2017
January, 2017
National Gallery's Quinquennial Announced
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 05.01.17
On 5th December, the National Gallery of Australia quietly announced its program for 2017 – so quietly that I (and, I suspect, most other journalists) totally failed to notice the revival of their series of Indigenous Triennials. As these exhibitions...» Read More
Fate of AAMU and its Collection
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 11.01.17
The Aboriginal Art Directory has had an opportunity to interview Dr Georges Petitjean, AAMU Curator. Our first question to him was, what will happen to the AAMU Permanent Collection? GP: We hope to find another museum or institution to take...» Read More
ART & POLITICS
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 12.01.17
Two major art exhibitions have opened in Sydney – one by a Western art-trained Aboriginal artist and one by an untrained Sri Lankan-born criminal – and both turn for their success or failure on politics. For, of course, Myuran Sukumaran...» Read More
THE SEASON
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 13.01.17
Readers of the Aboriginal Art Directory should be familiar with the evocative photos of Ricky Maynard, the Tasmanian Aboriginal who introduced us to the world of Birding – the annual tradition of heading for the Bass Strait islands (where many...» Read More
1967 CELEBRATION
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 18.01.17
As mentioned in my commentary on Vernon Ah Kee's 'Not an Animal or a Plant' exhibition, this year's Sydney Festival is taking early advantage of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum which officially acknowledged Ah Kee's humanity – and...» Read More
WHAT BLOODY MAN IS THAT?
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 23.01.17
To be honest, I thought I was going to hate this show – being greeted by a hearty drag queen, his language ripe and his ear-rings glittering. This act continued from the stalls for a while, telling a distinctly queenie...» Read More
Kudditji Kngwarreye Dies
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 24.01.17
Kudditji Kngwarreye died yesterday in Alice Springs after a long illness. Born in the 1920's, Kudditji Kngwarreye was half-brother to the famous Emily Kame Kngwarreye (dec. 1996). An Anmatyerre Elder and custodian of many important Dreamings in Utopia, including the...» Read More
February, 2017
BAYALA
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 06.02.17
“Language is the one thing that underpins our culture as a race”, declared 'Uncle' Stan Grant Snr at a key talking session during the Sydney Festival. And Bayala means 'speak' in the local Sydney language bayalaed by the various groups...» Read More
Japanese 'Didg' Star in Sydney
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 07.02.17
News Source: Press Release Japanese artist and musician, Hiroki Morimoto, more popularly known as the artist Goma, is being brought to Sydney for the first time by The Japan Foundation for a special performance of his didgeridoo music for one...» Read More
Warlpiri Act of Memory
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 09.02.17
Today, the UNESCO 'Memory of the World' Australian Register has accepted on to a list of just 57-precious items a collection of drawings made by Warlpiri people in the 1950s. It consists of 169 crayon drawings collected by noted anthropologist...» Read More
KATTER'S LAW
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.02.17
Yesterday independent MP Bob Katter introduced a private bill to the Federal Parliament which he hopes will stop non-Indigenous people - including foreigners - from exploiting and profiting from the "oldest culture on earth" through the sale of fake Aboriginal...» Read More
FURTHER THOUGHTS ON KATTER'S BILL
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 16.02.17
The generally positive reception for Bob Katter MP's introduction into Parliament of a Bill to prohibit “unfair practices in supplying and trading in Indigenous art and merchandise”, about which I wrote on Tuesday, lead me to think further and recall...» Read More
Local Aborigines Back SA Windfarm
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 20.02.17
Despite massive controversy in Canberra about the benefits of renewable energy and its effect on statewide blackouts in South Australia, the irony has emerged that Parliament House's lights are actually going to be powered in future by the wind blowing...» Read More
QUICKSILVER
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 24.02.17
Nicolas Rothwell surprises, delights...and frustrates. The premiere writer about Indigenous culture in the country has written a book (though it's advertised as a collection of essays) which is poised on the brink of being a definitive study of the relationship...» Read More
National Indigenous Art Gallery for Alice Springs?
