Pinakarriluny Marnalunya Ngalimpakura Artists Jarlu Palu Wantinya

REDOT FINE ART GALLERY in collaboration with Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency presents

Pinakarriluny Marnalunya Ngalimpakura Artists Jarlu Palu Wantinya (in dedication to our artists who have left us) A Collection of Fine Mangkaja Indigenous Art

9 th March - 23 rd April 2016

Gallery 1

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c o n t e m p o r a r y

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View from the Fitzroy Crossing Bridge Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Pinakarriluny Marnalunya Ngalimpakura Artists Jarlu Palu Wantinya (in dedication to our artists who have left us) The ReDot Fine Art Gallery is extremely honoured to welcome back one of Australia’s most exciting Indigenous community art centres and one of the country’s most renowned living artists, in a double-header exhibition that celebrates the works and lives of the artists of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency.

Following on from recent strongly-curated exhibitions and leveraging on a closeknitted working relationship with this progressive and exciting community art centre, these 2016 exhibitions will be a breath-taking body of over 50 works, ranging from acrylic on canvas, works on paper, etchings on tin, works on board and a sculpture in aluminium, completed by five senior women and one magical elder-lawman.

Mangkaja Arts has long been known for its ground breaking and innovative art works, setting trends and industry standards that many look up and aspire to. Likewise, this

Bunuba Country Source: © Photo Courtesy of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

collection will be no exception. For the first time ever, we will showcase a body of over 27 works on board and tin, executed by Ngarralja Tommy May in what are reminiscent of early Papunya Tula boards. His creations are steeped in mark-making and cultural importance, based around soakage and waterhole sites sacred to this 81-year-old man who is now one of the oldest and most respected Indigenous figures in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Wurna Juwal - Walking up and down, always moving, from waterhole to soak marks a major milestone in Tommy May’s work and stature, and his delicate stunning works have already received exciting and memorable reviews in Australia.

The remaining 28 works, collectively named Pinakarriluny Marnalunya Ngalimpakura Artists Jarlu Palu Wantinya (in dedication to our artists that have left us), brings living and deceased female artists from this extraordinary community that has boasted some of the most important female Indigenous artists of the last quarter century. This is a collection of works by established artists Sonia Kurarra, Daisy Japulija, Tjigila Nada Rawlins and Lisa Uhl, paying homage to the recently departed doyenne of the art centre, Mrs. Snell.

This exhibition, curated over the last 18 months, also boasts a significant body of works on paper by Sonia Kurarra. We see a fresh and appealing mix of traditional and modern technique, blending all the skills and attributes that the public has come to expect of an artist at the forefront of the new modern contemporary Indigenous art movement, securing the position of this seminal art community.

The exhibitions begin on Wednesday 9th March and run until Saturday 23rd April 2016 and they are a must-see for anyone interested in following the on-going developments in Indigenous Art and an opportunity to better understand the work being produced by one of Australia’s finest community based Indigenous art projects.

Giorgio Pilla Director ReDot Fine Art Gallery

An amazing woman left us.

Her last word to me, was “money”. I was dressed as Santa Claus, so please don’t get her wrong. Fierce as any of the most self-assured desert women I have met. Selfassured in matters you can only imagine. But lovely, a real sweetheart. We went to Kurtal in the Great Sandy Desert, her grandson leading the expedition. They were making a movie about Rainmaking. She won the Telstra Awards, and we went to Darwin. She went shopping and found a cheap purple hat. People loved her painting, and people loved her hat. Fitzroy is a place where everyone knows everyone else. The old woman who left us, made sure she was known.

Tommy’s meditating.

In the desert. Walking up and down, around, always moving, hunting, and waking up next to water. Tracking, thinking, smelling, listening, and moving. And so much stillness too. Tommy likes to sing. I don’t always know what he’s singing, and I don’t always know what he’s painting; in fact mostly not, but I can get a feeling of what he’s showing us. Imagine that you are inside one of Tommy’s works, and that you are standing upon one of his marks. Look up and around you. What do you see? Is it important?

Tommy isn’t painting ‘hard’ stories, I think is his term. For him, they are easy; not even stories these ones, just moving through country. In the Mangkaja archive, I can see that Tommy’s reticence has been long term. So many works about the sand dunes, all these straight lines and wiggles. Repetition founds the sacred. On the wall, Tommy’s new works seem that way.

