thrilled to announce that the internationally celebrated Ömie women artists of Papua New Guinea will return to Singapore for a monumental exhibition of their barkcloth paintings this March. Following on from the hugely successful inaugural show in 2011, Of Spirit and Splendour will present a stunning selection of new work by the most exciting and talented artists from across the extremely remote Ömie mountain villages around Mount Lamington in Oro Province.
Ömie art is much admired for its rich, complex and diverse expression of abstract symbols pertaining to the natural world as well as to ancestral tattoo designs. Created primarily by senior Ömie tribeswomen, the barkcloths or nioge are the outcome of a long period of apprenticeship. Within their respective marital and birth clans, females learn the techniques, laws and customs that lead to the production of these beautifully crafted, spiritually rooted artworks.