Emerging from the heart of central Australia is the most exciting and dynamic development in modern Australian art. The materials are modern -acrylic on canvas. But the content is traditional - mythical and ritual.
Whatever capital city one may visit these days, there will usually be an art gallery exhibiting works from the latest Aboriginal art movement. The demand for Aboriginal painting has probably doubled every year over the past decade and nowhere is this more evident than in central Australia.
Looks at the Santa Teresa Community 80 kilometres south of Alice Spring and home of the Arrernte people where the Keringke Arts Centre was established in 1987.
In the 1940s the name Albert Namatjira became a household word and the skill of this Arrernte artist brought the vivid colours and beauty of the central Australian landscape into the galleries and living rooms of Australia. He and other painters who lived around Hermannsburg mission and in Alice Springs came to be known as the Arrernte watercolour school.
The people of Utopia have been making important visual images for thousands of years, on their bodies and ceremonial objects. In 1977 these images leapt onto lengths of silk via the batik technique and it was in this medium that the women of Utopia went on to establish a reputation for themselvs with their powerful images and distinctive style.