Ich Bin Ein Aratjara: 20 years later

Aboriginal super-curator Djon Mundine, who travelled to Europe in 1994 as touring curator with the significant exhibition Aratjara: art of the first Australians, looks back at the genesis and reception of that exhibition. He asks where is the political impetus evident in Aratjara today and where is the Aboriginal input into the development of national survey exhibitions.

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New currency: Ryan Presley

Ryan Presley's 2011 series 'Blood Money' is remarkable. These commemorative banknotes substitute the heroes of the white Australian monoculture (Banjo Patterson, Dame Mary Gilmore, Dame Nellie Melba and Sir Henry Parkes) with Aboriginal heroes, resistance fighters such as Pemulwuy, his son Tjedaberiyn (also known as Tedbury), Dundalli and Jandamarra and others such as the Gurindji stockman Vincent Lingiari who led the Wave Hill walk-off, and the late Wik elder Gladys Tybingoompa.

Daniel Browning

Fernando do Campo: Onomatopoeia

Academy Gallery, Launceston, TAS 1 February – 8 March 2013

Deborah Malor

Artrave

Stephanie Britton

Testing Ground

Curator: Julie Gough Artists: The 1491s, Ólöf Björnsdóttir, Trudi Brinckman, Darren Cook, Rebecca Dagnall, Sue Kneebone, Nancy Mauro-Flude, Jeroen Offerman, Perdita Phillips, r e a, Keren Ruki, Christian Thompson, Martin Walch, Siying Zhou Long Gallery, Salamanca Art Centre, Hobart 14 March – 28 April 2013

Amy Jackett

Let's be polite

Editor Daniel Browning interviews artist Vernon Ah Kee who discusses the lack of criticism of Aboriginal art and the abundance of 'mass production' Aboriginal art emanating from remote communities seen by some as 'real Aboriginal art' but in the eyes of Ah Kee simply and uncritically playing into false romantic notions of the lives of Aboriginal people.

Vernon Ah Kee and Daniel Browning

The archive in the contemporary

The artworks of Danie Mellor, Brian Robinson and Christian Thompson each draw on archival material for subject matter, for inspiration, and to develop new work that harks back and forward at the same time.

Emily Cloney

Savanhdary Vongpoothorn: The Beautiful as Force

Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney 7–31 March 2013

Prue Gibson

Carving into Country: The work of Badger Bates

Brian Martin

The (white) elephant in the room: Criticising Aboriginal art

Does Aboriginal art exist in a critical vacuum?

Maurice O'Riordan

My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Interview with Bruce McLean

On curating My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia, opening at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane on 1 June 2013.

Daniel Browning

Onside

Curator: Toni Bailey Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre 9 February – 24 March 2013

Lucy Ainsworth

Rekospective

Yorta Yorta and Wiradjuri curator and lecturer Jirra Harvey traces the career of self-taught graffiti and studio artist Reko Rennie. He uses a traditional Kamilaroi patterning in neon and in graffiti as a contemporary statement of sovereignity. Harvey says: "The subtext to such works is a running narrative on government practices that work to control and restrain Aboriginal communities and the subsequent rebellion of the people."

Jirra Harvey

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