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Art in the Torres Strait Islands
The Torres Strait Islands, located off the coast of the northernmost tip of Queensland, are 274 islands that made up a historically busy intersection of trading and exploring. Trade with visitors from Europe and Asia was a key part of island life, with Japanese, Papua New Guineans and Malaysians regularly visiting, and a major Cambridge…
Kerry McCarthy: Grandfather’s Song & The Janet Holmes à Court Collection
Kerry Madawyn McCarthy is an Aboriginal artist from Daly River in the Northern Territory. On the eve of her second solo exhibition at Japingka, she talks here about the influence of her grandfather and what painting means to her. You’ve had some good news? Yes. I’ve been told by Ian and David that my feature…
Aboriginal Art Movement at Utopia
Utopia has become known as one of the most diverse and most independently operating groups of artists working from communities in Central Australia. The Utopia Homelands are adjacent to the traditional lands of the Eastern Anmatyarre and Alyawarre people, about 270 km north-east of Alice Springs. This area of 1800 square kilometres was named Utopia…
Art Centres in Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory’s north east region is a remarkable landscape dominated by rocky outcrops and ranges that are home to some of Australia’s greatest heritage-listed Aboriginal rock art sites. These vast galleries of ochre paintings are amongst the oldest and most diverse rock art in the country, and amongst the oldest art…
Desert Art comes to Yuendumu
Early colourful forays into acrylic painting began at Yuendumu in the early 1980s when women were provided with art materials by anthropologists researching women’s body-painting. In 1983 male elders were invited to paint Jukurrpa Dreaming stories on the doors of the school, with the purpose of sharing cultural knowledge with young Warlpiri children. One of…
Artists at Balgo
Balgo, located on the western edge of the Tanami Desert in the far north of Western Australia was established as a Catholic Mission in 1939. The settlement brought together diverse tribal groups from the western edge of the desert, a mix of different languages, traditions and ceremonial practices. These groups included Kukatja, Walmajarri, Warlpiri, Pintupi,…
Albert Namatjira & the Hermannsburg School
For many Australians whose exposure to Aboriginal art was prior to the 1970s, the name of Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) is likely to nominate the first famous Aboriginal artist they would recognise. Albert Namatjira held his first exhibition in Melbourne in 1938 and his fine watercolour paintings of the dramatic Australian landscapes around his home community…
Aboriginal Bark Paintings
The bark paintings of Arnhem Land were responsible for shaping many people’s visual experience of Aboriginal Art prior to 1970. Coastal Arnhem Land had a plentiful supply of stringybark trees, and in the right season, large sheets of bark could be cut from the tree trunks and then cured and flattened over a fire. Once…
The World’s Oldest Continuous Living Culture
The idea that an ancient art form can be both timeless and contemporary is a challenge to our understanding of the progress of culture and ideas. But Aboriginal art has emerged from its timeless connection to the Australian landscape and its first inhabitants, to be seen by the wider world during the past forty years…
Film Sparks Youth Interest In Art From Hamish Garrgarrku
April 2, 2015 by David Wroth Film maker Natalie Carey is making a documentary about Hamish Garrgarrku (formerly Karrkarrhba) and his work. We were delighted to have Natalie with us for the launch of Hamish’s first solo exhibition here at Japingka Gallery. In this interview Natalie chats with us about this video and how it…
Mimih Sticks, Lorrkons & Bark Paintings – Maningrida Dreaming
This is an interview with Hamish Garrgarrku (formerly Karrkarrhba) on the day of the opening of his first solo exhibition at Japingka Gallery, Fremantle. Hamish is a Maningrida artist, growing up in Mumeka on the Mann River in West Arnhem Land. Hamish was guided in his art and learned his stories from famous aboriginal artists…
Five Rising Stars on the Australian Art Scene
March 20, 2015 by Ian Plunkett Here are five rising stars in the world of Aboriginal Art that I’d like to draw your attention to. Kerry McCarthy, Rak Balgul – Jap 011689 1. Kerry McCarthy Kerry comes from east of Darwin, near Daly River, and her work is really exciting. We’ve already had one of…
How Songlines Inspire What An Aboriginal Artist Will Paint