“Hey you” Do you like Sonia’s drawings better, or her paintings? Now that she’s got your attention, this new show exhibits two great arms of her practice. It’s not worth getting into the “Is it painting? Is it drawing?” She’s doing both, a lot. It’s like she’s on the phone to someone most of the time. There’s obviously good reception down by the river. She’s having that conversation, and doodling.

And at doodling she is one of the best.

One of the reasons art coordinators find it difficult to write about the artists they work with, is that the artist’s culture, is

Kurtal Dancers of Mangkaja in Full Source: © Photo Courtesy of Mang

really so different from the culture of the place where the art is shown in galleries.

Over here, no one talks about somebody’s art except the person them self.

I mention this now, for though they are the simplest in style, Lisa Uhl’s paintings happen in a way it is difficult to describe. If I told that you that she is in a wheelchair, on the fringes of a desert and a huge river system, you might imagine she needs a little help now and again. I think her paintings are her way of saying “thank you”. There is a vertical joy in every one of her paintings.

Art Centre coordinators also find it difficult to produce art themselves. It’s not just the fact that you are surrounded by so much art already, and that you work a lot already. It’s because comparatively, your intentions seem pretentious, and your motivations

Dress kaja Arts Resource Agency

confounded. If you describe culture as a) a belief, value and knowledge system, b) preferred behaviours and c) occurring within a social context of interpersonal relationships, and of a continuous history, a lot of kartiya (white person) would look at these determinants, and find himself wanting.

I won’t deny I’ve felt that early fascination towards car wrecks in the desert. But I don’t photograph them, and I don’t paint them. It’s a curious thing. Blackfellas I know place all value in a car “that works”. So there’s a romanticism there on behalf of kartiya. An attraction to mystery, death, and past life. Sounds human enough, and if we had high functioning sacred dimensional ontology (Dreamtime), it would serve that need.

Brian has always warned me against making any kind of art referencing or derivative of the art I have been surrounded by. Sound advice too, lest I make my peers squirm (Brian would hate to even be mentioned, don’t worry Brian - if you’ve read this far I’m talking about another Brian.) But I’ve also learnt to remain aware of how sensitive the art making process is, the head-space required, and the bravado that is needed.

Especially when new mediums, or environments, are introduced.

In my time at art centres, I have seeked the limits of form. (Brian will point out, that the past participle of ‘to seek’ is ‘to suck’.)

Where the physical sublimates to the sacred.

Actually I’ve been doing it longer than that.

In Hong Kong for example, my student peers thought my dragons were kitsch. And they were, but they were also the exact opposite.

Painting is great for trans-dimensional evocation, due to the inherent tension of the two dimensional surface, and the narrative metaphysical dimension.

A great way to paint the ‘limit of form’ is to paint a watermelon, in an impressionist style. A big round form, I’ll call this work “Venus of Willendorf”.

Plastic bags obscure form and are therefore mysterious and evocative. This painting is called “Shopping at Shell”. In Fitzroy, the health care workers wear orange shirts to work. I don’t know why. Yellow and red makes orange, and yellow and red is the sign for Shell petrol stations, i.e. the Shell Roadhouse in Fitzroy. I’m going to say that small parts of a squillion dollars are spent delivering the message of ‘health’, importantly

including diet. But if you want somewhere that is open late and sells soft drink cheaper than water, and has an entire vertical freezer devoted to chicken drumsticks, then shop at Shell. The fossil fuel industry, is also subsidised by the government. This painting, should probably be hung upside down.

Snakes suggest another limit of form. If you had a lizard and snake in a room, you would say, superficially at least, the lizard had more form because of its legs. In fact these snakes are actually characters that I have developed, demi-gods with whom I collaborate, and whom here have eschewed their nevertheless other worldly ofttimes theomorphic identities. They have become snakes inhabiting a subliminal space. That’s the message.

The end. p.s. Thank you for everyone at Mangkaja for keeping me in a job, and to Giorgio for being Giorgio.

