Wurna Juwal - Walking up and down, always moving, from waterhole to soak

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

Wurna Juwal Walking up and down, always moving, from waterhole to soak A Solo Show by Ngarralja Tommy May A Collection of Fine Mangkaja Indigenous Art 9 th March - 23 rd April 2016

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For a high resolution, downloadable, PDF version of the this catalogue, with pricing, please send us an email to info@redotgallery.com Thank you.

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

Wurna Juwal - Walking up and down, always moving, from waterhole to soak 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

Mangkaja Art Centre, Fitzroy Crossing 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 Mangk

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

l 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: Š Wes Maselli

Tommy May Applying Fat to a Boomerang Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

Ngarralja Tommy MAY Birth Date Language Place of Birth Skin/Clan

circa 1935 Wangkajunga / Walmajarri Yarrnkurnja Jungkurra

Ngarralja is a Wangkajunga/Walmajarri man, was born at Yarrnkurnja in the Great Sandy Desert. He dances and sings Kurtal, a ceremony relating to the main jila (living waterhole) in his country. He is also a painter and printmaker.

Ngarralja says of his early life: “I was big when I left my country. I was already hunting by myself. I was with my young brother and my mother. My father had passed away by this time. I know these stories and these places in my country. I paint these now. We are not allowed to paint that story for other people’s country. We will get killed or into trouble if we do this. We put that easy story, not a really hard story like law business.

We can’t paint that either. I first saw paintings in caves. I learned a lot from people, mostly my father and grandfather. I was living all around in my country, camping all around. When I paint I think about this.”

Ngarralja is fluent in Wangkajunga, Walmajarri and English and writes Walmajarri. He is a founding member of the Karrayili Adult Education centre where he learnt to read and write his own language and English.

Ngarralja holds an important role for art and culture in Fitzroy Crossing. He is a former Deputy Chairman of Mangkaja Arts and former Chairman of Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre (KALACC) and the Association of Northern Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA). Ngarralja was also an executive for 21 years on the ANKAAA Board of Directors.

Today, Ngarralja lives with his wife and children at Mindi Rardi Community in Fitzroy Crossing.

Collections The Arthur Roe Collection, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

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

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

Curtin University Art Collection, Perth, WA, Australia.

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia (UWA), Perth, WA, Australia.

Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

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

Carleton College, NorthďŹ eld, Minnesota, United States of America.

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

Little Creatures Brewing Collection, Fremantle, WA, Australia.

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

Fitzroy Crossing Hospital, Fitzroy Crossing, WA, Australia.

Awards 2015

2010

Winner – Best Work in a Medium other than Painting - Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA, Australia.

Sustained Contribution Award - Regional Arts Australia Volunteer Awards, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2016 Wurna Juwal - Walking up and down, always moving, from waterhole to soak ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

2009 Luka (Mud) with wife Dorothy May - Brigitte Braun Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

2007 Lau Lau - Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Jilji Jaa Marrtuwarra with wife Dorothy May - Brigitte Braun Gallery, Melbourne,

VIC, Australia.

Selected Group Exhibitions 2015 Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA, Australia.

New Frontiers - Linden New Art, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

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

2014 Pro Hart Outback Art Prize, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Broken Hill, NSW, Australia.

The City of Hobart Art Prize (Printmaking), Hobart City Council, Hobart, TAS, Australia.

2012 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.

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

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

Jumu & Wanirri - Brigitte Braun Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

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

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

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

2008 More Than a Few Good Men - Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

2007 Jilji Jaa Martuwarra (Desert Side River Side) - Brigitte Braun Gallery, Melbourne,

VIC, Australia.

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

2006 Impressions 2006 – Limited Edition Prints - Australian Print Workshop Gallery,

Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

2005 Surprise... Cory and Friends - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

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

True Colours - Griffith University Art Gallery (with Suzanne O’Connell and Dell

Gallery), Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

2004 This is Still My Country - Brigitte Braun Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

Ngurrara Canvas - Perth International Arts Festival, Perth Concert Hall, Perth,

WA, Australia.

On Track: Contemporary Aboriginal Art from Western Australia - Berndt

Museum, University of Western Australia (UWA), Perth, WA, Australia.

2004-2005 Colour Power: Aboriginal Art Post 1984 - National Gallery of Victoria

(NGV), Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

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

Perth, WA, Australia.

Murrkunkura Ngarrangkarnijangka Ngurrara (Three Men’s Countries) - Raft

Artspace, Darwin, NT, Australia.

2002 Native Title Business: Contemporary Indigenous Art - Museums and Galleries

Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia (Touring Exhibition).

The 16th Asian International Art Exhibition - Guangdong Museum of Art,

Guangzhou, China.

