Rising Queensland Indigenous artists

As leaders of unique working partnerships between the Indigenous art industry and the Queensland Government, pioneers like Judy Watson, Dennis Nona, Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell and Sally Gabori have established strong international reputations.

Published June 2011

Jo Rootsey: Painting Country

Dina Ibrahim looks at the Joe Rootsey Retrospective curated by Bruce McLean at the Queensland Art Gallery in 2010 to find an artist who in his short life achieved compelling evocations of his relationship to country.

Published June 2011

Donning Oxford

Christian Thompson who is one of the two inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholars at Oxford University writes about this experience and how it makes him think of his upbringing and the responsibility it entails. "...it is our arrival at Oxford that reminds me of how much work we still have ahead of us as young Aboriginal people and future leaders of our communities. This is something you feel as an inherent responsibility when you meet people daily from all around the world, whose communities are facing similar hardships and the symptoms of the ravages of colonisation; time is of the essence."

Published June 2011

Fiona Foley: Public and Political

Fiona Foley's recent public work has gone from strength to strength most recently at Mackay where her six large new works form a trail commemorating the Pacific and black history of the region.

Published June 2011

Landscapes and Horses: Ivan Durrant

Curator: Rodney James
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
16 February - 26 April 2011

Published June 2011

Yalangabara: Art of the Djang'kawu

'Yalangabara: Art of the Djang'kawu' curated by Banduk Marika and Margie West includes art made from 1939 till recently. All works are about the same creation story and all comprise a history of creative and spiritual custodianship by the Marika family of the Rirratjingu clan.

Published June 2011

CoBra and Aboriginal art at AAMU, Utrecht

Newtown fellow at the University of Cambridge Khadija La visited AAMU (the Musuem of Contemporary Aboriginal Art) in Utrecht to see "Breaking with Tradition" an exhibition curated by Georges Petitjean that hangs works by CoBrA artists together with work by Indigenous artists and Roar artists who work or worked in Indigenous art centres.

Published June 2011

Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route

Sarah Scott reviews and questions Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route exhibition at the National Musuem of Australa. She asks: "Why don’t the NMA’s collections of Indigenous material culture feature more strongly in their exhibition program? Why are both the NMA and the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) collecting the highly sought after and expensive works produced by major Papunya artists? If the commissioning of art and associated documentary material is a priority for the NMA what other Indigenous material culture may they be neglecting?"

Published June 2011

Paperartzi '11

Perth International Art Festival
Albany, WA
5 - 20 March 2011

Published June 2011

Sell-Abrasion of our Nations

Curator and artist Brenda Croft gets experiential in telling about Australia Day, her latest exhibition Stop (the) gap and what is shared by indigenous people around the globe.

Published June 2011

Exhibitions to Watch

Published June 2011

Why is there a donkey in that painting?

The painting is by Madigan Thomas of her first contact with pastoralists. She painted her family watching – for the first time – whitefellas traverse donkeys through her country.
ANU PHD candiate Cate Massola who worked at Warmun Art Centre for a year describes the way art and education complement each other in Gija country.

Published June 2011