ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

AHARLPER COUNTRY COOEE ART SYDNEY | 18 MARCH - 9 APRIL 2022 LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART MELBOURNE | 6 APRIL - 14 MAY 2022

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

ANGELINA PWERL NGAL

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Angelina Ngal and Kathleen Ngal painting at Utopia, N.T. courtesy Lauraine Diggins Fine Art

EXHIBITION IN COLLABORATION ANGELINA PWERL NGAL AHARLPER COUNTRY

COOE E ART

auctions consultancy galleries COOEE ART REDFERN 17 Thurlow Street | Redfern NSW 2016 18 March - 9 April 2022 +61 (02) 9300 9233 info@cooeeart.com.au

www.cooeeart.com.au @cooeeart

· FINE· ART · LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART 5 Malakoff Street | North Caulfield VIC 3161 6 April - 14 May 2022 +61 (03) 9509 9855 ausart@diggins.com.au

A part of

www.diggins.com.au @lauraine_diggins_fine_art

COOEEART ART || ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER COOEE EMILY KNGWARREYE

LAURAINE· DIGGINS

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Bush Plum Country synthetic polymer paint on linen | 90 x 121 cm | #19713

Aharlper Country

Angelina Ngal was there from the start, a pillar of the formative years of Utopia women’s painting. Formerly known as Angelina Pwerl, – her husband’s name, Pwerl(e) in Alyawarr language is the equivalent to Ngal in the Anmatyerr language - she is today referred to as as Angelina Ngal.

As did her sisters, Kathleen and Poly Ngal, Angelina began producing batiks and wooden sculptures in the mid 1980s. After taking part in the CAAMA ‘summer project’ in 1988-9, Angelina quickly adapted to painting on canvas. She was included in the first exhibition of Utopia women’s paintings, held in Alice Springs in 1990, swiftly gaining international recognition.

This appreciation and respect never dipped or wavered in the decades since, though her ascent in the Australian general public’s eye was slow, despite widespread international acclaim among important collectors and museums. Domestically, she may still be less of a household name than some of her contemporaries. Nonetheless, her work was featured at this years Art Basel Miami, as well as being slated to tour internationally as part of the Met’s The Shape of Time: Art and Ancestors of Oceania. According to Dan F Stapleton in the Financial Times (January 28 2022), Ngal remains ‘something of an insider’s secret whose work is tightly held.’

‘If [Emily] Kngwarreye is the A-lister and [Daniel] Walbidi is the rising star, then Angelina Pwerle is the cult favourite – one on whom a growing number of institutions and collectors are quietly placing bets.’* Undoubtedly, Angelina Ngal stands as one of the preeminent artists from Utopia.

The long, steady growth of the artist’s acclaim befits her art. Ngal draws from a seemingly infinite well of patience and love of country, gradually layering fields of colour upon each other, considering carefully each swath of delicate marks.

She paints her grandfather’s country, Aharlper.

Originally, most of her paintings depicted the Bush Plum, which she represents through a focus of red dots into which she merges a variety of minute and painstakingly rendered coloured dots, ensuring that the tiny red dot is always central and clear.

Angelina later extended her practice, producing a range of exquisitely coloured compositions that maintain a layer of meaning related to the Bush Plum. In these, points of geography, knowledge of sacred landmarks, and memories of hunting or ceremonial business result in a subtle and textured surface that hints to the viewer of an ethereal numinous landscape.

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

“This is my country, I paint good colour, little dots. I like my painting.”

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To most of us, much of the sacred and ceremonial business is entirely or partly hidden. Still, the knowledge and reverence of country is palpable; it pulses beneath the surface of each delicate rendering of her country and Dreaming. Abstractly, the works conjure galaxies and molecules at once, the gigantic and the minute.

Sometimes, standing before a work is like looking up to the skies as sheets of torrential rain bathe and nourish, drown and revive. Other times, we may be looking down at seeds and desert sand, a world of atomically small elements.