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

2001 Ngurrara Canvas - National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Mangkaja Arts Ten Years On, Mangkaja’s 10 Year Anniversary Show - Tandanya

National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

18th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art

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

Impressions! An Exhibition of Prints - Coomalie Cultural Centre, Batchelor, NT, Australia.

Group Exhibition - Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

2000 Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Fremantle, WA, Australia.

People in a Landscape – Contemporary Australian Prints - Cultural Centre of the

Philippines, Manila, Philippines.

Proof Positive - Old Treasury Building, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Noumea-Pacifique 2000 - Biennale d’art contemporain de Nouméa, Nouméa,

New Caledonia.

Cutting Comments: Contemporary Lino Cut Prints 1995-98 - Silk Cut Award,

Melbourne, VIC, Australia (Touring Exhibition).

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

Story Boards: Ceramic tiles from the Kimberley - Fremantle Arts Centre,

Fremantle, WA, Australia.

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

1997 National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Old Parliament House, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

1996 Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Fremantle, WA, Australia.

13th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art

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

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

1996 Mangkaja Paper Works - Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute,

Adelaide, SA, Australia.

1995 12th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art

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

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

Prints from the Australian Print Workshop – Survey Show of Recent Works Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, 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.

11th 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.

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

WORKS ON METAL & WOOD

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Kurtal Etching on Metal with Acrylic Spray Paint and Paint Pen 80 x 60cm 367/15

This painting has song and story, singing and dancing, which is known as Inarra. The painting represents the digging, singing, and dancing that occur when the waterhole is dug. It is a ceremony for digging the jila and bringing the rain.

“On and on, this story has been told and passed on. There’s only three of us now, who were taught by the old people.”

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 70 x 55cm 198/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Enamel Paint on Tin 60 x 60cm 16/16

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Acrylic Paint Pen on 8mm Marine Plywood 72.5 x 44cm 323/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Murrlowugul Atelier Acrylic Paint and Felt Tip Pen on Plywood 60 x 40cm 2/15

This painting is a story about two men who stayed near Pirliwal.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Kurtal Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 3/15

Kurtal is a living spring. During the hot seasons, the ground is dug to reveal the spring underneath. This happens amidst great ceremony. Kurtal is a snake-like creature, who lives underground. Though he is a Karlkutu, and he can have legs. He also has a human form, and the custodians of this land become him when they die.

This is Kurtal during the cold weather time, you can see the dried white mud on the surface of the waterhole area.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Lurrdurd, Jila Ngapa Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 4/15

This is the old Dreamtime story about the time when Wangkatjungka and Gooniyandi were living together at this waterhole. The Gooniyandi man came through this country, this jila, near to Kurtal, in the dreamtime.

“He was a real man too, I knew him when I was younger, he was living at Goobadiya station, where that is now, his name was Wilja, I don’t remember his Kartiya name.”

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 173/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 174/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 175/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 176/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 177/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 178/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Wungkur Atelier Acrylic Paint on Board 45 x 61cm 190/15

This is a windbreak that you make during cold weather time. When it’s cold, two fires are put close up together and grasses are put down for a soft bed.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Kurtal Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 191/15

This painting has song and story, singing and dancing, which is known as Inarra. The painting represents the digging, singing, and dancing that occur when the waterhole is dug. It is a ceremony for digging the jila and bringing the rain.

“On and on, this story has been told and passed on. There’s only three of us now, who were taught by the old people.”

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Atelier Acrylic Paint Pen on Masonite 60 x 45cm 192/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Atelier Acrylic Paint on Plywood 60 x 40cm 197/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Acrylic Paint Pen on 8mm Marine Plywood 55 x 40cm 324/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Acrylic Paint Pen on 8mm Marine Plywood 55 x 40cm 325/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Jilji and Bila Acrylic Paint Pen on 8mm Marine Plywood 55 x 40cm 381/15

This is the sandhill country, Jilji, which goes on and on. In between the Jilji, that is called Bila, flat country. The Jilji can be close, or further apart. The land may be burnt or with the green grass that comes after. Sometimes there are flowers, Putipula, or different trees and grasses, as well as bushtucker.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Kurtal Atelier Acrylic Paint on Masonite 61 x 46cm 368/15

This painting has song and story, singing and dancing, which is known as Inarra. The painting represents the digging, singing, and dancing that occur when the waterhole is dug. It is a ceremony for digging the jila and bringing the rain.

“On and on, this story has been told and passed on. There’s only three of us now, who were taught by the old people.”

WORKS ON PAPER

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Kurtal I Etching on 250gsm Paper - Edition of 40 76 x 56cm 407/14-36/40

This etching was drawn on the plate by the artist at Fitzroy Crossing, WA and printed by APW Printers at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne in 2014.

