Dear Friends of Redot Fine Art Gallery. NEWSLETTER – JUNE/JULY
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Dear Friends of ReDot Fine Art Gallery. NEWSLETTER – JUNE/JULY 2011 WHAT'S ON... AND COMING UP... THIS MONTH'S ARTIST PROFILE: NELLIE STEWART NEWS: YULUTJI WINS WYNNE AWARDS & WA AWARDS FINALISTS ANNOUNCED ANNOUNCEMENTS: NEW ARRIVALS WHAT'S ON... JUNE - JULY “NGURA INKANYI - Singing Country” ReDot Fine Art Gallery is honoured to host an exhibition hailing from the heart of Modern Contemporary Aboriginal Art. Tjungu Palya and Ninuku Arts are two artist-run art-centres in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the far north west of South Australia. Between them they represent artists from Nyapari, Kanpi, Watarru, Angatja, Kalka and Pipalyatjara communities, with many of the artists ‘first contact’ bush people, retaining strong cultural knowledge and a willingness to share what is appropriate to people of other cultures. The centres promote traditional arts practices while also encouraging new forms of artistic expression in the re-telling of the Tjukurpa (‘Dreaming’ - Law). These communities stand at the apex of modern Aboriginal art movement, celebrating culture, ancestry, and landscape while concurrently ensuring the sustainability of the surrounding communities. When the pursuit of artistry is coupled so consummately with care for man and earth, the results mirror that which makes this one of the purest forms of expression seen in the modern art world today. Works from these artists resonate with an abundance of cultural integrity, vivid colours, mesmerising designs, deep knowledge, encapsulating a celebration of ceremony, ancestry and landscape. ReDot invites anyone fascinated by indigenous art to step into a world that is familiar in simplicity but memorizing in depth and Kay BAKER (11004) wonder. The living stories virtually leap off each canvas and 144cm x 195cm begs the viewer to look more deeply for meaning and consequence. View Exhibition's works Works from these communities grace prestigious public and private collections including those most lauded across Australia and globally. Additionally, we will showcase last year’s Telstra Indigenous art award winning artist, Jimmy Donegan, as well as other acclaimed artists, such as Tiger Palpatja, Nellie Stewart, Harry Tjutjuna, Sandy Brumby, Maringka Baker, Ginger Wikilyiri, Keith Stevens, David Miller, Eileen Stevens and Nyankulya Watson, in this magnificent representation. The exhibition runs till Saturday, 23rd July 2011. For further information contact [email protected]. COMING UP... LATE JULY - AUGUST “BALGO 2011” ReDot Fine Art Gallery is proud to present our annual show of the colourful works of the Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation. Warlayirti Artists is located in Balgo, in the arid north east of Western Australia, between the Great Sandy and Tanami Deserts. As a midpoint between Alice Springs and Broome, this remote community, originally known as Balgo Hills, was established as a Catholic mission in 1939. Its 400 inhabitants are mostly Kukatja speakers, but seven main languages can be found here, making it a rich cultural and religious area, steeped in history. Warlayirti Artists represents more than 350 artists across three communities in the Kutjungka region. Some of Australia’s leading contemporary artists as well as a large number of promising young pretenders are producing bright pieces with deceiving simple compositions. These creations harbour complex stories of the landscape and cycles of life of the desert. Warlayirti Artists was established in 1987 with the employment of an art-coordinator, following the success of the first exhibition of Balgo art titled, “Paintings from the Great Sandy Desert,” featured at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1986. However, the first public paintings by Balgo artists were banners completed in 1981 for the celebration of Father Piele’s Silver Jubilee. Following this, people began painting on canvas board through the Catholic run Wirrumanu Adult Education and Training Centre. Kuyarria MUDGEDELL NAKAMARRA (545/09) Since those humble beginnings the organisation has grown 200cm x 120cm significantly and the artists represented by Warlayirti Artists have emerged as some of Australia’s leading contemporary indigenous artists. As a result Warlayirti Artists contributes significantly to View Works from Balgo the social, cultural and economic well-being of the Indigenous residents of the Kutjungka region. It is the only organisation in the region that offers indigenous people the opportunity to actively participate in the market economy. Balgo artworks have gained a reputation for their boldness and vigor, commanding respect wherever they are exhibited. Artists like Eubena Nampitjin, Elizabeth Nyumi, Tjumpo Tjapanangka, Boxer Milner and Helicopter Tjungurrayi paved the way for the new generation of talents. Some have now departed but the success and future of the community has been firmly cemented by the emergence of these new stars such as Christine Yukenbarri, Theresa Nowee, Imelda Gugaman and Pauline Sunfly to name but a few, all ensuring that Warlayirti Artists will flourish into the new century. The exhibition opens on Wednesday, 