Wesley Maselli Art Coordinator, Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency February 2016

Left page: Power Point Dragon Top: Venus of Willendorf Source: © Wes Maselli

Mrs. SNELL

Birth Date Deceased Language Place of Birth Skin/Clan

circa 1933 30th December 2015 Wangkajunga Nampiyinti Kurtal, Great Sandy Desert

Mrs. Snell was born at a sacred jila (permanent waterhole) called Kurtal. When her father passed away, she travelled with her mother to Balgo and then to Warnku. Mrs. Snell lived at Warnku until her sister Wagajia took me to Sturt Creek and then back to Warnku. From there, they walked to Louisa Downs Station with their family.

Mrs. Snell also spent time at Bohemia Downs and Christmas Creek Stations. As a young girl, before she had children, she used to milk the goats at Bohemia Downs Station.

Mrs. Snell has been painting since the 1980s and held her first exhibition in 1991. Mrs. Snell’s paintings depict Mangarri (bush tucker) and plants, Kurtal jila (living waterhole), jilji (sandhills), Marrajati, Kilan Kilan and surrounding country in the Great Sandy Desert.

She has two brothers and two sisters who also belong to the Kurtal jila.

Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney, NSW, Australia.

National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra, ACT, Australia.

National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Artbank Collection, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Collection, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Holmes à Court Collection, Perth, WA, Australia.

Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA, Australia.

Flinders University Art Museum (FUAM), Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, United States of America.

Harriett & Richard England Collection, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Awards 2015 Winner - 32nd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

1996 Finalist - 13th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

1995 Finalist - 12th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2014 Kurtal – New work by Dolly Jukuja Snell - Outstation Gallery, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Selected Group Exhibitions 2016 Pinakarriluny Marnalunya Ngalimpakura Artists Jarlu Palu Wantinya (in dedication to our artists who have left us) - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

2015 Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Fremantle, WA, Australia.

Everybody’s Prints – New Work from Mangkaja Arts - Nomad Art, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2013 30th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

2012 Jukuja Dolly Snell and Spider Snell – Seva Frangos Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

Wirrinyiya ngaragngarag birra ngamoo ngamoo – Mangkaja Arts 21 Year Anniversary - Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Couples - Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Prints, Paper & Canvas - Nomad Art, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Mangkaja Works on Paper - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

2011 Mangkaja Arts - Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Couples - Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Hidden Treasures - Art Kelch, Freiburg, Germany.

2009 Mangkaja Artists 60x60 - Randell Lane Fine Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

26th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

Sharing Difference on Common Ground - Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

Senior Artists from Fitzroy Crossing - Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Sitting down with Jukuja & Wakartu - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Mangkaja Survey Show - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

2008 Women on Country - Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Waterholes and Bush Tucker - Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Marnintu Maparnana (Women Painting) - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

Divas of the Desert - Gallery Gondwana, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Go West! - Art Kelch, Freiburg, Germany.

Wet ‘n’ Wild - Art Kelch, Freiburg, Germany.

2007 X Marks the Spot - Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Palya Art in Melbourne - The Barn, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Women Artists of Fitzroy Crossing - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Jila, Jilji and Miyi - Cool-Art Picture Framing Gallery, Coolum Beach, QLD & Mangkaja Arts, Fitzroy Crossing, WA, Australia.

New Legend – Recent Works from the Kimberley - Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (KALACC), Fitzroy Crossing, WA & William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

2006 Purnta (Promised Marriage) - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Divas of the Desert - Gallery Gondwana, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Big Country - Gallery Gondwana, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Mangkaja Group Show - Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2005 Jiljijanka Marnin (Women from the Sandhills) - Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Group Exhibition - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Too Much Good Work - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Surprise... Cory and Friends - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

True Colours - Griffith University Art Gallery (with Suzanne O’Connell and Dell Gallery), Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

2004 Broken Promises - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Ngurrara Canvas - Perth International Arts Festival, Perth Concert Hall, Perth, WA, Australia.

2004 Waterhole Show - Grantpirrie, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2003 Water and Food - University of Western Australia (Cullity Gallery), Perth, WA, Australia.

