ERNABELLA ARTISTS ‘PILANYPA’
USA : TWO THOUSAND AND FOURTEEN
Front Cover: Tjariya (Nungalka) Stanley, Minyma Kutjara Wingellina, acrylic on canvas, 39 x 59� (100 x 150 cm), Catalog #148-14 This page: Ernabella artist Tjunkaya Tapaya Photo: Alex Craig
Pilanypa (Place) In our country, the APY Lands, we have seven art centers. Everyday we come to work in the art centre. Ernabella Arts started in 1948 and it’s still going. We own our art center. We paint tjukurpa – our law and culture. We make strong, beautiful work and it will always be there. Our stories are from a long time ago and they will live in the future with our children. When they grow up they will be working here. They will be the owners of our art center and keeping our culture strong. - Milikya Carroll (Ernabella artist)
This exhibition by Ernabella Artists celebrates the rich cultural histories of the Anangu people through this selection of paintings from the most heralded artists of the region. Pilanypa is a place name. It holds important ancestral information for many of the artists currently exhibiting work at the art center located in Ernabella. Ernabella, or Pukatja, is 440 km south-west of Alice Springs and is the oldest permanent settlement in the Anangu Pitjantjtjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) region of north-western South Australia. Ernabella Arts Inc. emerged out of a women’s craft group of the late 1940s and has been operating continuously since 1948. For the first twenty eight years artists worked almost exclusively with wool, spinning and weaving it, and making hand-pulled floor rugs incorporating their own unique walka (designs) which became known as Ernabella’s signature design back in the 1950s, Ernabella walka or anapalayaku walka. The company logo shows the traditional wooden spindle, used by the people for millennia before European contact. This spindle is still used today when adapting their skills for Western mediums including the production of their highly prized Ernabella mukata (beanies). Ernabella artists have worked across a wide range of other mediums including ceramics, silk--
Background image: ALISON MUNTI RILEY & TJUNKAYA TAPAYA, Ara Irititja, Nnampa Ngura, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 59” (90 x 150 cm) Catalog #25-14
screen printing, batik, puny (wood carving) and painting. From the beginning artists were introduced to high quality materials and tools. All creative developments in every medium introduced at the art center have been entirely the artists’ own choices, stimulated from time to time by workshops offered by visiting professionals. Painting styles went through radical developments from 2002 and Ernabella painting now encompasses subjects drawn from Tjukurpa (the eternal Creation stories); mai putitja (bush food stories) and elements of the early and unique anapalyaku walka (Ernabella style). Ernabella Arts is an Aboriginal owned and run corporation that supports ethical practice in the creation and sale of Indigenous art. The members of Ernabella Arts have evolved a culturally strong contemporary art center. Works by the center’s artists have been collected by public institutions nationally and internationally and have been acknowledged in national art prizes such as the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Art Awards. Harvey Art Projects USA gratefully acknowledges Ernabella Artists in this exclusive USA exhibition. Special thanks to Ernabella Arts Center Managers, Ruth McMillan & Julian Greene.
ALISON MUNTI RILEY, Tjitji Kutjara (detail), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 72” (122 x 182 cm), Catalog #49-14
TJUNKAYA TAPAYA, Kungkarangkalpa Attila (detail), acrylic on canvas, 33 x 67� (84 x 170 cm), Catalog #263-14
ALISON RILEY & TJUNKAYA TAPAYA, Untitled (detail), acrylic on canvas, 39 x 48” (100 x 122 cm), Catalog #73-14
NININGKA MUNKURI LEWIS, Ernabella-la (detail), acrylic on canvas, 33 x 48� (84 x 122 cm), Catalog #596-12
PEPAI JANGALA CARROLL, Walungurru (detail), acrylic on canvas, 27 x 59� (68 x 150 cm), Catalog #129-14
PEPAI JANGALA CARROLL, Walungurru (detail), acrylic on canvas, 35 x 59� (90 x 150 cm), Catalog #229-14
RENITA STANLEY, Malilanya (detail), acrylic on canvas, 33 x 39� (84 x 100 cm), Catalog #268-14
RENITA STANLEY, Malilanya (detail), acrylic on canvas, 39 x 59� (100 x 150 cm), Catalog #105-13
LAWRENCE PENNINGTON, Waputi (detail), acrylic on linen, 54 x 43� (137 x 108.5 cm), Catalog #c1024
Alison Munti Riley Carlene Thompson Niningka Munkuri Lewis Pantjiti Lionel Pepai Jangala Carroll Renita Stanley Tjariya (Nungalka) Stanley Tjunkaya Tapaya Yurpiya Lionel
TJARIYA (NUNGALKA) STANLEY, Minyma Kutjara Wingellina, acrylic on canvas, 28 x 39� (68 x 100 cm), Catalog #113-14
On view 26 August - 30 September 2014 Sun Valley, USA 391 First Avenue North Ketchum, ID 83340 USA info@harveyartprojects.com | Phone (208) 309-8676 Back Cover: Photo: Alex Craig Copyright 2014 Harvey Art Projects USA & Ernabella Arts Inc.
HARVEYARTPROJECTS.COM