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.
Rover Thomas & Kimberley Ochre Painters
14 May - 30 June 2021
Rover Thomas and Kimberley Ochre Painters, presenting artworks by major Kimberley artists using ochre pigments. Many of these artists helped set benchmarks for a new generation of painters to understand and aspire to. Artists include Rover Thomas, Jack Britten, Queenie McKenzie, Henry Wambini, Beerbee Mungnari and Freddie Timms.
Sonya Edney – Gascoyne Night Skies
12 March - 27 April 2021
Sonya Edney has revisited many of the sites from her childhood growing up in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. One of the strongest memories is of the stories of the Milky Way and Seven Sisters told as they gazed at the luminous night skies over the spinifex plains country near Mt Augustus.
Jilamara Arts
12 March - 27 April 2021
Jilamara Arts & Crafts is based at Milikapiti on Melville Island, part of the Tiwi Islands. The artistic output of Jilamara art centre is strongly influenced by traditional cultural practices and ceremonies. The patterns remain the collective cultural inheritance for all Tiwi artists, who continue to celebrate the traditions through their own unique impressions of culture.
Sounds of Summer
15 December 2020 - 12 February 2021
We have brought together recent paintings that fill us with the thoughts of summer, the rhythms and sounds of the heat and light of summer in the southern hemisphere. We felt that this was a positive resolve after the most unusual year of 2020. These paintings testify to the resilient culture of the artists and their persistent inclination to express their heritage.
Mowanjum Artists 2020
6 November – 21 December 2020
Mowanjum artists represent the cultures of Worrorra, Wunumbul and Ngarinyin language groups of the west Kimberley. Their stories are written on the caves and rock ledges across their Country. Artists from the Mowanjum community near Derby continue the tradition. Their paintings in ochre and limited edition prints tell the family stories of the Wandjina tradition and other cultural aspects of life in the region.
Spinifex Artists – On Our Country
6 November – 21 December 2020
The Spinifex People survived in an arid but beautiful environment. The landscape holds the culture of the Spinifex People and their daily interactions are governed by the moral compass of the first beings who created the physical realm. With story interwoven in song and dance, the country maps a tangible way forward for the people to reflect and learn upon.
The Art and Life of Dorothy Napangardi – 2020 Retrospective Collection
18 September - 27 October 2020
This 2020 retrospective exhibition for Dorothy Napangardi (1952- 2013) shows the artist’s journey towards the refined style of the later Mina Mina paintings that established her career as an outstanding artist. All artworks from the exhibition are avai…
60 by 60 – Small Paintings
18 September – 27 October 2020
These paintings are selected from the gallery collection of artworks sized 60×60 cm. The works are largely affordable art with a few truly collectable artists added to the mix. We see the variation of styles, from the finest dot work by Utopia artists Genevieve Loy and Gracie Morton, to the bold Western Desert styles of Tjawina Porter and Debra Young Nakamarra.
The Ochre Story – Warmun Artists
24 July – 26 August 2020
Warmun Art Centre presents a survey exhibition of major ochre paintings from its senior artists produced over the past 8 years. Artists represented in the exhibition include Patrick Mung Mung, Mabel Juli, Rusty Peters, Shirley Purdie, Phyllis Thomas, Peggy Patrick, Churchill Cann, Beryline Mung, Tommy Carroll and Gordon Barney.
Kunmadj: Woven Objects
24 July – 26 August 2020
Artists from Babbarra Women’s Centre in Arnhem Land curate an exhibition on the theme of Kunmadj or woven vessels. This is the Kuninjku word used for material culture or woven objects including dilly bags, while fish traps are referred to as mandjabu . The exhibition theme showcases ancient and contemporary knowledge, and reflects the craft skills at work, The women artists produce many various screenprinted textiles depicting fish traps and dilly bags in different styles and formats.
Polly Ngale & Kathleen Ngale
15 May – 25 June 2020
Polly Ngale and sister Kathleen Ngale are amongst the most senior custodians on Utopia homelands. Their shimmering paintings of the Bush Plum Dreaming story give us a sense of the importance of their country, Ahalpere, and the resources and cultural ceremonies that underpin life there.
Painters from Ampilatwatja
15 May – 25 June 2020
Painters from Ampilatwatja have a special and privileged view of Country and the importance of the resources freely found there. These paintings reflect on role of collecting bush medicine and other sustaining plants from the natural environment. They are part of the traditional culture and the practice of people to work closely with the land to harvest beneficial plants.
Paintings from the Numina Sisters
3 April – 8 May 2020
Five sisters from the talented Numina family of artists have painted aspects of their ancestral country and their cultural ties to the land. Five main stories emerge from the paintings. Bush Seeds – My Country, Bush Medicine Leaves, Water Dreaming, Dingo Dreaming and Emu Dreaming. Artworks are presented by Sharon, Selina, Louise,, Caroline and Lanita Numina.
Cup of Joy
3 April – 8 May 2020
Giving insight into new artists and some of the Rising Stars of the Aboriginal art world, this exhibition features artworks that are both affordable and visually joyful. The artists’ use of colour and form stimulates our senses as they create images based around significant cultural stories and beliefs.
Anangu Artists – We Carry Story in our Hearts
14 February – 25 March 2020
Anangu artists from the Pitjantjatjarra lands have developed powerful imagery to convey the importance of culture and country in their artworks. Structure and colour define the style developed by these artists in their expressions of Jukurrpa, the great Creation stories that laid down the Law and the meaning in the landscape as the Ancestors made their epic journeys across the lands.
Watercolour Landscapes – Central Australia
14 February – 25 March 2020
The Namatjira school of watercolour painting from Central Australia developed as a distinctive style of Aboriginal artwork during the 1930s. 85 years later exponents of the Hermannsburg style carry on the tradition, with most artists being direct descendants of the original group of artists who formed around Albert Namatjira. The exhibition is presented in association with Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre
Wirrimanu Balgo Artists
1 November – 20 December 2019
Balgo artists from Warlayirti exhibited at Japingka Gallery in 1999 to celebrate the opening of the new art centre which was recently completed in the community. Dancers, singers, elders and artists attended the event and performed part of the ceremony for the Luurnpa Kingfisher Dreaming story that is crosses through the location of the art centre.
Tarisse King & Sarrita King
1 November – 20 December 2019
Layered paintings of fine dot-work define the artworks of sister painters Tarisse and Sarrita King. Now they have their studios 5,000 kms apart but continue to produce their artworks that bind their lives and their connections to country and family.
Fire Country Dreaming – Warlukurlangu Artists
30 August – 22 October 2019
Warlukurlangu Artists draw on the major Jukurrpa narratives that are embedded in their country and provide cultural knowledge and social cohesion within their region. Fire Country Dreaming is one such Jukurrpa story that involves the Blue-tongued Lizard ancestor called Lungkarda. He sets fire to the country as punishment for his sons killing of a sacred kangaroo.
On the Coast – The Art of Fiona Omeenyo & Rosella Namok
30 August – 22 October 2019
On the Coast: an exhibition by Fiona Omeenyo and Rosella Namok from their homelands on Cape York Peninsula. Fiona Omeenyo captures the coastal lifestyle of her people living at Lockhart River settlement in far North Queensland. Rosella Namok reveals the look of the beach landscape at Lockhart, the ocean horizon with tropical rain and the changing light during the day.