Fitzroy Fusion - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Mangkaja Women - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2002 Group Exhibition - Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Recent Works from Mangkaja Arts - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Short on Size - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

2001 Mangkaja Arts Ten Years On, Mangkaja’s 10 Year Anniversary Show - Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Ngurrara Canvas - National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Past Modern - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Fitzroy Women - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Short on Size - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

2000 Short on Size - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Past Modern - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

1999 Ngurrara - Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA, Australia.

Short on Size - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

1998 Group Exhibition - Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, United Kingdom.

1997 Group Exhibition - Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

1996 4th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Old Parliament House, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Broken Promises - Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Mangkaja Group Exhibition - Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

13th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

1995 Group Exhibition - Australian Perspectives Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Kimberley Art - Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

12th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

1994 Ngajakura Ngurrara Minyarti (This is My Country) - Perth International Arts Festival & Brigitte Braun Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

1993 Images of Power: Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley - National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Mangkaja Women - Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA, Australia.

10th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

1992 Group Exhibition - Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

9th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

1991 Karrayili - Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Lisa Uhl (Mrs. Snell Adopted Daughter) Working on a New Painting Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Mrs. Snell

Kurtal - Living Water Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 90 x 90cm 156/15

Kurtal is a proper jila (waterhole) with living water, with jilji (sandhill surrounding waterhole) on the outside. You cannot get bush tucker like jurnta (bush onion) from just anywhere, you got to be careful not to anger the cheeky snake spirit that resides in the jila.

No one is allowed into the waterhole, according to Mrs. Snell’s husband, Spider Snell, who is the traditional owner of this country. Mrs. Snell’s brother tried to drink from this waterhole and the snake pulled him in. Her husband saved her brother’s life by pulling him back up.

Kurtal is a jila associated with rainmaking southwest of Lake Gregory. It is a permanent waterhole.

Daisy JAPULIJA

Birth Date Language Place of Birth Skin/Clan

circa 1948 Nyikina / Walmajarri Noonkanbah Nampiyinti

Daisy Japulija was born near Noonkanbah under a Konkerberry tree. She grew up in Noonkanbah and worked in the station kitchen until she married her husband. Together, they left Noonkanbah and travelled around the country and ended up at Cherrabun Station where they set up camp for a long time. The couple has one son together.

Daisy has only visited her desert country when her mother took her there as an adult. She started painting at the Noonkanbah shearing shed and then in the old Mangkaja shed a long time ago. Previously, paintings done at Yakanara were sent to Mangkaja. She painted with Yakanara Adult Education Centre, whose main emphasis was the teaching of children, instruction in language and culture and teaching people about painting.

Awards 2014 Winner – Most Outstanding Work - Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA, Australia.

Selected Group Exhibitions 2016 Pinakarriluny Marnalunya Ngalimpakura Artists Jarlu Palu Wantinya (in dedication to our artists who have left us) - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

2015 Rising Stars 2015 - Outstation Gallery, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2014 Hedland Art Awards - Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA, Australia.

2012 Wirrinyiya ngaragngarag birra ngamoo ngamoo – Mangkaja Arts 21 Year Anniversary - Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

2009 Mangkaja Artists 60x60 - Randell Lane Fine Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

Celebrating Country: Kinship and Culture - Seymour College, Glen Osmond, SA, Australia.

Emerging and Re-emerging - Outstation Gallery, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Jilas Jaa Parlkas (Waterholes and Barramundi) - Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Shalom Gamarada - University of New South Wales (Caspary Conference Centre), Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2008 Wet ‘n’ Wild - Art Kelch, Freiburg, Germany.

Mangkaja Arts - A.P. Bond Art Gallery, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

2007 Palya Art in Melbourne - The Barn, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Daisy JAPULIJA

Billabongs Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 120 x 90cm 183/14

Daisy Japulija is of Walmajarri descent, but has spent much of her life at Noonkanbah, which is on the Fitzroy River. She lives there with her husband, and also her sister Sonia Kurarra when she comes to visit. Like her sister, Daisy paints an array of motifs associated with the river and billabongs of the Noonkanbah area.

Daisy JAPULIJA

Billabongs Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 90 x 90cm 219/14

Daisy Japulija is of Walmajarri descent, but has spent much of her life at Noonkanbah, which is on the Fitzroy River. She lives there with her husband, and also her sister Sonia Kurarra when she comes to visit. Like her sister, Daisy paints an array of motifs associated with the river and billabongs of the Noonkanbah area.

