Aboriginal Fine Art Finds a home in Chicago

Aboriginal Art Directory | 15.04.08

News source: Aboriginal Art Collection

Aboriginal Art Collection, a New Gallery Devoted to Showcasing Established and Emerging Aboriginal Artists, to open April 11

CHICAGO – Aboriginal Art Collection, the only gallery in Chicago devoted to contemporary Aboriginal fine art, will officially open with an opening night reception April 11 from 6 to 8 p.m. at their River North space, located at 226 W. Superior, 3rd floor.

Inspired by cultural traditions and a strong spiritual connection with their ancestry, Australian Aboriginal art is a distinct and narrative art form that is frequently exemplified by vibrantly striking colors, dotted motifs and often intricate designs. Founded by Sydney natives Rena and Manuel Pulido, Aboriginal Art Collection features a wide array of work by many of Australia’s established and emerging artists.

“We are tremendously excited to bring the work of these remarkable artists to Chicago,” says Gallery Director Rena Pulido, a native Australian who ironically fell in love with contemporary Aboriginal art only after having moved to the United States. “Growing up, I was exposed to only the Aboriginal art created for tourists – didgeridoos and painted masks. While living in Chicago, I discovered the beautifully complex, powerful and sophisticated art being created by so many largely untrained Indigenous people.”

Aboriginal Art Collection features work by established artists like Gloria Petyarre, Dorothy Napangardi and Betsy Lewis, whose art reflects 40,000 years of Aboriginal tradition and history, providing rich insights into the lives of Australia’s Indigenous people. Paintings by the younger, emerging artists like Jeannie Long Petyarre and Samantha Hobson are less tied to traditional themes and techniques, but are equally impressive in their emotional impact with sweeping strokes and a more abstract style.

With a 1,500 square-foot studio space in the heart of Chicago’s Gallery District, Aboriginal Art Collection is able to provide a home to some of Australia’s most decorated Aboriginal artists. With a constantly changing collection of more than 40, works which range from $600 to $30,000. Chicagoans are not only able to experience Aboriginal art first hand, but learn the rich culture which influences it.

Aboriginal Art Collection launches their collection with an opening night reception on April 11 from 6-8 p.m. at their gallery located at 226 W. Superior, 3rd floor. With the opening, Aboriginal Art Collection will support Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago by donating 10% of their opening day sales to the Judith Nan Joy Integrative Medicine Initiative which investigates new and successful treatments to enhance wellness in children.

For more information about Aboriginal Art Collection or their art, call (312) 475-9766 or visit www.aboriginalartcollection.com

About Aboriginal Art Collection

Aboriginal Art Collection’s mission is to promote and support Australian Indigenous artists and to enable non-Indigenous people to embrace this rich culture while engendering increased knowledge of and respect for Australia’s unique heritage.

The gallery provides an opportunity for a non-Indigenous audience to have exposure to an Indigenous philosophy, culture and people that have co-existed in harmony with their environment for more than 40,000 years. Aboriginal fine art is unique in that it codifies memory and knowledge of landscape, the spirit world and tribal history. The gallery offers contemporary paintings of extraordinary quality that are both rich and affecting.

Founders Rena and Manuel Pulido were first exposed to contemporary Aboriginal art when given a copy of the Dreaming Their Way Exhibition: Australian Aboriginal Women Painters’ catalogue which was on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. and the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. in 2006. Rena and Manuel were drawn to the art’s beauty, ambiguity and contemporary abstraction. The real power of the art overwhelmed them, inspiring further research and fuelling an interest that culminated with the opening of Aboriginal Art Collection - a vehicle to feed what had become an all-consuming passion.

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