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.
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.
My Journey through Ingarrda Country
19 July – 20 August 2019
Sonya Edney – My Journey through Ingarrda Country is the artist’s statement about her homelands and her life journey to where she is today. Sonya has been painting for thirty years and now presents her first solo exhibition at Japingka Gallery.
Bush Garden – Artists of Ampilatwatja
19 July – 20 August 2019
Welcome to the beautiful observations of Country as the artists of Ampilatwatja show you their homelands, with all the bush medicine plants and types of native flora found there. The artists of this small community north-east from Alice Springs have developed their own style to represent country and all the resources that exist there.
Spirit of Place – Amanda Westley & Kudditji Kngwarreye
5 Apr – 28 May 2019
Spirit of Place, paintings by Amanda Westley and Kudditji Kngwarreye, show the distinctive qualities of their respective homelands using colour and composition to evoke Country. Amanda reveals the south coast on Fleurieu Peninsula while Kudditji captures the moods of the Central Desert.
Numina Quartet
5 Apr – 28 May 2019
Four sisters from the large Numina family continue to document and paint traditional stories from their family homelands in Central Australia. The sisters Lanita, Caroline, Selina and Sharon are Anmatyerre speakers who grew up on Stirling Station between Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
Landscape Colours
8 Feb – 24 March 2019
Indigenous artists represent their Country in the assorted colours of memory and season, here they have pooled their collective output to present a rich and diverse view of their Homelands.
Pintupi Artists of the Western Desert
8 Feb – 24 March 2019
Pintupi artists have had a profound influence on the development of the Western Desert art movement since it emerged at Papunya in 1971. Contributing artists for this exhibition include George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Warlimpirnnga Tjapaltjarri and his brothers Walala and Thomas Tjapaltjarri, George Ward Tjungurrayi and Jake Tjapaltjarri.
Andrea Adamson Tiger – Seven Sisters Dreaming
16 Nov – 22 Dec 2018
Andrea Adamson Tiger is a Pitjantjatjara artist, born at Amata community on the APY Lands in 1973. Andrea paints stories associated with the Seven Sisters songline, an extensive Dreaming track that crosses her country. Her family includes artists Rini Tiger and her grandfather Tiger Palpatja.
Small is Beautiful
Through January 2019
Small is Beautiful brings together small-scale affordable artworks by Aboriginal artists and communities. Works represented include artists Tarisse King, Gracie Morton, Walala Tjapaltjarri, Jeannie Mills as well as communities at Ampilatwatja in Central Australia and Buku Larrnggay Mulka at Yirrkala in far north-east tip of Northern Territory.