Sonia Kurarra Working on a New Painting Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Sonia KURARRA

Birth Date Language Place of Birth Skin/Clan

circa 1952 Walmajarri Noonkanbah Nampiyinti

Sonia Kurarra grew up in the river country at Yungngora (Noonkanbah), where she helped the kindergarten teacher with teaching art. They would take the children out to the sandy billabong and teach them how to paint and dance. There is a ngarrangkarni [Dreamtime] snake that lives in the billabong. His name is Nangurra.

Sonia began painting at Mangkaja in the early 1990s, working mostly on paper. As her career and confidence grew, she started to practice and develop her skills moving into more ambitious and complex works on canvas and since 2008, Sonia has been working predominantly on canvas. She has exhibited in numerous group shows and had an overwhelming response to her first solo shows in 2009.

Sonia paints the sandy billabong country along the stretch of the Fitzroy River that runs directly behind the community. After the flood waters recede, there are billabongs that hold a plentiful supply of parlka (barramundi), kurlumajarti (catfish] and bream. She paints gapi (fish], parrmarr (rocks) where the fish is cooked, ngurti (coolamon) and a karli (boomerang].

Sonia paints these images over and over as though they are etched into her psyche; works that are linear representations in monotones and others that are layers lathered on with wild and confident brush strokes. These contemporary compositions display an outstanding understanding of colour.

Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney, NSW, Australia.

The Lepley Collection, Perth, WA, Australia.

Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, WA, Australia.

Holmes à Court Collection, Perth, WA, Australia.

Geraldton Regional Art Gallery, Geraldton, WA, Australia.

Murdoch University Art Collection, Perth, WA, Australia.

The Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

Peter & Agnes Cooke Collection, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Bertrand Estrangin Collection, Brussels, Belgium.

The Arthur Roe Collection, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Artbank Collection, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Awards 2015 Finalist - Bankwest Art Prize, Bankwest Art Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

Joint Overall Winner – Kimberley Art Prize 2015, Shire of Derby/West Kimberley, Derby, WA, Australia.

2012 Winner – Most Outstanding Work - Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA, Australia.

2010 Winner – Best Indigenous Work - Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.

Winner – Best Indigenous Work - Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA, Australia.

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2014 Martuwarra (River Country) - Sonia Kurarra Solo - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

Sonia Kurarra - Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Sonia Kurarra – River Country - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2013 Martuwarra – River Country – Recent works by Sonia Kurarra - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2012-2013 Sonia Kurarra - FORM Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

2012 Sonia Kurarra - Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

2011 A Sonia Kurarra Exhibition - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

2010 Sonia Kurarra - Randell Lane Fine Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

2009 Sonia Kurarra - Randell Lane Fine Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

Sonia Kurarra - Gallery Gondwana, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Sonia Kurarra - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Selected Group Exhibitions 2016 Pinakarriluny Marnalunya Ngalimpakura Artists Jarlu Palu Wantinya (in dedication to our artists who have left us) - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

2015 Bankwest Art Prize, Bankwest Art Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

Tarnanthi ‘Works of Significance’ - Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Salon des Refusés, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Kimberley Art Prize, Shire of Derby/West Kimberley, Derby, WA, Australia 2014 Bankwest Art Prize, Bankwest Art Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

2013 30th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

2011 Sonia Kurarra and Cory Surprise - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2009 Mangkaja Artists 60x60 - Randell Lane Fine Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

Sharing Difference on Common Ground - Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

Shalom Gamarada - University of New South Wales (Caspary Conference Centre), Sydney, NSW, Australia.

East Meets West - Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.

Senior Artists from Fitzroy Crossing - Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Mangkaja Survey Show - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Emerging and Re-emerging - Outstation Gallery, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Margaret River Meets Fitzroy Crossing - Tunbridge Gallery, Margaret River, WA, Australia.

2008 Bendi Lango - The Indigenous Scholarship Fund, Sydney, NSW and Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Mangkaja Artists - Randell Fine Art Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

Women on Country - Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Divas of the Desert - Gallery Gondwana, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Marnintu Maparnana (Women Painting) - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

Wet ‘n’ Wild - Art Kelch, Freiburg, Germany.

2007 Bendi Lango - The Indigenous Scholarship Fund, Sydney, NSW and Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Women Artists of Fitzroy Crossing - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2003 Water and Food - University of Western Australia (Cullity Gallery), Perth, WA, Australia.

