Indigenous art can claim to be at the forefront of contemporary art in Australia today, and our Indigenous Gallery is guaranteed to be our finest yet.

The show has enjoyed a growing reputation for exhibiting quality Indigenous art from the Warmun Community in Western Australia, through the Central Desert communities to Tiwi and Elcho Islands to the north - showcasing the diversity of Aboriginal art and highlighting the talents of Indigenous artists to tell their stories through their paintings, sculptures and artefacts.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the Indigenous Art exhibited in 2007, the Indigenous Gallery for 2008 will have its own dedicated gallery space. We are pleased to announce that we will be exhibiting a huge range of art conveying the Black and White story this year.

Dr Garry Darby returns in 2008

We are excited to have returning this year Dr Garry Darby who is one of Australia's leading authorities on Australian Indigenous art, a senior lecturer both here and overseas. He is recognised as an astute collector and valuer of Indigenous art and will be giving an open talk on Desert Art ‘A Brief History’ as well as the ‘Diversity of Aboriginal Art’.

Open talk details

Both these talks run for 20 minutes combined, there are 2 sessions over the weekend, Saturday 8th Nov at 2.00pm, and again on Sunday 9th at 11.00am. We are expecting Garry's two sessions to be extremely popular so we suggest you arrive early to get a good position.

The Black and White Story - Colours not recently associated with Indigenous Art

Over recent years there has emerged a strong school of indigenous desert painters that work in simple black and white.

Included in this group is Anna Price Petyarre from Utopia. Anna is relatively young and is a painter with a great future. She has seen the work of some wonderful painters from her Utopia, including Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre.

Emily Kngwarreye’s work has been the centre of attention in recent months with a huge exhibition of her paintings in Tokyo. Central to that exhibition was her “Yam Dreaming” which belongs to the National Gallery of Victoria. This enormous work shows yam roots in white on a black ground.

Established desert painters Janet Long Nakamarra and Lily Kelly Napangardi also enjoy working in black and white. This seems to suit their style and facilitates the telling and retelling of ancestral creation stories. Janet paints water dreaming stories with brilliantly controlled black dotting on white canvas while Lily prefers to work with white paint on a black ground. Her images invariably illustrate the shifting sandhills which surround her home country, Mt Leibig. Lily’s wonderful ‘sand hill’ paintings are represented in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW. Janet’s country is Willowra, north of Alice Springs.

Another fine painter from Utopia is Caroline Numinya who is related to Gloria Petyarre. Accordingly Caroline has been given permission to paint the ‘Bush Medicine Leaf Dreaming’, normally associated with Gloria. Caroline often chooses to paint this dreaming in black and white.

Paintings by Anna Price Petyarre, Caroline Numinya, Lily Kelly Napangardi and Janet Long Nakamarra will be on show at The Balmain Art and craft show.

Dr Garry Darby
September 2008

(Please note that the images provided on this website are to show the artist's style and may not necessarily be available at the 2008 show.)