For the Elders

Overview

An exhibition in celebration of the theme of NAIDOC Week 2023  with barks, works on paper and paintings in ochre and acrylic by senior artists from Arnhem Land, Mornington Island, Central Australia, the Western Desert, the Pilbara, the APY lands and the Kimberley.

 

Each of the 19 exhibiting artists is a senior cultural leader of high degree. All have made outstanding artistic contributions to recording, maintaining and preserving their culture for future generations.  

Highlights include

• Senior Ernabella artist Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM's text-based painting that details the Seven Sisters Story relating to her Mount Connor traditional homeland
• Detailed figurative barks by leading Maningrida artist Ivan Namirrkki which strikingly combine the ancient and the contemporary 
• Rare works relating the travels of two creation sisters, by Kunmanara (Tjariya) Stanley who worked with ethnographers Charles Mountford and others from the 1940s in recording such stories for posterity 
• Martumili Artists Bugai Whyoulter's striking 3 metre painting Kalpa, portraying the Country where she and her family lived traditionally during the pujiman (bush) days. This painting was created specially (and reproduced in the catalogue/book) for the groundbreaking exhibition We Don't Need A Map which toured Australia's public galleries for 3 years, 
• Works on paper by the late Mulkun Wirrpanda from Yirrkala as seen in the public gallery touring exhibition Midarr-Harvest; Mulkun Wirrpanda and John Wolseley 
•  Winner of this year's Sulman Prize,  Doris Bush Nungurrayi's Bush Mangarri Tjuta painting commissioned as one of 6 to feature in the Art Gallery of South Australia's 2020 Tarnanthi exhibition 

 

Exhibiting artists

Alison Munti Riley, Amy Loogatha, Betty Bundamurra, Billy Benn Perrurle, Bugai Whyoulter, Djul'djul Gurruwiwi, Doris Bush Nungarrayi, Emily Cullinan, Emily Pwerle, Ivan Namirrkki, Jeannie Millls Pwerle, Kunmanara (Pantjiti) Lionel, Kunmunara (Tjariya) Nungalka Stanley, Maringka Burton, Mulkun Wirrpanda, Muluymuluy Wirrpanda, Ned Johns,  Samuel Miller, Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM. 

Exhibition current to July 17

Works
Installation Views