WORKS ON CANVAS

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 240 x 180cm 321/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aide at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her attachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 198 x 198cm 238/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 198 x 198cm 326/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

In this particular work, Sonia has a wavy river bank through the centre of the work, with a variety of flora reaching skywards at the top. She has mostly painted reflections in the water, with one or two fish to be found.

Sonia Kurarra Working on her Painting (326/15) Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 240 x 120cm 358/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

WORKS ON PAPER

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Graphite on 250gsm Velin Arches 75 x 55cm 165/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint and Graphite on 250gsm Velin Arches 75 x 55cm 288/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Coloured Pencil on 250gsm Velin Arches 75 x 55cm 289/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint and Graphite on 250gsm Velin Arches 75 x 55cm 291/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Charcoal on 250gsm Velin Arches 55.5 x 38cm 261/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Ink on 250gsm Velin Arches 55.5 x 38cm 265/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Charcoal on 250gsm Velin Arches 55.5 x 38cm 271/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Charcoal on 250gsm Velin Arches 55.5 x 38cm 272/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Charcoal on 250gsm Velin Arches 55.5 x 38cm 274/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Charcoal on 250gsm Velin Arches 55.5 x 38cm 278/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Charcoal on 250gsm Velin Arches 55.5 x 38cm 286/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Charcoal on 250gsm Velin Arches 55.5 x 38cm 287/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Sonia KURARRA

Martuwarra Silkscreen Print on 250gsm Paper 39 x 29.5cm 90/15-9/15

Sonia Kurarra was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River. Sonia has lived most her life at Noonkanbah.

A compulsive artist, Sonia for a long time was a teacher’s aid at the local school where she facilitated art-making with the children. Illustrative of her atttachment to the country where she grew up, an intimate life with the river, Sonia’s art is a saturation of river country motifs, be it parlka (barramundi), brim, tortoise, stingray, wakiri (pandanus trees) or the water itself.

Martuwarra is Sonia’s river country. This painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where Sonia lives. All kinds of fish live in the water, where you can catch big mobs of fish. Sonia especially likes parlka. You can catch catfish and brim in the river too. Nganku (shark), wirritunany (swordfish) and stingray also live in the waters. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

This painting is also about parlka swimming on the surface of the water. You can see the wakiri and rocks all around. The rock holes hold all the parlka that live in the river.

Kalpurtu (serpent-type creator being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the palma (creeks) and wakiri that grow in the river.

Tjigila Nada RAWLINS

Birth Date Language Place of Birth Skin/Clan

circa 1936 Wangkajunga Kiriwirr Purungu (Panaka)

Tjigila Nada Rawlins is a Wangkajungka woman born circa 1936 near Kiriwirr, in the southern stretches of Wangkatjungka country, in the Great Sandy Desert.

Her country incorporates Percival lakes, a chain of salt lakes running for hundreds of kilometres across the desert. As traditional owners and custodians of the country, Tjigila’s family and relatives were familiar with sources of fresh water, often located within the salt lakes.

Tjigila says of her early life: “I was born in the Great Sandy Desert. My mother never put me in a blanket. I never saw my father. We walked from the desert along the Canning Stock Route. We walked through Billiluna. One kartiya [European] called Len Brown picked us up early in the morning in a truck. He took us to Moola Bulla. I had a sore on my arm and they took me to the clinic. They gave me lots of needles. When my arm was better I lived with my family at Moola Bulla. Then we walked alongside the river to Christmas Creek. We walked because we had no motorcar. We carried our swags on our heads.”

Tjigila later became a founding member of Karrayili Adult Education Centre and began painting in 1994 at the Karrayili annexe established in Wangkajungka community, 100km southeast of Fitzroy Crossing. Today, she lives in Fitzroy Crossing and is an accomplished painter, well-known for the atmospheric abstract landscapes of her country Kiriwirr.

Collections National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Charles Darwin University (CDU), Darwin, NT, Australia.

Holmes à Court Collection, Perth, WA, Australia.

Fitzroy Crossing High School, Fitzroy Crossing, WA, Australia.

National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Selected Group Exhibitions 2016 Pinakarriluny Marnalunya Ngalimpakura Artists Jarlu Palu Wantinya (in dedication to our artists who have left us) - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

2015 Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA, Australia.

