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.
Spinifex Arts Project – 20th Anniversary
10 Nov – 20 Dec 2017
Spinifex Arts Project, 20th Anniversary exhibition – Artists from the Pitjantjatjara lands in WA present their latest work. These beautiful paintings depict Creation stories and connections to country, recognising the 20 year journey of Spinifex people in restoring and recovering their cultural ties and homeland sites.
Ancestors, Elements, Heritage – Sarrita King & Tarisse King
22 Sep – 31 Oct 2017
Sarrita King & Tarisse King share an Indigenous heritage connected to Gurrindji culture at Wave Hill in Central Northern Territory. Creating canvases that evoke the detail and elemental forces of the Land, the King sisters have paid tribute to their father’s artistic and philosophical ideas.
Damien and Yilpi Marks Exhibition
22 Sep – 31 Oct 2017
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.
Yam Dreaming
21 July – 12 September 2017
The importance of the Yam Dreaming narratives of Central and Western Deserts reflects the crucial role this food source played in the lives of traditional people. The Yam is presented in ceremonies through song cycles and dance performances.
Fiona Omeenyo – Ancestors and Spirits
21 July – 12 September 2017
Fiona Omeenyo draws on the culture and story-telling of her home community at Lockhart River in northern Queensland to make paintings of the spirits of both living and past occupants.
Rivers of the Desert – Anna Petyarre
26 May – 30 June 2017
Central Australia has some extraordinary river channels that feed into the Lake Eyre basin, causing the rivers to run inland rather than towards the coast. The Utopia Homelands are placed within this massive inland river system and the artist Anna Petyarre records the terrain of her country in her paintings.
Yinjaa-Barni Artists 2017
26 May – 30 June 2017
Yinjaa-Barni artists from the Pilbara region of Western Australia tell the traditional stories of their homelands along the Fortescue River. Their paintings tell of the great Marrga or Creation era when the land was formed from the smoke of the Ancestors fires.
Talking about Country – Possum Sisters
7 April – 17 May 2017
The strong artistic family traditions inherited by Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi and her sister Michelle come from their father Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932 – 2002). These artistic traditions include the stories and iconographic designs associated with their clan country in Central Australia.
Made in Ochre – Kimberley Artists
7 April – 17 May 2017
Long prized for its ceremonial significance and continually used to replenish images on sacred sites over the centuries, ochre remains the defining art material for many Kimberley artists. This exhibition presents some of the greats of the Kimberley ochre tradition, artists working across distant settlements including Warmun, Kalumburu, Derby and Kununurra.
Kurun Warun Exhibition
10 February – 29 March 2017
Kurun Warun’s predecessors have lived around the Western District Lakes area of Victoria for thousands of years. They include Girai Wurrung and Djargurd Wurrung people from the country around Warrnambool, and the Gunditjmara people from further north at Portland and Lake Condah.
Tanami Desert Artists – Yuendumu & Nyirripi
10 February – 29 March 2017
Warlpiri artists from Yuendumu were amongst the first communities to take up the desert art movement that spread from Papunya. In fact the senior men of the community established a Museum for the cultural artefacts in 1971, at a similar time when the Papunya artists began to record the first stories painted on murals and then on boards. The Yuendumu Men’s Museum contained sand paintings and murals and was seen as a safe house for important cultural material.
Members Christmas Collection 2016
We have been through the best collection of indigenous artworks and made a selection that we think you will love. By placing the best of our choices for colour, vitality, design and sheer joy, we hope to bring you a page of exciting artworks to ponder.…
Rosella Namok & Lockhart River Painters
11 November – 24 December 2016
Lockhart River artists Rosella Namok, Fiona Omeenyo & Samantha Hobson exhibit paintings of their homelands in far North Queensland. Since the late 1990s this vibrant group of contemporary artists has created Indigenous artworks reflecting the tropical heat and coastal reef shorelines of the region.
Elsie Napanangka Granites Mina Mina Women’s Dreaming
11 November – 24 December 2016
Elsie Napanangka Granites has one of the longest artists’ working histories in her home community of Yuendumu, north-west from Alice Springs. Elsie began painting in 1987, showing traditional Women’s Dreaming stories of the important Mina Mina ceremonies.
Camel Camp & Beyond – Utopia Artists of the Eastern Desert
2 September – 28 October 2016
Camel Camp is one of about twenty outstation camps on the Utopia Homelands. These small settlements have been the basis of family life for the Alywarr and Anmatyerr people. Leading artists include Angelina Ngal Pwerle, Kathleen Ngale, Gladdy Kemarre, Polly Ngale, Susan Pitjara Hunter and Josie Petrick Kemarre.
George Tuckerbox Exhibition – Art from the Great Sandy Desert
2 September – 28 October 2016
George Tuckerbox painted the country and waterholes that he remembered from his childhood, from the time when his family lived off the resources of their traditional lands. Many of his paintings show the parallel rows of sandhills that flow out from Central Australia and dominate the landscape.
Maria Josette Orsto Exhibition
22 July – 24 August 2016
Tiwi artist Maria Josette Orsto, b.1962, combines traditional techniques with new processes, creating exciting new works in ochre. Exhibiting along with carved sculptures by artists from Tiwi Design.
Artists from Ngukurr
22 July – 24 August 2016
Artists from Ngukurr in S-E Arnhem Land exhibit images of their community and their traditions, often colourful narratives of everyday life. Included are representatives of the current generation of artists from Ngukurr, and some older historical works.
Sarrita King & Tarisse King 2016
8 April – 30 May, 2016
Sarrita King & Tarisse King return to Japingka Gallery with more of their exquisite multi- layered paintings of Ancestors, Salt Lake country & the elements
The Panel Show – 12 Aboriginal Artists
8 April – 30 May, 2016
Paintings in the panel format 120 x 30 cm created by twelve artists of the Central Desert including Thomas Tjapaltjarri, Rosemary Petyarre and Joylene Reid Napangardi