Maisie Campbell Napaltjarri – Jap 008412 March 4, 2015 by David Wroth If you love Aboriginal art, you’ve probably heard the term “songlines” before. It’s a fascinating aspect of Aboriginal art – songlines inform an artist’s cultural knowledge as well as inspiring what they paint. To understand what a songline is you first need…
Why Songlines Are Important In Aboriginal Art
Songlines are one of the many aspects of Aboriginal culture that artists draw on for inspiration. They are the long Creation story lines that cross the country and put all geographical and sacred sites into place in Aboriginal culture. For Aboriginal contemporary artists they are both inspiration and important cultural knowledge. In this article, David…
Custodianship In Aboriginal Art
In Western culture artists are free to paint whatever subject they like. People often assume that same principle applies when they look at art in an Aboriginal art gallery. The opposite is usually true. Contemporary Aboriginal artists mostly paint the stories that belong to their family line and to places that their kinship group are…
Yinjaa-Barni Show A Softer Side of The Pilbara
We’re just hanging a beautiful new exhibition from the Yinjaa-Barni artists. These fine painters operate out of Roebourne in the Pilbara and the group exhibit here at Japingka about every eighteen months or so. The Yinjaa-Barni artists have their own Art Centre right in the town of Roebourne. The artists are all people who live…
New Affordable Aboriginal Paintings – Recently Arrived
Women’s Ceremony – Narpulla – Jap 011381 January 20, 2015 by David Wroth Pintupi artists Monica Napaltjarri and Narpulla Scobie have painted some beautiful small works which have just recently arrived at the gallery. Monica Napaltjarri uses traditional iconography of the Western Desert and her work features a restrained palette based around earth colours. Her…
How Aboriginal Colours and Group Art Styles Develop
Do you sometimes recognise a painting style or colour palette and think of a particular Aboriginal community? In this article David Wroth talks about how Aboriginal communities developed their own visual language and colour palette through group interaction. The decisions of each group influenced the development of the style of painting that may be identified…
Marcia Purdie & The Storytellers of Warmun
In this interview Marcia Purdie talks about her love and respect for the elders of Warmun. She discusses the influence of her mother-in-law, artist Shirley Purdie, and her memories of Queenie McKenzie. Q. You spent some time with the old people from Warmun, can you tell me a little about what that was like and how…
Rosella Namok’s New Paintings of the Queensland Coast
Sunset Rain – Rosella Namok – Jap 011311 December 10, 2014 by Jamie Plunkett The weather is breaking along the north Queensland coast and the Wet season is on its way. Rosella Namok has captured some of the rainy season in Cairns in a new series of paintings that have just arrived at Japingka Gallery.…
Warlpiri Star Gazers Dazzle at Japingka
Alma Granites Seven Sisters Dreaming November 19, 2014 by David Wroth It would be fair to say that we’re all a little starstruck right now at Japingka as we’re hanging the paintings for our Warlpiri Star Gazers exhibition. It’s not surprising that the contemporary Aboriginal art movement bought us a number of artists who passionately follow…
The Remarkable Life of Linda Syddick Napaltjarri
We have an exhibition of works by Linda Syddick Napaltjarri coming up so I thought it might be interesting to talk a little about her life. Linda was born in 1937. She is a Pintupi woman from Lake MacKay in the Gibson Desert in Western Australia. Linda’s Aboriginal name is Tjunkiya Wukula Napaltjarri. She lived a traditional…
How To Use Aboriginal Art In A Workplace Culture
We are fascinated to learn about how aboriginal art resonates with scientific thinkers. For several years biochemist Professor Nadia Rosenthal has been collecting aboriginal art and hanging it in her workplace, the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University. Recently we got to sit down with her and ask about how these paintings contribute to the development…
The Story Behind Star Gazers
Knowledge of the deep solar system and local Indigenous knowledge of the stars are fused in the current exhibition Shared Sky at the John Curtin Gallery at Curtin University, open until 2nd November. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Yamaji Art Centre, Geraldton, the international SKA Organisation; SKA-South Africa; SKA-Australia and the First People Centre,…
Indigenous and Endogenous – Cell Biologists and Aboriginal Art?