The cross-state exhibition surveys the last two decades of Angelina Ngal’s practice, highlighting major works in her distinct styles, with a larger focus on the finely detailed later work the artist is most recognised for.

According to the artist herself, “This is a constant engagement. This is a spiritual connection to place […]

My Bush Plum paintings represent the whole thing: all of Country.”* * Dan F Stapleton for the Financial Times, January 28 2022

This exhibition consists of two parts, running simultaneously at Lauraine Diggins Fine Art in Melbourne, and Cooee Art Redfern in Sydney. With a longstanding relationship, the galleries represent two of the foremost and major Australian Indigenous fine art galleries.

IMAGE OVERLEAF | On the road to Utopia credit Lauraine Diggins Fine Art IMAGE BELOW | Detail map of Utopia Region credit Lauraine Diggins Fine Art

Utopia Region

IMPULSE TO PAINT: THE ARTISTS OF IYLENTY, UTOPIA 15 AUGUST – 16 SEPTEMBER 2008

Antarrengeny ALYAWARR AND KAYTETYE ABORIGINAL LAND

Ampilwatja AMMAROO P.L.

Arnkawenyerr

STIRLING P.L.

ver

do

San

Iyenty Mosquito Bore

Anelthyey Boundary Bore

Atnarar Soakage Bore

MT. SKINNER P.L. TI-TREE P.L. (ABORIGINAL LEASE)

Ankerrapw Utopia Homestead

Adelaide Bore

er

dov

San

er

Riv

Irrwelty Arawerr Soapy Bore Ngkwelay Kirrajong Bore

Aharlper Store

ay

hw

Hig

Ngkwarlerlanem

DERRY DOWNS P.L.

UTOPIA ABORIGINAL LAND

Camel Camp

ATARTINGA P.L.

WAITE RIVER P.L.

Akay Soakage Mulga Bore

MACDONALD DOWNS P.L. DELMORE DOWNS P.L.

River

Sa

nd ov

er

H

ig

hw

ay

Artekerr 3 Bores

ver

do

San

IMPULSETO PAINT: The Artists of Iylenty, Utopia Published by Malakoff Fine Art Press 5 Malakoff St., North Caulfi eld, 3161

First published 2008 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism

© Images courtesy of the artists and Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne Text: Eugene Barilo von Reisberg

- Dan F Stapleton for the Financial Times, January 28 2022

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

“If [Emily] Kngwarreye is the A-lister and [Daniel] Walbidi is the rising star, then Angelina Pwerle is the cult favourite – one on whom a growing number of institutions and collectors are quietly placing bets. […]

For now, she is something of an insider’s secret, whose work is tightly held..”

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Aharlper Country | 2011 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 137 x 181 cm | #19711

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

Aharlper Country | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 120 x 179 cm | #19706

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Aharlper Country | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 200 x 120 cm | #11625

Spring Flowers, Aharlper Country | 2008 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 198 x 121 cm | #19708

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

Aharlper Country | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 120 x 180 cm | #11630

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Aharlper Country | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 120 x 182 cm | #8619

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COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

Aharlper Country | 2008 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 150 x 198 cm | #8618

Bush Plum at Aharlpher | 2008 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 200 x 121 cm | #19710

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

Aharlper Country | 2009 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 199 x 120 cm | #19702

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Aharlper Country | 2008 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 121 x 238 cm | #19705

Aharlper Country | 2012 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 199.5 x 120 cm | #19709

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

Aharlper Country | 2012 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 183 x 100 cm | #19707

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ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER AT COOEE ART SYDNEY ENDS HERE ...

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER AT LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART BEGINS HERE ...

