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.
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.
Jimmy Pike – Art of the Great Sandy Desert
7 June – 15 July 2024
Walmajarri artist Jimmy Pike (1940-2002) created dramatic images of his homelands in the Great Sandy Desert that drew on lived history, mythic and Dreamtime stories and reactions to the contemporary world. These stories were told in a series of 87 graphic artworks, mostly comprising screenprints with several etchings and lithographs.
Purnululu
3 May – 12 June 2024
Traditional owners of the Purnululu site in the East Kimberley present works that reveal the essence of this extraordinary landscape. Nine artists from Warmun Art Centre use traditional ochre pigments to re-create the unique qualities of this ancient location. Aboriginal traditional owners maintain a continuous cultural link to this Country through stories, song and art, and this reflects the timeless association of local people to the resources and history of this place.
Tingari – Desert Men
3 May – 12 June 2024
Tingari Creation stories were both the source and the inspiration for the Desert art movement that emerged from the Elders at Papunya settlement in the early 1970s. Senior men were deeply connected to the spiritual world of Tingari, the Law and the creative essence of desert life. This knowledge sustained and informed traditional culture in the Central and Western Desert.
More Little Gems
30 August - 30 September 2024
Smaller works by fifteen Aboriginal artists whose works are displayed at Japingka Gallery. The paintings are selected by our art team to reflect the quality of small scale paintings that are available in the price range $300 to $700. The exhibition is an evolving online gallery display and artworks are available for immediate shipment from Japingka Gallery.
Martumili Artists
23 February – 10 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.
Sonya Edney – Burringurrah Dreaming
30 August – 30 September 2024
Sonya Edney relates the Creation story of her country at Burringurrah or Mt Augustus, in inland central Western Australia. The ancestral figure Burringurrah created the rivers and creeks of the Gascoyne with his fighting stick. Sonya says ‘as we were growing up in the bush we were told the story of the sacred mountain and the Burringurrah story. All my paintings come from that Burringurrah country – that’s where I’m from.’
How We Paint – Eight Artists
23 February – 10 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.
Tali Desert Sand Dunes
10 November 2023– 1 February 2024
Tali Desert Sand Dunes brings together artworks that express the sandhill landforms found in nature as the formative idea for structures and symbols for Aboriginal artists. Artists Maureen Hudson Nampijinpa and her daughter Julieanne Turner Nungarrayi paint the shifting surfaces of desert sand dunes seen in their home country at Mt Allan in Central Australia. The forms of sandhills and other landscape features are seen in more specific locations painted by Yinarupa Gibson Nangala and Marlene Young Nungurrayi.
In Black and White
18 October – 20 November 2024
Aboriginal artists working in black and white media create works that can be delicate and finely worked or bold and expressive. In this selection of artworks we see the graphic use of black and white to express the stories and designs related to body painting and to food resources. The artists exhibiting include Ronnie Tjampijinpa, Dulcie Long Pwerle and Jorna Newberry.
Little Gems- Artworks under $500
10 November 2023 – 1 February 2024
Little Gems showcases our collection of smaller artworks by Aboriginal artists, all priced under $500. Featuring original artworks on canvas from artists based principally through the Central and Western Desert, over 15 artists are represented. Artists include Nellie Marks Nakamarra, Jeannie Mills Pwerle and Andrew Tjupurrula Highfold.
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.