Aboriginal art exhibitions are on display at Japingka Aboriginal Art Gallery, 47 High Street, Fremantle - Mon-Fri 10am-5.00pm and Sat & Sun 12-5pm. There is no entrance fee to view the exhibitions.
All are welcome to join us for the free opening Friday night event at 6.30pm. There is a short talk about the exhibition and the artists may be present.
Online art exhibition links are accessible below for those not able to attend the gallery. Advance viewing and purchasing of exhibition works is available to subscribers of the Japingka Newsletter.
How We Paint – Eight Artists
23 February – 3 April 2024
Indigenous artists continue to find inspiring and distinctive ways to paint within the many different cultural and language groups that make up their heritage and background. How We Paint- Eight Indigenous artists present recent works that showcase their specific approach and style of painting. Artists include Janet Golder Kngwarreye, Michelle Cooper, Michelle Possum Nungarrayi, Kurun Warun, Damien and Yilpi Marks, Belinda Golder Kngwarreye and Rochelle Bird Mbitjana.
Martumili Artists
23 February – 3 April 2024
Artworks from Martumili Art centre are sourced from seven remote communities including Jigalong, Punmu, Kunawarritji, Parnngurr, Irrungadji, Warralong and Parnpajinya (Newman). The artists are traditional owners for tracts of country in the Great Sandy Desert, Gibson Desert, Little Sandy Desert and Karlamilyi (Rudall River) region. The art centre is based in Newman in the East Pilbara region of Western Australia. Martu artists express their traditional ties to country and the kinship groups who continue to pass down cultural knowledge embedded in the lands that their ancestors have inhabited.
Sun and Shadow: Art of the Spinifex People
22 September – 31 October 2023
‘The idea of an artist meditating on their muse in heroic isolation is alien to desert people. Spinifex People design their lives around never being alone. Their preference is to always have malpa. The history of Spinifex painting reveals the creative and conceptual centrality of cooperation and collaboration that is fundamental to the lives of Anangu and their artistic practice.’ (John Carty and Luke Scholes, Sun and Shadow, p.193, Upswell Publishing, 2023)
Anangu Women Artists: Ngayuku Tjukurrpa Mulapa – My True Story
21 July - 6 September 2023
The exhibition Ngayuku Tjukurrpa Mulapa – My True Story presents artworks by 14 Pitjantjatjara women painters depicting the central beliefs and stories that underlie their culture and their country. The contributing artists for this exhibition include Alison Munti Riley, Carolanne Ken, Madeline Curley, Maureen Baker, Teresa Baker, Meredith Curley, Julie and Janice Woods.
Willie Kew: Nyirla – Old Man Country
21 July – 6 September 2023
Luurn Willie Kew (c1930-2016) was the last surviving spokesman for the Kingfisher Dreaming story related to his birthplace at Nyirla rockhole. Willie Kew maintained a strong affiliation with his ancestral country and the Kingfisher Dreaming that gave him his name. The subject matter of his painting is integral to his identity.
Sonya Edney – Yingarrda Waterholes and Wildflowers
26 May – 5 July 2023
Yingarrda artist Sonya Edney presents her fourth solo exhibition at Japingka Gallery. The paintings focus on the waterways around the Gascoyne River in Western Australia’s mid-west region. The river flows for about one third of the year and for the other two thirds of the year it is a wide, sandy riverbed. Sonya paints the waterholes and creeks as they bring forth the wildflowers along the banks and floodways of the river.
Barkly Artists – Alatyeyt-angketyarr: Spinifex Country
26 May – 5 July 2023
Alatyeyt-angketyarr: Spinifex Country brings together works by Alyawarr, Warumungu and Warlpiri artists from Owairtilla (Canteen Creek), Tennant Creek and Wutunugurra (Epenarra). The exhibition explores the cyclical nature of the central desert. Utilising a broad visual language typical of the Barkly region, artists employ a bright palette, rhythmic mark-making and exaggerated depictions of bush flowers and medicines.
Warlpiri Artists from Yuendumu
31 March – 17 May 2023
Yuendumu was amongst the earliest desert communities to take up the desert art movement of the 1970s. The artists of Warlukurlangu continue to work the Jukurrpa creation stories into their paintings as part of a shared living culture. The exhibition is the 13th showing by Warlukurlangu Artists at Japingka.
Yondee Shane Hansen – Recent Paintings
31 March – 17 May 2023
Recent works by Noongar artist Yondee Shane Hansen detail stories from Derbarl Yerrigan, the Swan River region of Western Australia. The paintings mark the rivers and various freshwater lakes along the coastal plains. Also detailed are gnamma holes, traditional water catchment wells created to capture run-off during rainfall.