Everybody’s Prints – New Work from Mangkaja Arts - Nomad Art, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2013 Mangkaja Artists - Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2012 Wirrinyiya ngaragngarag birra ngamoo ngamoo – Mangkaja Arts 21 Year Anniversary - Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Mix Emerging Artists - Better World Arts, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Mangkaja Artists - Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2009 Mangkaja Artists 60x60 - Randell Lane Fine Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

Sharing Difference on Common Ground - Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

Celebrating Country: Kinship and Culture - Seymour College, Glen Osmond, SA, Australia.

Waterholes and Dreaming around the Percival Lakes of Wirnpa Country - CoolArt Picture Framing Gallery, Coolum Beach, QLD, Australia.

Emerging and Re-emerging - Outstation Gallery, Darwin, NT, Australia.

My Country – Paintings from Yiyili - Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Melbourne, VIC & Mangkaja Arts, Fitzroy Crossing, WA, Australia.

Shalom Gamarada - University of New South Wales (Caspary Conference Centre), Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Senior Artists from Fitzroy Crossing - Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

2008 Bendi Lango - The Indigenous Scholarship Fund, Sydney, NSW and Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Revealed - Central TAFE, Perth, WA, Australia.

Waterholes and Bush Tucker - Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Marnintu Maparnana (Women Painting) - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

Women on Country - Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Divas of the Desert - Gallery Gondwana, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2007 Jila, Jilji and Miyi - Cool-Art Picture Framing Gallery, Coolum Beach, QLD & Mangkaja Arts, Fitzroy Crossing, WA, Australia.

2007 Living Water - Randell Lane Fine Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

Women Artists of Fitzroy Crossing - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2005 Wangkatjungka - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

True Colours - Griffith University Art Gallery (with Suzanne O’Connell and Dell Gallery), Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Surprise... Cory and Friends - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

Too Much Good Work - Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2004 Ngurrara Canvas - Perth International Arts Festival, Perth Concert Hall, Perth, WA, Australia.

2003 Jila, Jumu, Jiwari & Wirrkuja - University of Western Australia (Cullity Gallery), Perth, WA, Australia.

2002 Recent Works from Mangkaja Arts - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Wangkatjungka - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Short on Size - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

2001 Fitzroy Women - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Ngurrara Canvas - National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Short on Size - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

2000 Short on Size - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Past Modern - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

1999 Short on Size - Short St Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Tjigila Nada RAWLINS

Nada - Yimirri Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 120 x 90cm 360/15

This jila ngapa (living spring) is right in the middle of a warla (lake). When you walk from the jilji (sandhill) side, you can see the jila Yimirri and the water rising up from it.

Tjigila Nada Rawlins tells how the ancestral spirit snake sees them walking up and they would sing out to that snake to send ngapa (water) their way.

Lisa UHL

Birth Date Language Place of Birth Skin/Clan

circa 1976 Wangkajunga Derby Mindi Rardi

Lisa is a young woman living in Fitzroy Crossing in the West Kimberley area of Western Australia. Her language group is Wangkajungka and she has lived all of her life in Fitzroy Crossing.

With mesmerising effect, Lisa illustrates her love of country through her rhythmic, abstracted paintings, recalling the stories she has been told by her elders, more specifically by her mother Mrs. Snell.

Mrs. Snell raised Lisa since she was an infant, ever since Lisa’s biological mother, and Mrs. Snell’s sister, passed away.

Not uncommonly for people of her generation, Lisa has never been to the country she has inherited from her ancestors. Her works then, are a tapestry of anecdotallyacquired knowledge, and an empirical experience referencing the humidity and expanse of the Kimberley.

Collections Artbank Collection, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Patrick Corrigan Collection, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Murdoch University Art Collection, Perth, WA, Australia.

Harriett & Richard England Collection, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Awards 2015 Finalist - John Stringer Prize (JSP), Collectors Club of Western Australia Inc., Perth, WA, Australia.