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Angelina Ngal at the Telstra Awards courtesy Lauraine Diggins Fine Art

EXHIBITION IN COLLABORATION ANGELINA PWERL NGAL AHARLPER COUNTRY

LAURAINE· DIGGINS · FINE· ART · LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART 5 Malakoff Street | North Caulfield Vic 3161 6 April - 14 May 2022 +61 (03) 9509 9855 ausart@diggins.com.au

www.diggins.com.au @lauraine_diggins_fine_art

COOE E ART

COOEE ART REDFERN 17 Thurlow Street | Redfern NSW 2016 18 March - 9 April 2022 +61 (02) 9300 9233 info@cooeeart.com.au

A part of

www.cooeeart.com.au @cooeeart

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER COOEE ART | EMILY KNGWARREYE

auctions consultancy galleries

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Utopian Pleasures Ruth Lovell

Lauraine Diggins Fine Ar t Utopia is a region in remote central Australia, around 300 kms northeast of Alice Springs, named after a former cattle station established in the 1920s. After a successful land claim, the region was handed back to the Anmatyerr and Alywarr people as Aboriginal freehold land in 1979.

Small family groups live at several outstations close to their ancestral land in an area roughly 3,500 square kilometres.They maintain a level of independence and ties to a more traditional lifestyle and ceremonial rites, giving a keen relevance and strong connection to culture.

The desert landscape of Utopia changes with the seasons, featuring grassy plains and rocky outcrops along the Sandover River, which is often simply a dried sandy expanse, dotted with trees. Kids can be found kicking a footy with upright sticks for goalposts, barefoot on the soft sand. The summer is hot and dry yet in winter the temperature can drop to below zero degrees at night.

The corrugated dirt road to Utopia shines red under the expansive azure sky (unless underwater and impassable during the wet season), it is a long and bumpy ride in a troopie, packed with boxes of paint, satay sticks and a ski bag full of canvas. It is a trip Lauraine took often and gladly, excited to meet with the artists and to feel renewed by the peaceful landscape.

A respected art dealer, Lauraine Diggins’ curiosity was piqued by Aboriginal art, leading to the ground-breaking

and comprehensive exhibition, A Myriad of Dreaming in 1989. Presenting key Indigenous art from all areas around Australia with scholarly essays by leading experts, the catalogue acknowledgements highlight the personal motivation for Lauraine to bring Aboriginal art to a wider audience and appreciation, not only through exhibitions in her eponymous Melbourne Gallery, but also on a global level through art fairs and exhibitions in London, Paris, Moscow and Hong Kong.

“During the past seven years a healthy interest in the art of Aboriginal people has led me along a path which, while enabling me to gain knowledge and insight, never failed to expose how little I knew and how much there was to learn.

I hope this book may lead the way for others to appreciate what may be for them, a new visual experience and a new way of considering aesthetics in art.”

(A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Malakoff Fine Art Press, Melbourne, 1989, p. 4) Lauraine particularly responded to the aesthetic of the Anmatyerr and Alyawarr artists – the elegance and subtlety of the fine detail of dots as they move across the canvas and the innate use and shifts of colour.

In order to maintain an ongoing relationship with the artists of Utopia after the closure of Urapuntja Arts and Crafts, Lauraine supported and continued to promote a number

Although each artist is individual and has developed their own style, the stories and countries depicted are shared.The expression of paint on canvas is a translation and memory of landscape and culture. Composition is dictated by traditional laws and intimate knowledge of country, the connection both timeless and of relevance today. The paintings by artists from Utopia sit as contemporary abstract artworks on the international stage but they are layered, not only in paint but also meaning, with a spiritual significance for the oldest living culture in the world. These paintings are created by custodians with a lifetime of wisdom, created for self and for the collective, an expression of country, dreaming and social and cultural responsibilities.

Lauraine certainly had a special connection with Angelina Ngal and felt privileged to be exposed to her world and way of life, going on hunting trips for goanna, bush potato, bush tomato and sugarbag. They would sit together on the ground as Angelina painted at the new ‘painting shed’ where paints, canvas and supplies were able to be stored, as Angelina quietly explained to Lauraine about her painting and the layers of meaning, over a cup of billy tea. After a painting day, Angelina and Lauraine would sit around the campfire, sharing a meal.