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 26.02.17
The relatively new Northern Territory Labor Government’s $50 million election commitment to build an Iconic National Indigenous Art Gallery is a major step closer with the announcement of two prominent Aboriginal Central Australians as Co-Chairs for the project's Steering Committee....» Read More
March, 2017
JASPER JONES
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 07.03.17
Is this new Australian film an Aboriginal film? It's a good question. For it's named after the “mixed race outcast” (played by Aaron McGrath from the excellent 'Gods of Wheat Street' and 'The Secret River' on TV) and is directed...» Read More
MR TIMMS PASSES
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 07.03.17
Senior Gija artist Mr Timms (Ngarrmaliny) passed away unexpectedly last week at Halls Creek, bringing to an end one of The Kimberley's longest and most prestigious art careers. Mr Timms was a founding member and Chairman of Jirrawun Arts, a...» Read More
50,000 YEARS IN A HAIR
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 11.03.17
Here is how the prestigious international magazine, 'Nature' announced one of the most fascinating scientific projects revealing Australia's extraordinary Indigenous past on March 8th: “Aboriginal Australians represent one of the longest continuous cultural complexes known. Archaeological evidence indicates that Australia...» Read More
INDIGENOUS STORIES IN CLAY
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.03.17
When a gallery that specialises in three dimensional art – whether in glass or clay – puts its mind to the Indigenous realm, then the result is likely to be pretty comprehensive. Anna Grigson from Sydney's Sabbia Gallery used to...» Read More
Hector Burton
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 23.03.17
It is with great regret that the Aboriginal Art Directory reports the death of one of the great men of the APY Lands – Hector Tjupuru Burton: Red Ochre laureate, artist, traditional elder, Christian pastor and polemicist. It has to...» Read More
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS ART GALLERY FOR ALICE PROGRESSES
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 24.03.17
The Northern Territory Government’s vision to build an Iconic National Indigenous Art Gallery in Alice Springs has received a major boost with a host of prominent industry experts joining the project Steering Committee. The Co-CEO of Hobart’s world-renowned Museum of...» Read More
Tracey Goes over the Horizon to Venice
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 24.03.17
Indigenous photographer and film-maker, Tracey Moffatt has revealed just a few hints (and one image) of her contribution to this year's prestigious Venice Biennale. Called 'My Horizon', she has used a studio in the National Parks complex on Middle Head,...» Read More
Zach's Ceremony
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 29.03.17
A documentary film which featured at the Sydney Film Festival last June, and which Jeremy Eccles reviewed, is now hitting cinemas around Australia. We're re-running his review so he can you why it's well worth the outing. (Note: Zach's Ceremony...» Read More
Milingimbi's Auction
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 29.03.17
In August of last year, Aboriginal Art Directory writer Jeremy Eccles wrote a review of an exhibition then headed for the Art Gallery of NSW to showcase the work of artists from Milingimbi from the 1950s. In it, he wrote...» Read More
April, 2017
A PARTING OF THE WAYS
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 04.04.17
To own so much art that you can hold not one but three auction sales of it – the latest of more than 150 works - may seem a tad excessive. But any time spent with Liz Laverty – widow...» Read More
ALL IS REVEALED IN THE WEST
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 05.04.17
The annual Revealed Exhibition this weekend in Perth features works by more than 75 new and emerging WA Aboriginal artists from 23 art centres all over the state, showcasing the diverse and vibrant condition of contemporary Aboriginal art in the...» Read More
The Indigenous Art Market - An Insider's Observation
Posted by Ralph Hobbs | 05.04.17
About the Author Ralph Hobbs is a giant of a man, looking more like a gym instructor than an art dealer. His Sydney CBD business - Nanda/Hobbs - is as imaginative in its ways of dealing art as the surrounding...» Read More
Biennale of Sydney Artists Announced
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 06.04.17
Mami Kataoka, Artistic Director of the 21st Biennale of Sydney, today revealed the first group of 21 artists selected for the Asia Pacific’s leading contemporary art event. With around 70 artists expected to be included in the 21st Biennale, this...» Read More