In 2015 Professor Nadia Rosenthal was Founding Director of the newly formed Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University. She talks here about what she and other cell biologists see when they look at aboriginal art. She reflects on the connection between the images of cells as seen through a powerful microscope, and the motifs…
Aboriginal Art and a Workplace Culture of Creativity
How does art transform a workplace? Professor Nadia Rosenthal was awarded a PhD in 1981 from Harvard Medical School and after a postdoctoral fellowship went on to direct a biomedical research laboratory at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Harvard Medical School. She is a Cell Biologist, and Founding Director of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute…
Layers of Meaning in Aboriginal Art
Professor Nadia Rosenthal is Founding Director of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University. She takes great pleasure in sharing her collection of aboriginal art with her work colleagues at the Institute – in this interview she tells a personal story that illustrates the layers of meaning in aboriginal art. The first time I…
Spinifex Artists are a Special Group of Desert Painters
The Spinifex artists have returned for their latest exhibition at Japingka Gallery, where they first began exhibiting in 2002. From their homelands in the Great Victoria Desert, the Spinifex people were displaced at the time of the Maralinga nuclear tests during the 1950s and 1960s. Returning to their traditional country had been a cherished goal…
Iwantja Artists Exhibition – Successful Conclusion
Congratulations to Iwantja artists for their high quality exhibition presented during September. Paintings have found new homes in USA, Malaysia, Canada and Israel, as well as cities across Australia. Iwantja is at a relatively early stage of setting up its artists’ reputations, so this response is very gratifying. With twelve artists exhibiting from this small…
Here’s Our New Exhibition From The Spinifex Arts Project
Myrtle Pennington | Kanpa. Spinifex Arts Project Jap 011059 There’s so much excitement here at as we prepare for the new show by the Spinifex Arts Project. These works are so powerful and vibrant. It’s easy to see why they’re enjoying so much international success right now. In the last year they’ve had successful shows in Germany and…
Collector Stories – Julie Fowell & Tony Brenton
In this discussion, art collectors Julie Fowell and Tony Brenton talk with Jody Fitzhardinge from Japingka Gallery. Q: When did you first get interested in art? Julie: I was teaching in UWA and I met a student who was the daughter of local art dealers. They were also collectors and gallery owners. Her experience growing…
Ted Snell On The Emergence of Contemporary Aboriginal Art
Professor Ted Snell is Director of the Cultural Precinct at the University of Western Australia. Over the past two decades he has contributed to the national arts agenda through his role as Chair of the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools, Chair of Artbank, Chair of the Asialink Visual Arts Advisory Committee and…
Buying Aboriginal Art: From First Time Buyers to Collectors
Who’s buying aboriginal art right now? It’s changed a lot over the years. My first experience with selling aboriginal art was actually in Europe when we had a gallery in Covent Garden in London. Selling there was a completely different experience because virtually no one there knew anything much about aboriginal art at all.
Perspectives on Aboriginal Art – David Wroth, Japingka Gallery
The Early Influence Q: David can you identify a moment or a day in your life when your interest in aboriginal art began? David: I think there were a couple of stages. When I was a high school student, we went on an expedition. We located aboriginal sites, historical ones that had fantastic rock paintings…
The Wangkatjungka Art Story
The Emergence of Aboriginal Art In this article Ian Plunkett talks about the role played by a school teacher and his wife and Japingka’s David Wroth to bring together different generations to produce a major exhibition of work from the Spinifex Group. Wangkatjungka Kids Mentors Opening Night The Influence of Teachers There has been several major…
Jimmy Pike and the Birth of Desert Designs
Meeting Jimmy Pike Q: So was this when you met Jimmy Pike? David: Yes. Probably 1982, I think I met Jimmy Pike. He struck me as significant because his strong connection to aboriginal culture was such a resource for him. Jimmy Pike seemed to disappear back into the culture he carried with him. He emerged very quickly…
Spirituality and the History of Aboriginal Art
Shifts in Values in Aboriginal Art The spiritual appeal in Aboriginal art seems to be a source of considerable reinvention. Sometimes when that cycle starts it draws in new players all the time. There seems to be certain times in large movements where there’s a shift and that triggers a whole series of human reactions…
Everyday Spirituality: Paintings from The Spinifex Arts Project
Amanda Dent, Project Manager for the Spinifex Arts Project, discusses new works being exhibited at Japingka Gallery in October 2014. Q: Can you tell us what excites you about this current exhibition? The works that Spinifex artists do are amazing, because they have such integrity, and there’s such an intuitive flow to the work. The…
Working With The Spinifex Arts Project
Amanda Dent and her partner Brian Hallett are the Spinifex Arts Project Managers. They moved to the remote area Wingellina (or Irrunytju) in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in 1999. In 2000, with the support of the Irrunytju Community Council, the women and Amanda started Irrunytju Arts, her first time working for Western Desert Artists. Brian and…
Lorna Fencer’s Yam Dreaming In Major Paris Exhibition
I’m very excited about a new Paris exhibition Poetry of the Yam. It’s featuring the colourful works of Lorna Fencer and the yam is the main story behind many of Lorna’s paintings. In this exhibition Lorna’s role as a custodian for a yam dreaming story within her Walrpiri culture is being set alongside some yam…