27th July and runs till Saturday, 3rd September 2011. For further information contact [email protected]. NEWS YUKULTJI NAPANGATI WINS WYNNE AWARD ReDot Fine Art Gallery would like to congratulate Yukultji Napangati who is a Highly Commended Finalist in the 2011 Wynne Prize held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Yukultji's painting represent the site of Yunala in Western Australia. The lineal designs depict the sandhills surrounding the site and the travel of women across the country as the collected bush foods and performed ceremonies. The Wynne Prize is one of Australia's longest running art prizes awarding $25,000 annually for the best landscape painting or for the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists completed during the preceding year. th The award runs until the 26 June 2011. We are honoured to be the only representative of Yukultji's work in Singapore and anyone interested in her work can find our current stock on our website, including a majestic 8ft by 6ft work in the same design as the award winning Wynne work. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS ART AWARDS 2011 Miriam BAADJO (711/08) The Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards is a national 150cm x 100cm award founded in 2008 to celebrate the breadth, diversity and excellence of art from all corners of Indigenous Australia. The View Miriam's Works awards acknowledge the significant and ongoing contribution Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists make to Australian art, culture and society. These national awards are open to all adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists currently living in Australia, working in any theme or media, including (but not restricted to) painting on bark, canvas and paper, prints, sculpture, fibre art, ceramics, glass, photography, and digital media. The Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards 2011 will be on display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia from August 13 and will feature 16 Australian artists. Jan Billycan WA Yulparija Michael Cook QLD Bidjara Timothy Cook NT Tiwi Angkaliya Curtis SA Pitjantjatjara Gunybi Ganambarr NT Ngaymil Angelina George NT Yugul Mangi Gary Lee ACT Larrakia/Karajarri/Wadaman Danie Mellor ACT Mamu/Ngagen/Ngajan Patrick Mung Mung WA Gija Trevor Nickolls SA Ngarrindjeri Lena Nyadbi WA Gija Tiger Palpatja SA Pitjantjatjara Kuruwarriyingathi Bijarrb Paula Paul QLD Kayardild Reko Gwaybilla Rennie VIC Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay/Gummaroi Nyilyari Tjapangati NT Pintupi Nyapanyapa Yunupinu NT Gumatj ReDot Fine Art Gallery is again honoured to represent 9 of the 16 finalists in the gallery, indeed we currently have work on show by Tiger Palpatja and our September show will include significant works by Lena and patrick from Warmun - more on that in our next newsletter, along with the Papunya Tula show and works by Nyilyari. Congratulations to all for being shortlisted. ARTIST'S PROFILE NELLIE STEWART This month we profile an artist from the APY Lands of Central/West Australia, the home of some of the most remote Aboriginal settlements. Nellie Stewart was born in the bush at Pipalyatjara, her father's country in the late 1930's. Her mother is from Irrunytju and is Kuntjil Cooper's older sister. As a young girl Nellie attended school at the Ernabella mission and later worked in Alice Springs teaching Pitjantjatjara language with her husband. She began painting in 2007 when she moved to Nyapari with her family. Nellie is a senior Pitjantjatjara woman who only began painting in 2007. She has an intuitve feeling for painting, drawing on her deep cultural connection to her country associated with the Tjukurpa of Minyma Kutjara (the Two Sisters Creation story) from Irrunytju. Her works are bold and colourful landscapes depicting country traversed by the two Ancestral women. Landmarks created by their epic journeying and activities embody a spiritual essence, which is captured in her paintings. According to Art writer, Dr. Christine Nicholls "Nellie Stewart creates artworks of classical simplicity, based on her major Irruntyju-centred thématique of the Two Sisters Dreaming. Stewart’s luscious, gestural works are characterised by bold colour juxtapositions, often comprising a limited palette of reds, mauves and orangey-reds. Often she emphasises significant aspects of the broader narrative by her use of lighter, contrasting colours; for example, she sometimes deploys a light mauve or white, in order to draw attention to or highlight a significant Nellie STEWART(10485) element or motif in the narrative. 128cm x 194cm Typically Nellie Stewart uses the technique of over-painting a dark background, using brushstrokes in ways that evoke the View Nellie's Works women’s ceremonial body painting designs painted onto dark skin. Stewart uses her brush in ways akin to the ways in which women use their fingers to smear layers of paint onto the darker background, in preparation for women-only ceremonies (‘inma’). The mark-making, such an integral part of women’s body painting, also plays a decisive role in Nellie Stewart’s extraordinary artworks." ReDot Fine Art Gallery is proud to have 4 significant works by Nellie in our current show.