2013 Finalist - Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA, Australia.

2012 Best Oils and Acrylic Painting - Kimberley Art Prize, Shire of Derby/West Kimberley, Derby, WA, Australia.

2011 Emerging Artist Award - Kimberley Art Prize, Shire of Derby/West Kimberley, Derby, WA, Australia.

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2014 Turtujarti - Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Trees (Mana) - Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

2013 Lisa Uhl - Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

2012 Lisa Uhl - Seva Frangos Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

Selected Group Exhibitions 2016 Pinakarriluny Marnalunya Ngalimpakura Artists Jarlu Palu Wantinya (in dedication to our artists who have left us) - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

2015 John Stringer Prize (JSP), Collectors Club of Western Australia Inc., Perth, WA, Australia.

Salon des Refusés, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Everybody’s Prints – New Work from Mangkaja Arts - Nomad Art, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2014 Pica Salon - Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA), Perth, WA, Australia.

2013 HERE&NOW13 - Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

2012 Wirrinyiya ngaragngarag birra ngamoo ngamoo – Mangkaja Arts 21 Year Anniversary - Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

2009 Life in the Kimberley - Mangkaja Art Centre, Fitzroy Crossing, WA & Disability in the Art (DADAA), Fremantle, WA, Australia.

This is the Kurrkapi tree that grows out in the desert. You can eat the nectar and it is good for shade.

Lisa UHL

Kurrkapi Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 120 x 240cm 335a-b/15

Lisa UHL

Turtujarti (Walnut Trees) Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 152.5 x 152.5cm 259/15

These walnut trees grow out in the desert, also known as Turtujarti. The trees can be found in the desert in Lisa’s mother’s country, and they are a prominent flora at the Kurtal waterhole. Turtujarti trees are valuable for their walnuts, which can be eaten when cooked, and also used for a black dye or paint.

The layering of Lisa’s colours creates an atmospheric rhythm within her works, which speaks of the humidity and expanse of the Kimberley.

Amazingly, Lisa has never seen these trees, yet she depicts them through the stories and knowledge that has been passed on to her by her aunt, Mrs. Snell, who raised her from an infant. Whilst speaking to Lisa, Mrs. Snell recalls that these trees are good for shade and you can collect honey from them. In her country of Kaningarra, they could sleep under these trees for a long time.

This is the Kurrkapi tree that grows out in the desert. You can eat the nectar and it is good for shade.

Lisa UHL

Kurrkapi Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 60 x 180cm 324/14

Lisa UHL

Kurrkapi Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 120 x 120cm 229/15

This is the Kurrkapi tree that grows out in the desert. You can eat the nectar and it is good for shade.

Lisa UHL

Turtujarti (Walnut Trees) Cast Aluminium - Edition of 10 50 x 50 x 10cm 218g/15

These walnut trees grow out in the desert, also known as Turtujarti. The trees can be found in the desert in Lisa’s mother’s country, and they are a prominent flora at the Kurtal waterhole. Turtujarti trees are valuable for their walnuts, which can be eaten when cooked, and also used for a black dye or paint.

The layering of Lisa’s colours creates an atmospheric rhythm within her works, which speaks of the humidity and expanse of the Kimberley.

Amazingly, Lisa has never seen these trees, yet she depicts them through the stories and knowledge that has been passed on to her by her aunt, Mrs. Snell, who raised her from an infant. Whilst speaking to Lisa, Mrs. Snell recalls that these trees are good for shade and you can collect honey from them. In her country of Kaningarra, they could sleep under these trees for a long time.

Lisa UHL

Turtujarti (Walnut Trees) Silkscreen Print on 76 x 56cm 250gsm Paper - Edition of 20 57 x 76cm 302/14

These walnut trees grow out in the desert, also known as Turtujarti. The trees can be found in the desert in Lisa’s mother’s country, and they are a prominent flora at the Kurtal waterhole. Turtujarti trees are valuable for their walnuts, which can be eaten when cooked, and also used for a black dye or paint.

The layering of Lisa’s colours creates an atmospheric rhythm within her works, which speaks of the humidity and expanse of the Kimberley.

Amazingly, Lisa has never seen these trees, yet she depicts them through the stories and knowledge that has been passed on to her by her aunt, Mrs. Snell, who raised her from an infant. Whilst speaking to Lisa, Mrs. Snell recalls that these trees are good for shade and you can collect honey from them. In her country of Kaningarra, they could sleep under these trees for a long time.

Available Editions: 8/20 9/20

Senior Mangkaja Artists Working on a Collaborative Painting Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

In collaboration with In conjunction with

In collaboration with In loving memory of Mrs. Snell 1933 - 2015

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