Damien and Yilpi Marks Exhibition

Husband and wife team Damien Marks and Yilpi Marks collaborate to make colourful paintings of their Central Desert homelands. Damien grew up at Papunya and his early influences and learning came from senior artists Clifford Possum, Billy Stockman and Uta Uta Jangala. He was a young boy at Papunya School when the elders at Papunya were setting about creating the foundations of the Desert art movement. Damien has maintained much of the heritage of Clifford Possum, incorporating images of ceremonial artefacts and regalia into the paintings. Yilpi Marks grew up at Ernabella, where both her parents were artists. Later she moved to Papunya and has merged the stylistic influences and use of colour from the artistic traditions from both communities.

The paintings of this talented partnership are a rich tapestry of colour and imagery. The essential structure of the works are maps of Country, showing ranges of hills, rocky outcrops, creeks and waterways. Overlaid into the maps are elements of ceremonial life and artefacts made to accompany ritual performances. Also featured are aspects of bush food and various types of desert grasses and vegetation. The paintings create a lively vision of the desert landscape and its cultural importance to traditional owners.