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.
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.”
Iwantja Artists
31 May 2013 - 10 July 2013
Iwantja artists from the eastern region of the APY Lands are re-making their land and their experiences in innovative ways through their art. The community has long been associated with their skills as printmakers, now their paintings on canvas are defining how they move forward as carriers of culture. The exhibition also hosts an iconic group of portraits by Vincent Namatjira, grandson of Albert Namatjira, which include images of Captain Cook and the artist’s grandfather Albert, along with other notable Australians. The exhibition is presented in association with Iwantja Arts and Crafts.
Landmarks and Law Grounds
April 12, 2013 - May 22, 2013
Japingka Gallery presents an exhibition of Men’s paintings that focus on Landmarks of identity – places and sites that mark out identity in the homelands of the artists. The locations cover sites from the north-west Kimberley to the Western and Central Deserts and encompass works by more than 35 significant senior artists.
Landmarks and Law Grounds: Men of the Desert
April 12, 2013 - May 22, 2013
A first for Japingka Gallery in Fremantle, and five years in the planning, Landmarks and Law Grounds: Men of the Desert is an overarching survey of some of the most important male artists of the indigenous contemporary art movement in the past 30 years.
The King Sisters – Sarrita King & Tarisse King
15 February 2013 - 27 March 2013
A new series of works is on exhibition from the King sisters, Sarrita and Tarisse. Trained by their father, the late William King, these two young artists are defining their own identities. Apprenticed together and having worked on collaborations together in France and Australia, the artists are defining their own paths. While Sarrita moves towards a contemporary style with her culture as an accent to quite minimalist works, sister Tarisse chooses to keep firmly to the philosophies and culture taught by her father. The works represent a homage to the important first generation Aboriginal artists who have provided a strong path for following generations.
Fabrianne Peterson Nampitjinpa
15 February 2013 - 27 March 2013
Fabrianne Peterson Nampitjinpa has created an innovative body of work using some of the techniques that followers of her art will recognise from her earlier Damper Seed series. Fabrianne combines the dynamic effects of improvised painting with a tightly worked dotting style that reflects Seed Dreaming stories that are tied to the land. Fabrianne Peterson’s paintings have appeared at Japingka Gallery over the past five years, in exhibitions including the Watiyawanu Artists (2009) and in group shows, Black and White exhibition (2011) and Little Gems (2012).
Alma Nungarrayi Granites – Night Sky
16 November – 22 December, 2012
Alma Nungarrayi Granites depicts Warlpiri stories of the night sky from Jukurrpa related to Yanjirlpirri, the Star Dreaming. These Jukurrpa are part of the knowledge base of the Warlpiri people of the Tanami Desert. Alma Nungarrayi Granites is the daughter of Paddy Japaljarri Sims and Bessie Nakamarra Sims, two of the founding artists of Warlukurlangu Artists. Alma has painted stories which have been passed down from her father, and her father’s father, for generations, all relating to the artist’s traditional country. This exhibition includes works by other artists from Yuendumu community and is presented in association with Warlukurlangu Artists.
Desert Gold
16 November 2012 - 22 December 2012
Desert Gold is an exhibition of small works from leading Central Desert artists who capture on canvas the burnished colours of the desert heartlands. Some have gone a step further and added metallic lustre to their paintings. This shimmering group of works is presented by artists including Gloria Petyarre, Abie Loy Kemarre, Dorothy Napangardi, Yinarupa Gibson Nangala, Thomas Tjapaltjarri and Anna Petyarre.
Jorna Newberry & Maisie Campbell Napaltjarri
21 September 2012 - 31 October 2012
Pitjantjatjara artist Jorna Newberry is the niece of famous Western desert painter Tommy Watson, and she began her own painting career in the mid 1990s. Jorna has followed her uncle’s instructions to favour abstraction as a stylistic mode to ensure secrecy of important cultural matters. Pintupi artist Maisie Campbell Napaltjarri was born near Mt Liebig and lived most of her life at Kintore. Maisie often paints the sites for major Western Desert womens ceremonies. Both artists feature the Tjukurrpa stories they have inherited through her family lineage.