Martuwarra (Revisited) - Sonia Kurarra Solo

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

Martuwarra (Revisited) Sonia Kurarra Solo

02 Mar – 31 Mar 2022

Online Exhibition

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

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

i n d i g e n o u s

a r t

Sonia Kurarra I © Mangkaja Arts

Introduction The ReDot Fine Art Gallery is honoured to be able to announce yet another ground-breaking solo exhibition for one of Western Australia’s most important, and collectable, living artists.

In 2014 we hosted the first overseas solo exhibition for Sonia Kurarra, of the Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Aboriginal Corporation, and it has been an amazing journey ever since.

In the subsequent years her work has gathered steady international recognition, been collected by most major institutions with Indigenous collections, and she has won countless accolades and industry awards.

In the interim years, we have exhibited her alongside her community art centre colleagues, but in 2020 we decided it was time to refocus the spotlight on this extremely talented and important Indigenous woman and finally the show is ready for all to admire.

Sonia Kurarra I © Mangkaja Arts

When Sonia first exploded onto the Australian art scene, her work was characterised as “Mighty swirls of wild colour” by the then Mangkaja Arts Co-ordinator, Katie McGuire, and it would have been better known sooner she added, “if the artist hadn’t been inclined to ‘go walkabout” all the time!

She went on to explain “I think she and I have bonded in the 12 months I’ve been here, and that’s reassured her that painting really is better than charging off all over the country.

But, even in the studio she’s a real drama queen with style and lots of heart. She paints from the heart – it’s all bottled up inside her and she just has to let it out”.

Sonia was born by a billlabong at Noonkanbah community, on a Kimberley cattle station 50/60 years ago. Her parents were Walmajarri whose movements led them to live by the Fitzroy River.

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 before finding her true calling and focusing her time on her own artistic practice for over 25 years now.

Initially she exhibited as part of the cooperative, finding her place alongside other heavy weights of this important community art centre, such as Cory Surprise, Stumpy Brown and Paji Honeychild, to name but a few. But, as her talents started to be recognised, she soon commanded the stage on her own, and her first solo show was not long in being realised, in 2009 in Sydney.

Not in her wildest imagination could Katie have guessed just what an important and dominant Indigenous artist she was releasing on the domestic and international art scene when she arranged that first show in Sydney!

We were honoured to be the first international gallery to host a solo show and we remain honoured to be one of her most important points of connection with the collector community throughout the world.

Mangkaja artists are renowned for their uninhibited style and lively use of colour, and no artist

Sonia Kurarra I © Mangkaja Arts

She lived on bush foods rather than Western tucker – so fish, turtles and bush bananas were vital to her survival, and are “etched into her psyche”, coming out on her canvases recanted Ms. McGuire. “She’s a fabulous sculptor in paint, building layer upon layer – with no idea of planning her art. It’s all expressionistic compulsion, with a deep bush knowledge”.

epitomises this more accurately than Sonia. 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, pandanus trees or the water itself, in all the wonderous colours of the rainbow!

Martuwarra (Revisited) is a celebration of Sonia’s painting repertoire, with works on three different mediums across almost the entirety of her painting career.

With more than 40 works within the catalogue, it also boasts the accolade of being the largest ever collection of work to be offered to the collecting community.

I hope you enjoy this painstakingly curated body of work, which has taken forever to pull together and feels mature enough to finally bring to the art world.

Giorgio Pilla Director ReDot Fine Art Gallery

Sonia Kurarra working al fresco I © Mangkaja Arts

“Martuwarra is my river country; this painting is all about the Fitzroy River which flows down through Noonkanbah where I live.

All kinds of fish live in the water, we catch big mob of fish here. I like Parlka (barramundi). We catch catfish and brim here too. Nganku (shark), Wirritunany (swordfish) and Stingray also live here. These fish live in these waters long after the flood has gone.

Also, these painting is about barramundi swimming on the surface of the water, you can also see the Wakiri (pandanus tree) and rocks all around. When the barramundi get tired they go back into the rock holes. These rock holes hold all the Parlka (barrumundi) that live in the river. Kalpurtu (creator serpent type being) also live in these rock holes and swim all around the Palma (creeks) and all around the Wakiri that grows in the river.”

Sonia Kurarra working al fresco I © Mangkaja Arts

CANVAS (2010 - 2015)

Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 160 x 160cm 112/13

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Installation Shot – Martuwarra (Revisited) I © Mangkaja Arts

Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Artist Acrylic on 14oz Canvas 180 x 120cm 2/13

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 180 x 120cm 5/13

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 180 x 120cm 96/13

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Installation Shot – Martuwarra (Revisited) I © Mangkaja Arts

Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 180 x 120cm 114/13

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 180 x 120cm 210/13

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 120 x 120cm 78/13

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic Paint on 14oz Canvas 90 x 90cm 585/12

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Sonia Kurarra working on a canvas I © Mangkaja Arts

CANVAS (2020 ONWARDS)

Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Artist Acrylic on 14oz Canvas 150 x 120cm 331/20

