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.
Hamish Garrgarrku, Maningrida – Solo Exhibition
27 March - 13 May, 2015
Japingka Gallery is proud to present this debut exhibition by Maningrida artist Hamish Garrgarrku. Works includes bark paintings and traditional carvings – painted hollow logs Lorrkon, & carved Mimih Spirit figures. This exhibition is presented in association with Maningrida Arts.
Margaret Lewis Napangardi – Mina Mina Exhibition
27 March - 13 May, 2015
Warlpiri artist Margaret Lewis Napangardi presents recent paintings, Women’s Ceremony stories from Mina Mina and other associated Warlpiri stories from the Tanami Desert
Marrga – Creating the Pilbara: Yinjaa-Barni Artists
13 February – 18 March 2015
Yinjaa Barni artists have made an impact with their unique stories and images of the Pilbara landscape. The artists work from the town of Roebourne, presenting a new vision of the region that is best known for its mining industry.
Mitjili Napurrula Exhibition 2015
13 February – 18 March 2015
Mitjili Napurrula paints distinctive images of Dreaming stories related to spear making from her father’s country, Uwalki, west of Haasts Bluff. Her images represent the trees – watiya tjuta – that provide the wood for spears and other artefacts.
Colours of the Earth
10 December 2014– 10 February 2015
Artists from Central Australia and from the Kimberley region of Western Australia present artworks that reflect the importance of the natural environment in their lives. The online exhibition ‘Colours of the Earth’ presents artists from across the north and Central desert regions whose work uses colours that are derived from the earth.
Warlpiri Star Gazers
21 November – 31 January 2015
Warlpiri artists of the Tanami Desert draw on a rich heritage of Jukurrpa or Dreaming Law stories as the basis for their paintings. This exhibition is presented in association with Warlukurlangu Artists.
Linda Syddick Napaltjarri
21 November – 23 December 2014
Linda Syddick Napaltjarri, a distinctive voice among Pintupi artists, draws on stories of her family’s survival in the desert, including first contact accounts with white settlements.
Spinifex Artists 2014
10 October – 7 November 2014
New paintings from the Spinifex artists at Tjuntjuntjara community in the Great Victoria Desert. Senior Pitjantjatjara artists retrace the pathways and actions of Ancestors who travelled across traditional Spinifex lands. Presented in association with Spinifex Arts Project.
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.