CAIRNS FAIRS UP
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.04.17
Now in its eighth year, the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) is a celebration of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts cultures of Queensland. It's also one of the town's biggest drawcards, attracting a record 51,000 people to its...» Read More
THE NATIONAL
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 20.04.17
What is conjured by a title like 'The National'? For Poms, it's a horse race at Aintree; for the writers in the opening stanza's catalogue, it's an opportunity to consider whether Australia actually is a nation; for the art punters...» Read More
Yulparitja Rugs
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 21.04.17
The Yulparitja artists of Bidyadanga near Broome have used their agency with that town's Short St Gallery to supply their art to Sydney company, Designer Rugs to produce a set of substantial floor-coverings. Five masters of Yulparitja art - Weaver...» Read More
2017 NATSIAAs
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 27.04.17
The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is excited to announce that 66 artists have been selected from 300 entries to be part of the country's most prestigious national Indigenous art awards, the Telstra National Aboriginal and...» Read More
May, 2017
PARRTJIMA 2.0
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 18.05.17
The NT Government has announced the appointment of Rhoda Roberts AO as curator of the second annual Parrtjima – A Festival in Light event in Alice Springs, running from Friday, 22 September to Sunday, 1 October 2017. Roberts has a...» Read More
Blak Douglas Finds Home at the NGA
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 21.05.17
1. You already have one artwork in the National Gallery of Australia Collection, now the NGA has acquired The Lucky Country series too. I'm elated to have had the highly provocative suite of digital prints titled The Lucky Country acquired...» Read More
BRIAN ROBINSON WINS HAZELHURST WOP
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 21.05.17
On Friday, Sutherland Shire Council announced Torresian Brian Robinson from Cairns as the winner of the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award 2017 for his work entitled 'Land Sea Sky – Charting our place in the universe' (2016). Brian Robinson has...» Read More
Indigenous Art Curators Off to Venice
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 22.05.17
The Australia Council for the Arts has announced that nine established Aboriginal Art Curators are taking part in an international exchange program at the 57th Biennale in Venice. Ozco's Executive Director Strategic Development and Advocacy, Dr Wendy Were explained that...» Read More
Dr. Gumana, AO 1935-2016
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 22.05.17
Aboriginal Art Directory is delighted to offer this eulogy delivered at Gangan Homeland in Arnhemland on 18 January 2017 by Barbara Spencer, former Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Cultural Foundation, as a tribute to the inspirational Dr Gumana. With her...» Read More
Leah Purcell Wins Prize for Playwriting & Book of the Year
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 23.05.17
Leah Purcell has been awarded the Nick Enright Prize for Playwrighting ($30,000) in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, and also the Book of the Year ($10,000), for The Drover's Wife. It's hoped that the play (which ran at Sydney's Belvoir...» Read More
NGA QUINQUENNIAL 2017
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 27.05.17
Oh, so many words, but so little new art that really excites! Let's start with the National Gallery's curator Tina Baum's mantra for the whole event: We defy: By existing; By determining our identity; By asserting our histories; our culture;...» Read More
Red Ochre for Ken Thaiday
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 28.05.17
The delightfully modest Ken Thaiday Snr from the Torres Strait has taken out Indigenous culture's most important award – the 2017 Red Ochre. Selected by his peers and managed by the Australia Council, no Torresian has been recognised since 2005,...» Read More
June, 2017
Barks Bigger than Ben Hur
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 05.06.17
The bark paintings of Australia's Aboriginal North, so easily put into the shade by the brilliant acrylics of the Deserts, are coming out into the sun. As a foretaste, the Queensland Art Gallery is bringing out Masterworks from the Janet...» Read More
Grayson Perry Going Indigenous?