This etching represents the Kurtal ceremonial dance, an important tjukurrpa (dreaming) story for the Walmajarri (language group of Fitzroy Valley) and a sacred site in the Great Sandy Desert. The headdresses which represents the clouds that the rainmakers create, are still used today in traditional dance by the men who hold the story for this sacred place.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Kurtal II Etching on 250gsm Paper - Edition of 40 45 x 60cm 408/14-33/40

This etching was drawn on the plate by the artist at Fitzroy Crossing, WA and printed by APW Printers at Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne in 2014.

This etching represents the Kurtal ceremonial dance, an important tjukurrpa (dreaming) story for the Walmajarri (language group of Fitzroy Valley) and a sacred site in the Great Sandy Desert. The headdresses which represents the clouds that the rainmakers create, are still used today in traditional dance by the men who hold the story for this sacred place.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Kaarti Etching on 250gsm Paper - Edition of 20 30 x 50cm 333/15-19/20

This is the bush potato. You can recognise the ground by cracks to look for the food under a specific bush.

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Kurtal Etching on 250gsm Paper - Edition of 20 30 x 50cm 334/15-19/20

This painting has song and story, singing and dancing, which is known as Inarra. The painting represents the digging, singing, and dancing that occur when the waterhole is dug. It is a ceremony for digging the jila and bringing the rain.

“On and on, this story has been told and passed on. There’s only three of us now, who were taught by the old people.”

Ngarralja Tommy MAY

Dui Etching - Edition of 30 34.5 x 25cm P008/09

This is a long hill in the artist’s country. There is a dreamtime story about the crow that was once a woman. The crow used to collect the ant eggs, which can be eaten too.

Available Editions: 9/30 10/30

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

Wesley MASELLI Birth Date

1980

Wesley Maselli is an artist and arts coordinator, trained in painting and ceramics but producing art in all disciplines. He has lived and produced art in China, Italy, and the United States, as well as the remote outback of Australia.

As an arts coordinator, Wesley has experience in several Indigenous owned art centres. He was the manager of Tjarlirli Art in Tjukurla, in the Western Desert of Central Australia, and is now studio coordinator at Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency in the Kimberley.

Recent accolades for Mangkaja Arts includes the 32nd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2015, and Wesley himself has won two awards in the same year.

Wesley currently resides in Fitzroy Crossing.

Education 2013

2007

First Class Honours – Bachelor of Visual Arts (Painting) - University of South Australia, School of Art Architecture and Design, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Bachelor of Visual Arts (Painting Major/ Ceramics Minor) - University of South Australia, School of Art Architecture and Design, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Student Exchange to Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), Hong Kong.

Awards 2015

2015

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

Winner – Oil and Acrylic Category - Kimberley Art Prize 2015, Shire of Derby/ West Kimberley, Derby, WA, Australia.

2006 Finalist - Fleurieu Peninsula Youth Art Prize, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Finalist - The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, South Australia Museum,

Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2013

2006 2005

This Man Can Predict the Price of Petrol - Araluen Cultural Centre, Alice Springs, NT, Australia.

A.B.C.W.T. Solo Show - Avalon Gallery, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Two Dogs Head-butted and Caught a Drop of Paint - University of South Australia (UniSA), Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Selected Group Exhibitions 2016 2014

2012 2007

Mangkaja Arts Group Show - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

In the Flesh - South Australian Living Artists Festival (SALA Festival), Adelaide, SA, Australia.

NAKED - The Howling Owl, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Group Show - Ironside Gallery, Arcata, CA, United States of America.

Student Group Show - Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), Hong Kong.

Wes MASELLI

Limits of Form Oil on Canvas 135 x 125cm WM201602002

“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 oft-times theomorphic identities. They have become snakes inhabiting a subliminal space. That’s the message.”

Wes MASELLI

Shopping at Shell Oil and Paint Pen on Masonite 91 x 122cm WM201602004

“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.”

Winner – Oil and Acrylic Category - Kimberley Art Prize 2015, Shire of Derby/West Kimberley, Derby, WA, Australia.

Wes MASELLI

Impressionist Melon Oil on Board 40 x 60cm WM201602001

“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’.”

Wes MASELLI

Paperbark on Margaret River Oil on Board 40 x 30cm WM201602003

“I painted this on a day with out with June and Mervyn, Gooniyandi side of the river.”

Wes MASELLI

The Jiljarri Oil on Board 30 x 40cm WM201602005

“This is a great billabong behind Bayulu Community, for fishing and swimming. Big kalpurtu in the deep end.”

In collaboration with In conjunction with

and with special thanks to Tommy

Tommy May Making Headdresses Source: Š Photo Courtesy of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency

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