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.
Sarrita King & Tarisse King 2014
29 Aug to 30 Sep 2014
Sarrita King & Tarisse King are making their names known, as Australia’s young Indigenous artists move forward to claim their place in the art world. The sister artists are returning for their third exhibition at Japingka Gallery.
Heart Lands – Iwantja Artists
29 Aug to 30 Sep 2014
Iwantja artists from the community of Indulkuna come from the eastern region of the APY Lands in the Northern Territory. The exhibition presents new paintings by twelve artists, presented in association with Iwantja Arts and Crafts.
Kimberley Ochre Artists
30 May – 9 July 2014
The ochre painters of the Kimberley have stamped their unique cultural style on the Aboriginal art world, with paintings of their traditional stories and Ngarrankarni Dreamings created from local ochre pigments. Exhibiting artists include Queenie McKenzie, Jack Britten, Rover Thomas, Freddie Timms, Henry Wambini, Nancy Nodea, Lily Karadada and Shirley Purdie.
Tiwi Island Carvings & Sculptures
30 May – 9 July 2014
Tiwi artists from Bathurst Island 80Kms north of Darwin create vibrant sculptures and carvings that reflect their culture and its role in their community. Wood carvings painted in clan designs and cast metal sculptures based on traditional Creation stories are exhibited by 12 participating artists. In association with Tiwi Design, Bathurst Island.
Mini Masters
30 May – 9 July 2014
This exhibition of major desert artists working on small scale canvases gives all buyers an opportunity to collect a range of significant paintings that won’t break the budget or require a museum sized room to house the collection. Participating artists include Thomas Tjapaltjarri, Mitjili Napurrula, Lily Kelly Napangardi, Anna Petyarre, Shorty Jangala Robertson, Yinarupa Gibson Nangala and Kuudditji Kngwarreye.
Kudditji Kngwarreye
18 July – 20 August 2014
Kudditji Kngwarreye is well known as the brother of famous Emily Kngwarreye, and finds rich and exciting ways to portray his country and its sacred sites in thickly coloured blocks of colour. Kudditji is senior custodian for the Emu Dreaming sites that relate to Men’s initiation ceremonies.
Private Eye
18 July – 20 August 2014
This exhibition comes from Western Australian private collections, offering a range of Aboriginal paintings from the late 1990s onwards, works which have been in private hands and are now offered for sale. Many of the artists have since passed away and their work is rarely seen in local galleries.
Desert Song
4 April – 21 May 2014
Desert Song presents significant desert narrative paintings by women artists from across the Western and Central Desert regions. The theme of the works revolves around the function of song existing at the core of the stories and their meanings. These works come from country where song brings forth the identity of the site and of the singer. Amongst the twenty major artists exhibiting are Esther Giles Nampitjinpa, Lorna Ward Napanangka, Walangkura Napanangka, Yinarupa Gibson Nangala, Ningura Napurrula, Eileen Napaltjarri, Minnie Pwerle and Pantjiti Mary McLean.
Pike Family
4 April – 21 May 2014
A long association between Japingka Gallery and the family of Jimmy Pike is celebrated with an exhibition of works by Edgar Pike, brother to Jimmy, and Francine Steele, Edgar’s daughter. The exhibition features paintings, silkscreen prints, etchings and silk scarves. Jimmy Pike’s first drawings and limited edition prints were made in Fremantle in the early 1980s, while Edgar and Francine work in the small Kimberley community of Ngumpan. Together their story covers the journey of their clan from the Great Sandy Desert north to the cattle station country of the Fitzroy Valley.
Dot Code: Desert Artists
14 February – 26 March, 2014
Artists from the Central and Western Deserts work within a diverse range of styles and cultural influences. This exhibition focuses on a group of artists from Alyawarr, Anmatyerr, Warlpiri, Luritja and other Central Desert language groups. The paintings show the range of treatment of dot painting techniques, from the fine detail and articulation of dotting that creates finite motifs and patterns in a grander space, through to dotting that merges into ‘dot and drag’ style, where linear works are created with the dots joined together in extended lines. Exhibiting artists include Patrick Tjungurrayi, Walangkura Napanangka.
Timor Carvings
14 February – 26 March, 2014
Timor Island sits about 500 Km from the north Kimberley coast of Australia, in the Lesser Sunda Islands. Traditional rural culture is based on Animism, the worship of nature, and a strong heritage of carved figures, totems, masks and talismans connects the villages or kampongs with ceremonies and songs that aim to provide for the well-being of participants. Carvings are made from the local timbers including cedar redwood, teak, sandalwood and palmwood, and from stone and coral. These carvings originate from the hilly Central areas of Timor and have been collected over the past 40 years.