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Artist Acrylic on 14oz Canvas 120 x 120cm 332/20

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Artist Acrylic on 14oz Canvas 180 x 68cm 240/20

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Artist Acrylic on 14oz Canvas 120 x 90cm 295/20

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Artist Acrylic on 14oz Canvas 120 x 90cm 299/20

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Artist Acrylic on 14oz Canvas 180 x 60cm 435-21

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Artist Acrylic on 14oz Canvas 100 x 100cm 334/20

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Atelier Artist Acrylic on 14oz Canvas 120 x 60cm 471-21

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Sonia Painting her Country (2012) I © Mangkaja Arts

POLY CARBONATE

Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Acrylic Paint on 3mm Poly-Carbonate 200 x 60cm 287/19

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Acrylic Paint on 3mm Poly-Carbonate 90 x 90cm 335/18

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Acrylic Paint on 3mm Poly-Carbonate 120 x 60cm 41/17

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Exhibited at TARNANTHI 2017 (AGSA)

Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Acrylic Paint on 3mm Poly-Carbonate 120 x 60cm 156/17

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Exhibited at TARNANTHI 2017 (AGSA)

Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Acrylic Paint on 3mm Poly-Carbonate 120 x 60cm 451/18

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Acrylic Paint on 3mm Poly-Carbonate 90 x 60cm 139/17

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Sonia KURARRA Martuwarra Acrylic Paint on 3mm Poly-Carbonate 90 x 60cm 140/17

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WORKS ON PAPER

335/20 Details

337/20 Details

279/21 Details

2/16 Details

565/07 Details

572/07 Details

573/07 Details

Suite of Sonia Kurarra’s Works on Paper, exhibited at Hanging Valley (2016) I © Mangkaja Arts

271/15 Details

286/15 Details

287/15 Details

288/15 Details

291/15 Details

274/15 Details

1/16 Details

393/16 Details

397/16 Details

400/16 Details

402/16 Details

265/15 Details

xxx Birth Date Place of Birth Language Skin/Clan

xx.

Collections Lxs

Awards 2010

Tx

x x x x

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 Kurarra painting in the studio, 2018 I © Mangkaja Arts

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

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

Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA), Perth, WA, Australia.

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

Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art (AAMU), Utrecht, Netherlands.

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.

Awards 2021

2020 2019

2018

2016 2015

2012

Finalist - Hadley Art Award – Hadley’s Orient Hotel. Hobart, TAS, Australia.

38th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Art Award (NATSIAA) - Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

37th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Art Award (NATSIAA) - Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

36th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Art Award (NATSIAA) - Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

Finalist - Dobell Drawing Prize, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Finalist - Hadley Art Award – Hadley’s Orient Hotel. Hobart, TAS, Australia.

35th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island Art Award (NATSIAA) - Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), Darwin, NT, Australia.

Finalist - The Wynne Prize - Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Finalist - Port Hedland Art Awards 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.

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 2022

Portals of Love and Loss - Lawrence Wilson Gallery - Perth Festival, WA, Australia.

Martuwarra (Revisited) – Sonia Kurarra Solo - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

2021 Sonia Kurarra - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2020 Sonia Kurarra - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2016 Sonia - Hanging Valley, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

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 2020

2019

Ten - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Mangkaja Stars, Legacy to Uphold - Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium.

Mangkaja Perspex - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Creative Growth Artists - Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY, USA. Journey through Culture - Tarnanthi - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore @ Nth Space, Adelaide, SA, Australia, Meeting Places: Mangkaja Arts and Creative Growth - Creative Growth, Oakland, CA, USA. The National 2019 - Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Desert River Sea - Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA), Perth, WA, Australia.

2016 2015

2014 2013 2011 2009

2008

2007

2003

Two Sisters - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Tanarnthi – Mangkaja Artists - Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Mangkaja Waters - Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

Collector Spotlight – 2017 - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Sonia Kurarra I © Mangkaja Arts

2019 2017

Works on Paper - Price List Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic, 200gsm Velin Arches I 55.5 x 75.5cm I 335/20

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Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic, 200gsm Velin Arches I 55.5 x 75.5cm I 337/20

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Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic, 250gsm Velin Arches I 56 x 76cm I 279/21

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Martuwarra Coloured Pencil, 250gsm Velin Arches I 56 x 76cm I 2/16

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River Atelier Acrylic, 150gsm Bockingford I 76 x 56cm I 565/07

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River Atelier Acrylic, 150gsm Bockingford I 76 x 56cm I 572/07

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Makurru Pamarr Atelier Acrylic, 150gsm Bockingford I 56 x 76cm I 573/07

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Martuwarra Graphite and Paint, 250gsm Velin Arches I 56 x 76cm I 1/16

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Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic, 250gsm Velin Arches I 56 x 76cm I 393/16

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Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic, 250gsm Velin Arches I 56 x 76cm I 397/16

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Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic, 250gsm Velin Arches I 56 x 76cm I 400/16

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Martuwarra Atelier Acrylic, 250gsm Velin Arches I 56 x 76cm I 402/16

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

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