Ochre Painters of the Kimberley
24 February – 22 March 2023
The great names of Kimberley ochre paintings include Jack Britten, Rover Thomas, Queenie McKenzie, Shirley Purdie, Henry Wambini and Beerbee Mungnari. This exhibition focuses on smaller works by these great artists, showcasing the ochre style that so distinctly represents the art of Warmun community. Most of the paintings date from the period of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Andrew Highfold – On the Lands
24 February – 22 March 2023
Andrew Tjupurrula Highfold paints aspects of traditional Country on APY Lands as it transforms between the dry and rainy seasons. Andrew reconnected with his birth family when he was 24, and this led him to further research his own Aboriginal heritage. His work as a painter is part of this journey – Andrew says that his paintings come as gifts from his mother and grandmother’s spirits. Andrew uses highly detailed dotting techniques to bring his landscapes to life, painting the creekbeds and rockholes that were at the centre of family life in earlier times.
Gallery Collection
24 November 2022 - 25 January 2023
Many of our favourite artists need more wall space to display their wonderful artworks at their best. We have been busy in the stockrooms and around the gallery, selecting paintings that will enhance this exhibition and do justice to the many fine artists who created them.
Ada Beasley
24 November 2022 – 8 January 2023
Ada Pula Beasley has been painting since 2012 and her artworks show the layered landscape of Alyawarr country in Central Australia. Ada says: “I do painting to look back on the old days when we went hunting. My Mum took us out looking for bush medicine and yams and goanna.” Ada is involved in teaching younger artists about country and bush medicines. These include Mulga and Witchetty trees, River Red Gum, native Fuchsia, spinifex grass and the many varieties of bush flowers.
Small Works – Strong Artists
14 October – 18 November 2022
Small artworks from leading artists, many in the sizes 90 x 60 cm and 60 x 60 cm – small art that makes a substantial statement. Amongst the exhibiting artists are Jeannie Petyarre, Joylene Reid Napangardi, Michelle Butler Nakamarra, Nellie Marks Nakamarra, Genevieve Kemarr Loy, Kellyanne Nungarrayi Gibson, Yinarupa Gibson Nangala and Winnie Reid Nakamarra.
Utopia Artists
14 October – 18 November 2022
Senior artists from Utopia Homelands present significant artworks based on stories and cultural practices from their clan country. The exhibition includes paintings by the late Cowboy Loy Pwerl (1941-2022), an Eastern Anmatyerr speaker, and family members, wife Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray and daughter Genevieve Kemarr Loy. Other artists include sisters Angelina, Kathleen and Polly Ngal and sisters Lucky, Ruby and Sarah Morton Kngwarrey from Rocket Range community at Utopia.
Dr George Tjapaltjarri: Ngangkari – Clever Man
19 August – 30 September 2022
Dr George Tjapaltjarri (c1930- 2017) was born in country south west of Jupiter Well in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia. His family language group was Pintupi/Luritja. The family first made contact with white settlements when they walked out of the desert in 1964. Dr George was a traditional Ngangkari, Aboriginal medicine man. His artworks possess a wonderful rawness and boldness, conveying his strong continuous association with traditional country and its ceremonies.
Rohin Kickett – Beautiful Dead
3 June – 20 July 2022
Ballardong Noongar artist Rohin Kickett presents beautiful images of inland salt lake and farming country of the Western Australian wheatbelt region. Rohin chose the title ‘Beautiful Dead’ for this Exhibition to reflect the great beauty of the inland salt lakes, especially when seen from the air, as opposed to the view at his feet where the salt and mud gave way to a world where nothing could grow or flourish.
Amanda Westley – Colours of Ngarrindjeri Country
19 August – 30 September 2022
Colours of Ngarrindjeri Country is Amanda Westley’s third solo exhibition at Japingka Gallery. Amanda distils the mood of landscapes around the Coorong, Fleurieu Peninsula and Victor Harbor regions of South Australia. Her paintings read as intense landscapes that hold the rhythms and moods of these coastal places. Amanda suggests the forces of nature that are shaping the landscape and our wider environment.
Sandhill Country – Paintings of Inland Australia
3 June - 20 July 2022
The defining features of Australias expansive deserts are the sandhills that give structure to the landscape and often create micro zones within the vast openness of the desert. Structures of the landscape also inform the cultural markings and patterns that appear in Tingari and other sacred markings that link people, landscape and creation myths. Nineteen artists have contributed to this exhibition.
Arlpwe Artists: Off the Beaten Track
8 April - 24 May 2022
Arlpwe Art & Culture Centre is located on Kaytetye Country in the community of Ali Curung, 380 km north of Alice Springs and 30kms east of the Stuart Highway. The art centre represents artists from four main langauge groups – Kaytetye, Warlpiri, Alyawarr and Warumungu. ‘I think there’s a bit of an Ali Curung renaissance taking place’ says Arts Manager Levi McLean. ‘The work is beautiful, fresh, and profound.’