Rosella Namok – Naagchi Ngumu’luugku – I Come from There
22 November – 22 December, 2013
Rosella Namok rose to prominence in the late 1990s as a member of the Lockhart River Art Gang, a young group of artists working out of Cape York in northern Queensland. Born in 1979, Rosella Namok’s paintings combine contemporary techniques with traditional story-telling and cultural narratives. While many works refer to the traditional stories of her Aangkum people and clans of her home country, some also explore personal subjects and emotional responses to the natural world. Rosella Namok has participated in over 30 national and international exhibitions.
Ampilatwatja Artists
22 November – 22 December, 2013
Artists from Ampilatwatja community 320 km north east of Alice Springs have a distinctive approach to landscape, producing fine dot painting images of Apmer, the traditional custodial lands of the artists. The country is vast, 17,000 km2 of land for which the custodians protect and nurture the land, recording the bush medicines and bushtucker found there, and mapping the country under their guardianship. Ampilatwatja is the Aboriginal cultural heartland of the Alywarr nation, and the paintings from 24 artists reflect the connection to and respect for their lands. Presented in association with the Artists of Ampilatwatja cultural group.
Kerry Madawyn McCarthy Paintings
18 October - 13 November, 2013
Indigenous artist Kerry Madawyn McCarthy opens her first solo exhibition at Japingka Gallery on 18 October. Kerry was born at Daly River in the Northern Territory, and has been painting for the past 19 years. Her style of finely worked linear designs, employing minimal colours, reflects the artistic style of more remote Daly River artists like Peppimenarti artist Regina Wilson.
Nyirripi & Yuendumu Artists
18 October - 13 November, 2013
Nyirripi and Yuendumu artists from the Tanami Desert present new works that chart the major Jukurrpa, or Dreaming stories, from their homelands. Alongside the many emerging artists will be well known Warlpiri artists, including Judy Napangardi Watson, Liddy Napanangka Walker, Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, Shorty Jangala Robertson and Alma Nungarrayi Granites. This exhibition is presented in association with Warlukurlangu Artists.
Dorothy Napangardi & Kim West Napurrula
30 August - 04 October 2013
Warlpiri artist Dorothy Napangardi’s strong minimalist paintings of Mina Mina have become emblematic of this women’s ceremonial site in the Tanami Desert. The recent death of the artist has left a deeply felt loss to family, friends and admirers. Japingka Gallery is hosting a tribute exhibition of the artist’s works, including classic images from her Mina Mina series. Exhibiting alongside these works is Pintupi artist Kim West Napurrula, who uses vibrant colour and energetic constructs to create her paintings of traditional country with associated Women’s ceremonies and Dreamings.
Hermannsburg Artists – 75th Anniversary
30 August - 2 October 2013
Hermannsburg Artists continue the watercolour tradition of Albert Namatjira, 75 years after the opening of Albert’s first successful exhibition. These Indigenous landscape paintings provided the first vision for a wider audience of the Aranda world and the dramatic locations around the Western MacDonnell Ranges. Namatjira taught his relatives and countrymen well, and a strong school of painting continues today. Presented in association with Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra.
Yinjaa-Barni Artists Paintings
19 July - 21 August 2013
The great Creation stories of the Marrga provide Yinjaa–Barni Artists with images of Country and the natural world regenerating and transforming. These artists are the traditional owners from the Fortescue River region, and their paintings tell of the remarkable country of the Pilbara in the north-west of Western Australia. The contrasts of the harsh environment – eroded rock surfaces, hidden water gorges, seeds and flowers after rain – are captured in these colour-rich paintings. This exhibition is presented in association with Yinjaa-Barni Art Centre, and sponsor Rio Tinto, and artists will attend the opening.
Tjuntjuntjara Punu Project
19 July - 21 August 2013
This exhibition highlights wood (punu) sculptures created during the community project at Tjuntjuntjarra community on the Spinifex lands in the Great Victoria Desert. The theme of the show is the transition of artforms and punu making across the generations. Paintings featured also include work by the grandparents of the younger sculptors. The exhibition is presented in association with Tjuntjuntjara community, with generous support from WA Arts Regional Arts Fund and Anglo Gold Australia.
Zenadh Kes – Art of the Torres Strait
31 May 2013 - 10 July 2013
Artists Dennis Nona and Alick Tipoti from the small island of Badu in the Torres Strait, have contributed to the revitalisation of visual arts from their island home. Applying the traditional crafts of carving into new material forms of printmaking and sculpture, the artists have achieved worldwide acclaim for renditions of traditional and contemporary narratives that are unique to Zenadh Kes, the Torres Strait. Alick Tipoti says of the significance of cultural awareness – “Singing and dancing are forms of art that branch out from the centrepiece called language.”