Antara – Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia
Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair
‘Our art is living’ is a sentiment shared by the indigenous artists in Australia. Some of their communities have a cultural continuum for their country reaching back 70,000 years. They believe that the collective unconscious nature of their images is energetic to geometric and motif form and these same motifs have held a story of meaning throughout the ages and still carry a resonance.
DAAFF ( Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation) encourages and assists with professional development opportunities and promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and arts workers in a broad range of artistic activities; (including visual arts, dance, music, fashion, storytelling and culture) It is the only event of its kind that brings together Indigenous owned Art Centres from across Australia. The annual exhibition becomes a mecca for aboriginal art sourced from diverse communities that exhibit their traditional arts and contemporary works. A rich collection of beautiful art, inspired by the country’s most remote desert and coastal regions, combined with rural and urban communities, is on display.
The unique art fair provides a wonderful opportunity to purchase artwork directly from nearly seventy Indigenous owned community Art Centres while participating in numerous live performances. Below are some of their art from the recent 2018 Art Fair.
Tjanpi artist Niningka Lewis from Pukatja SA, Tjanpi Desert Weavers
Image by Rhett Hammerton.
Judy Manany Gurruwiwi — Echo island
As an example of the depth in the indigenous arts, Judy Manany Gurruwiwi is an accomplished artist working from Elcho Island Arts. She is daughter of Mithinarri Gurruwiwi, a very well-known bark painter who she was very close to. “My clan is Galpu & my Moiety is Dhuwa. I learnt to make art from my father who I assisted from when I was 10 years old. I make string bags, weaving, spears, hollow logs, painting, carving, yidaki and womera. I paint my totems which are python, file snake (freshwater snake), water lilies & bidum (a type of fish). The dots in my work are Dhuwa patterns which represent the rainbow and file snake. The cross hatch patterns represent fresh water. I started making soft sculpture animals in 2008. I experimented with new ways of weaving to make fish, turtles, camp dog, piggy, pussy cat, owl.” (see above)
Some of the Indigenous communities and their Art Centers are in proximity to their dreaming sites and included below are photos that show their surrounding landscapes.
Alison Milyka Carrol with daughter Lynette Lewis
Antara, a pair of prominent rockholes aligned in parallel that mark the passage of creator beings. Located in the remote Everard Ranges of northern South Australia, the rock formation looks like the outstretched fingers of a giant hand.
Tuppy Goodwin, ‘Antara’ 2017, synthetic polymer paint on linen, 124 x 125 cm
Alcaston Gallery
Antara is a sacred place for Anangu. It holds many tjukurpa (songlines) stories that cross this land. This painting depicts this special place. Antara has a very important rockhole where the women would perform inmaku pakani, a dance ceremony that would create enough food for everyone. The painting also depicts the landscape which is surrounded with rocks, rockholes, creeks and mountains.
Ann Carmel Mulvien’s Lotus Pods fabric design
Babbarra Women’s Centre
Ernabella Arts – Pukatja pottery ceramic vessel
Aboriginal dancer Germain DeRose
Iwantija Art
Mick Wikilyiri and Paniny Mick, with Micks work at their Art Centre @tjalaarts
Kaltjitiarts indigenous artist Witjiti George
Fabric design by two Wurrkidj sisters depicting the stories and manme (bush food) from their country near their Mumeka homeland.
Tuppy Goodwin—‘Antara’
2017
Bábbarra women walking the Injalak Rock Art tour which features Injalak Hill, a superb sandstone monolith, surrounded by flood plains.
Gunblanya, Northern Territory
Artist Kirsty Bell, Woven Kelp Basket with, Raffia and Cotton
Baluk Arts – an urban Aboriginal community arts centre based in Mornington, Victoria.
Dominic Bramall White – Ceramic with ochre ‘Coolomon’
Baluk Arts – 2017
Beth Inkamala Mbitjana — Art Centre, Hermannsburg Potters, NT
Cameron Young from @tjalaarts dancing the Kulata inma
Indigenous painting – Betty Kuntiwa Pumani
Cissy Umbagai with her Wandjina puppets
Forkleaf Collection featuring Warlukurlangu Artists, Photo by Murray Hilton
DAAFF 2017 Fashion Show
Emily Andy Napaltjarri aboriginal dot art
DAAFF 2017 Fashion Show, Photo by Grace Lillian Lee
Textiles Art Centre Babbarra
Painting by Anangu mother daughter duo Puna Yanima and Linda Puna
Thomas Munkanome Cockatoos ironwood and natural ochre
Tiwi Designs — 2017
Derek Jungarrayi Thompson serpent vase @ernabella arts Pukatja pottery
Gapuwiyak culture and arts – ANKA meet up Katherine Gorge
Lucy Malirrimurruwuy Wanapuyngu with her daughters and grand daughters collecting pandanus near Gapuwiyak
Photo- Trevor van Weeren
Charmaine Ashley mat
Anna Ramatha Malibirr
Gapuwiyak culture and arts Garrinbi – weave baskets
Gapuwiyak Culture and Arts is a community owned Arts Centre based at Gapuwiyak in Arnhem land, specializing in fibre art.
