Sydney Contemporary 2023

Visit us at Booth A11 (First Section) at Carriageworks, September 07 - 10 for Sydney Contemporary 2023.

We're delighted to be presenting NextGen Ernabella - dynamic and innovative paintings by younger generation artists Janice Stanley, Lynette Lewis, Michelle Lewis and Tjulyata Kulyuru from Australia's oldest continuously running art centre - Ernabella Arts.

Backgrounding the work of these young artists is that of senior artist Yurpiya Lionel. One of Ernabella's most revered artists, Lionel's soft-hued, fine-lined paintings of both the place, Anumara in the far west of the APY Lands, and its eponymous caterpillar dreaming site have become sought after internationally.

Each of the four younger generation artists and Yurpiya Lionel have evolved significant painting careers and become well known for their fresh and exciting interpretations of ancient stories. Forty-four-year-old Lynette Lewis's paintings depict the ripples in the sand created by wind at a large red sand dune near Ernabella. Fluid and richly coloured, the paintings by Michelle Lewis - Lynette's younger sister - evoke the quiet beauty of her country in its vast scale, with landforms and riverbeds depicted, as though from an aerial perspective. Forty-five-year-old Tjulyata Kulyuru's striking and sophisticated linear abstracts document the all-important waterholes (tjukula) sites of her Country. Youngest of the group, 36-year-old Janice Stanley is the granddaughter of one of Ernabella’s most well-known founding artists and cultural leaders - the late Tjariya Stanley. In washes of luminous colour and meandering line, Janice's paintings depict the Pantu (Salt Lakes) of an important Seven Sisters site at Mt Connor.

Contrasting with these colour-rich works are unique paperbark, feathers and bush string Spirit Poles by senior Maningrida sculptor Jack Nawilil. Winner of the 2012 Wandjuk Marika 3D Award of the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Award, Nawilil’s poles are sculptures of his own creation. The narratives that they represent however, span multiple places, clans and events that cover vast distances and timeframes. Made from textured fibre work, these unique Spirit Poles exude a timeless presence that seamlessly melds the ancient and the contemporary.