There was a mutual respect and true friendship.

For Lauraine, the paintings by artists from Utopia are “unquestionably the most beautiful and lyrical of all Aboriginal artworks. I respond to their painterliness, elegance and refinement. I love the way the artists layer the paint and how their artworks shimmer. The Utopia artists are exceptional colourists. Their paintings rely on balancing their compositions and their highly skilled use of colour – which involves ‘raining’ colour all over their canvases… rather than a reliance on iconography.” (An Individual Perspective: From the Indigenous Collection of Lauraine Diggins, Deakin University, Melbourne, 2009, p.5) Angelina’s subtle, textured, layered ethereal landscapes capture an essence of place and time and for some of us, they also represent a trace of Lauraine’s passion and vitality.

The influence and importance of Emily Kngwarray and the batik movement in Utopia of the 1970s cannot be underestimated in the continued flourishing of the art movement in Utopia and the potency of the artists today.

Angelina Ngal is a senior elder passing on knowledge to younger artists. Her pure dots of colour reveal points of location like a map, representing knowledge of place and her lived experience; choosing to depict abundant flora or ceremonial rituals.

Angelina paints her grandfather’s country, Aharlper. Many of her paintings depict the Bush Plum through coloured dots flooding the canvas. Her exquisitely coloured canvases extend their meaning from the Bush Plum to translations of geography, knowledge and memories, often linked to important information relating to hunting, food gathering, or ceremony.

ABOVE | Artist Angelina Pwerl Ngal with Lauraine Diggins courtesy Lauraine Diggins Fine Art LEFT | On the road to Utopia courtesy Lauraine Diggins Fine Art

LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

of artists by regularly journeying to this remote area, with the permission of traditional owner, Motorbike Paddy, married to Kathleen Ngal. To some, the desert area may appear harsh; there are no amenities here – it is back to basics camping - bring everything you need; cook on the camp fire; ‘bush’ toilet and sleep under the stars (or on top of the troopie to avoid the hefty hoofs of Sally the feral horned cow). For Lauraine with a meaningful connection with nature; pared back to essential practicalities and the reward of hard work. The first ‘painting camp’ was an abandoned derelict structure with a concrete floor, a bit of a tin roof and a window in the one remaining wall looking out to the dry Sandover River. Once word got out of Lauraine’s presence, cars would slowly arrive, artists being dropped off ready to join the circle of women already seated alongside their canvas, the sounds growing - the rhythmic tapping of sticks as the dots of colour were applied; the gentle chatter; soft singing; and the bright noise of the surrounding children and dogs.

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My Country synthetic polymer paint on linen | 149 x 179 cm | #260075

LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

All One Country (diptych) | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 200 x 120 cm each | #270060

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Spring Flowers at Aharlper | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 136 x 200 cm | #270080

LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

Aharlper Country | 2008 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 122 x 199 cm | #280098

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Aharper Country | 2010 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 138 x 181 cm | #201084

Aharlper Country | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 200 x 120 cm | #270191

LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

Spring Flowers Aharlper | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 199 x 121 cm | #270185

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Aharlper Country | 2013 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 138 x 182 cm | #213094

LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

Aharlper Country | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 150 x 200 cm | #270276

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Aharlper Country | 2007 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 121 x 188 cm | #270325

LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

IMAGE | Angelina Pwerl Ngal after a successful hunting trip for goanna courtesy Lauraine Diggins Fine Art

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Curriculum Vitae Angelina Pwerl Ngal (c.1947 - ) Language | Antmatyerr Country | Aharlper

Collections Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands Adrian Newstead, Sydney, NSW Allen, Allen and Hemsley Collection, Sydney, NSW Artbank, Sydney, NSW Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW Art Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide,SA Art Gallery of Western Australia, WA Australian Unity, Melbourne, Vic Benalla Art Gallery, Benalla, Vic Commonwealth Law Courts, Melbourne, Vic Holmes a Court Collection, Perth, WA

Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, WA Latrobe University Collection, Melbourne, Vic Lauraine Diggins, Melbourne , Vic Mansion Hotel, Melbourne, Vic National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney, NSW Shepparton Art Gallery,Shepparton, Vic The Metropolitan Museum, NY, USA Private Collections, Australia, Croatia, England, France

Selected Literature Boulter, Michael, The Art of Utopia : A New Direction in Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Craftsman House, 1991, pp.162-163 Isaacs, J., Bush Gardens, Art & Australia, Vol.35, no. 4, 1998, Fine Arts Press, Sydney Kleinert, S. and Neale, M., The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, 2000, Oxford University Press, Sydney

Solo Exhibitions 2022 2015 2010 2007 2006 2005 2001 1999 1997 1996

Cooee Art, Sydney Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne Time and Space, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Angelina Pwerle - New Paintings, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Bett Gallery, Hobart Holmes a Court Gallery, Perth Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Niagara Galleries, Melbourne

2022 2016 2012 2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005 2002 2001 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1994 1993

1992 1991 1990 1989

Know my name: Australian women artists 1900 - now, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Camel Camp and Beyond, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle Sandover River Stories, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle Finalist, Blake Prize, The Blake Society, National Art School Gallery, Sydney Finalist, 21st Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize 2010, Brisbane The Ngal Sisters: Painting Country – Angelina, Kathleen and Poly Ngal, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne Finalist, Blake Prize, The Blake Society, National Art School Gallery, Sydney An Individual Perspective: From the Collection of Lauraine Diggins, Deakin University Art Gallery, Burwood Paintings from Utopia, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, United Kingdom Collectors’ Exhibition 2008, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne Moscow World Fine Art Fair, Manege, Moscow Finalist, 25th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin Finalist, Wynne Prize for Landscape Painting, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Emily Kngwarray and her legacy, Art Front Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Visions of Utopia, Cooee Aboriginal Art, Sydney Utopia Today, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne Memory As Landscape, Masterpiece @ IXL, Hobart My Way: A Survey of Utopia Artists, Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane Journeys and Dreams, Gecko Gallery, Broome Finalist, Tattersalls Landscape Art Prize, Brisbane Finalist, 23rd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Darwin ArtParis 2006 Contemporary Art Fair, Grand Palais- Champs Elysees, Paris Memory as Landscape, October Gallery, London in association with Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne Indecorous Abstraction: Contemporary Women Painters, Light Square Gallery, Adelaide Dreamtime, Sammlung Essl, Germany Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Madrid and touring regional Spain.

Not the Done Thing!, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne.

Blue Chip II - The Collector’s Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne.

Sixth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne; 14th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; 28th Alice Prize, Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment, Alice Springs.

28th Alice Prize, Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment, Alice Springs 14th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Darwin Painted People: Sculpture from Utopia, Utopia Art, Sydney This Land, Utopia Art, Sydney The Oval Board Collection, Biship Museum, Hawaii; Wadswoth Athenaeum, Connecticut; Tampa Museum of Art, Florida, USA Utopia Women, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Camp Scenes, Utopia Art, Sydney Utopia Sculpture, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Bubbles, Baubles and Beads, Utopia Art, Sydney Aboriginal Painting, Austral Gallery, St Louis, USA Long Hot Summer, Utopia Art, Sydney The Last Show, Utopia Art, Sydney Art from Utopia, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW Utopia Batik, Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment, Alice Springs The First Works on Canvas: A Summer Project, S.H. Ervin Museum, Sydney

COOEE ART | ANGELINA PWERL NGAL | AHARLPER

Selected Group Exhibitions & Prizes

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ANGELINA PWERL NGAL AHARLPER COUNTRY COOEE ART SYDNEY | 18 MARCH - 9 APRIL 2022 LAURAINE DIGGINS FINE ART MELBOURNE | 6 APRIL - 14 MAY 2022