Carved wood St Andrews Cross spider by Harry Malibirr
Gapuwiyak culture and arts Garrinbi
Gapuwiyak culture and arts — Johnny Warrkatja painting
Ceramic bowl by Beamo-#balukarts
Haasts Bluff, situated in the middle of the West Macdonnell Ranges
Gordon Butcher -‘Vaughn Springs Pikylili’ – Acrylic on Canvas
Ikuntji Artists, 2016
Haasts Bluff oasis, NT
Ikuntji Artists of Haasts Bluff amongst the red MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia near Alice Springs.
photo by Signature Gallery
‘Yorta Yorta Man-(Jimmy Little)’ by Dawn Ngala Wheeler
Hermannsburg potters
‘Sunset in the Western Desert’ photo – Ikuntji Artists
Kaiela Arts Eric Brown – ‘Emu Sands’
Acrylic on Canvas-2017–Sheperton
Ikuntji Artists — Gordon Butcher’s design of bush flowers
Haasts Bluff – Ikuntji artists
An Ikuntji artist with a found Dingo puppy
‘Storm brewing over the desert’ – Ikuntji artists
Painting is by Tilly Napaltjarri about her dog Dreaming – Ikuntji artists
Western Desert transformed by rain — Ikuntji artists
Judith Pungkarta Inkamala from #hermannsburgpotters
Jules Galliers – ‘what a way to start the day’
(Mount Wedge on horizon)
Kathy Inkamala landscape painting
June Pengart Smith Head – Acrylic on ceramic
Keringke Arts 2017
‘Lyerrtjina (budgerigar)’ Judith Pungkarta Inkamala
2016 Hermannsburg
Marina Pumani Brown – Mimili Maku Arts — APY Gallery
Irene Henry Karnamarr ‘Black Cockatoo’ – Ochre and Acrylic on Ironwood
Marrawuddi Gallery 2018
Painting by Anne Carmel Mulvien ‘Lillypads’
It offers a striking salute to traditional plant-based foods, especially those found in abundance in the billabongs and wetlands surrounding the Daly River
Merrepen arts
Mick Wikilyiri giving his canvas two thumbs up- Mick! @apy ac collective
Alcaston Gallery
Manitjanu Lennon
Rupert Jack, ‘Maku Maku’, 2016, hand built stoneware vessel, 46 x 25 cm.
Jack’s enigmatic pots use the clay surface as the palimpsest upon which to place his unique take on the traditional stories and legends from his community at Ernabella
Painting in background — Peter Mungkuri, ‘Ngurra (Country)’, 2016
MIART Amanda Gabori – ‘Dibirdibi Scales’
Acrylic on linen – 2010
at Mirnidyan Gununa – the Aboriginal Arts and Culture Centre on Mornington Island
On the roadtrip to Papunya at the end of the rainbow-#papunyatjup
‘Palka Karrinya’ – 37 foot tall sacred shard, located at the entrance to a gorge at Mount Wedge
Pulka Karrinya has one of the biggest rock-hole water reservoirs for many hundreds of miles around and represents an important epicentre for many story lines at Karrinyarra.
Papunya Tjupi Arts Doris Bush, Tjurrpinyi Ikuntji, 2015
Ray Ken draws on his traditional Anangu knowledge of land and law with striking linear compositions.
exhibition For Country: for Nation 2017
Rona Rubuntja Panangka – ‘Erraarnta’ (red-tailed black cockatoo), terracotta and underglaze
2017 Hermannsburg Potters
Kaltjiti arts senior artist Mrs Lennon
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Left: Ruby Williamson from Tjala Arts located in Amata community Right: Roger Federer shopping for Aboriginal art
Dot painting by Sylvia Kanytjupai Ken
Russell Crowe meets Ray Ken @tjalaarts
Teresa Baker— ‘Minyma Malilunya’
2017
APY Art Centre Collective
Karrinyarra Artists – The Dance
Stoneware pots of Pepai Jangala Carroll
Rock art by Beryl Jimmy
@tjungu_palya_arts
Tjala artist and director Freda Brady, here with one of the Ken Sister works
Shirley Purdie – ‘Galeru (The Water snake)’ – Ochre on canvas
Warmun Art Centre 2017
Polly Anne Smith
Tjupiarts visiting some of their artists country at Karrinyarra (Mt Wedge), digging for yalka (bushonion) and #hunting #goanna and walking across the dry salt lake
Gordon Butcher’s painting Pikilyli – Vaughn Springs is on show as part of Grounded @parrtjimaaustralia
2 Comments
This is the most dynamic art I’ve ever seen
how to purchase. ken sister. painting. thank you