Aboriginal people, in fact, as opposed to denigrating.

"And with the guts to poke not fun at, but to really put a mirror up to us as white settlers to [say] 'look, this is some of the stuff that we've done, we're not proud of it but it happened; it's a fact.'

"It's powerful stuff; it's stuff that we're still dealing with as a culture and as a country; stuff that I feel that is very important to make artwork about."

Mr Ryan has offered to meet with and apologise to people who have been offended by the exhibition when he returns.

Mr Monteleone says the exhibition already had warnings about its offensive material and that the images depicted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, but that extra measures are now in place to help put the paintings in a context.

"Since the incident yesterday, we're also handing out a text sheet which looks at some of the insights behind the themes of the exhibition, so from the artist's perspective in regards to what the artist is actually saying," he said.

"And before they [gallery visitors] go in they can actually have a look at it and read it, so that they can put the exhibition into some context, so that the images aren't just being read on their own I suppose, and that people have a better understanding about where the artist is coming from."

Despite calls to close the exhibition, it is scheduled to remain at the Wollongong City Gallery until late November.