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 07.06.17
Remember Grayson Perry, the out-spoken English artist who featured at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2015 and 16 with his Hogarthian commentaries on contemporary UK life in the form of pots, tapestries, sculptures and paintings. Well, one of his...» Read More
THAT BIG FELLAR UP THERE
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 12.06.17
“That Big Fellar.....” is none other than the Southern Cross, the 5 stars that grace the sky in the Southern Hemisphere, and feature on our national flag (or flags, if you're a devotee of the Eureka flag). Well, that's what...» Read More
Ghost-Nets Straddle the World
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 13.06.17
There are three spin-offs from last year's exhibition, Australia: Defending the Oceans at the Heart of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art, held at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, currently viewable around the world. And the most exciting is at...» Read More
Art for the Environment
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 14.06.17
The Environmental Defenders Office of the Northern Territory (EDO NT) is again holding an online Aboriginal art auction to raise funds for its important work (advising and acting for individuals, traditional owners, community groups and conservation groups seeking to protect...» Read More
COUNTRY COMES TO SYDNEY
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 20.06.17
After the wit, imagination and depth of traditional story-telling in Warwick Thornton's opening night film at the Sydney Film Festival, it was always going to be hard for other Indigenous film-makers to compete. Works that I saw include the new...» Read More
Blak Markets at Barangaroo
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 23.06.17
The Blak Markets will return to Sydney’s spectacular harbour headland park, Barangaroo Reserve, with an Aboriginal art market on Sunday, 2 July. Taking place at the beginning of NAIDOC Week, the family-friendly event will be a celebration of Australia’s rich...» Read More
JIMMY CHI
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 27.06.17
The Broome-based playwright who wrote the wonderful Australian musical play, Bran Nue Dae, later turned into a popular film, has died. Jimmy Chi passed away in Broome Hospital yesterday afternoon aged 69. Chi was born in 1948 to a Chinese/Japanese/Anglo-Australian...» Read More
July, 2017
BENNELONG
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 02.07.17
“Bennelong is in all of us, as we navigate the ancient and modern elements of our lives”. These words of choreographer Stephen Page in the program for his latest dance biography of the man who probably called himself Wollarawarre, but...» Read More
TJUNGUṈUTJA - from having come together
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 05.07.17
“The efflorescence of imagery that struck in the hothouse conditions of the Men’s Painting Room will never be repeated, for these works were created at the moment when the epic songlines that connect Aboriginal Australia were unveiled”. John Kean should...» Read More
ART ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 11.07.17
Major Indigenous art exhibitions and/or art fairs are opening this month in Queensland and Western Australia – two, in fact in Queensland, headed by the annual Cairns Indigenous Art Fair this weekend. As I wrote earlier, CIAF is exploring the...» Read More
TARNANTHI IN OCTOBER
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 11.07.17
Artistic Director, Nici Cumpston has announced highlights of the program for the biennial 2017 TARNANTHI: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art , which returns to Adelaide this October. There will be a major exhibition at the Art...» Read More
YOU ARE HERE
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 13.07.17
Presented by actress Miranda Tapsell, the TV series of films under the title of You Are Here explores the place of Indigenous people in Australia today. Included in the series are Warwick Thornton’s We Don’t Need a Map, Erica Glynn’s In...» Read More
The End of AAMU
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.07.17
Sadly, the Aboriginal Art Museum of Utrecht (in the Netherlands) is no more. It was innovative, didactic in introducing the Dutch to our Indigenous cultures, it was challenging, it even had a collecting budget! I wonder whether it was ever...» Read More
Anangu Artist Wins $100,000 Prize
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 17.07.17
A drawing by Aboriginal artist Peter Mungkuri has taken out the inaugural Hadley's Art Prize, which claims to be the world's richest landscape art prize. Mungkuri will take home $100,000 for his ink on Somerset-paper drawing, Ngura Wiru, which means...» Read More
APY ART DOMINATES THE WYNNE
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 20.07.17
After last year's triumphant win by the five Ken Sisters from Amata in the Art Gallery of NSW's annual Wynne Prize for landscape painting, artists across the Lands have got hugely competitive this year! Nine major canvases by them have...» Read More
August, 2017
SCHOLL'S NEXT MOVE
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 02.08.17
Dennis Scholl may have fired up Aboriginal art on the US stage with his overnight Damascene discovery in 2008 of abstraction in Indigenous paintings, leading to a collection that had reached 320 works just a few years later, followed by...» Read More
ABORIGINAL ART ECONOMICS
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 08.08.17
At a time when the whole future of the Indigenous relationship with non-Indigenous Australia is up for discussions like last night's eloquent ABC TV 'Q&A' program, the centrality of art-making to both the cultural and economic life of remote communities...» Read More
Natsiaas 2017
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 11.08.17
Given the anniversaries celebrated this year - the 1967 Referendum, the Mabo verdict, etc - and the recent Uluru Statement process, it was perhaps inevitable that the 2017 NATSIAAs would feel profoundly political. And that's not just the Big Telstra...» Read More
Lighting up the MacDonnell Ranges
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 27.08.17
The Parrtjima Festival of Light will colour bomb around two kilometres of the MacDonnell Ranges with a light show accompanied to music for a second year. Running over 10 consecutive nights, the location (just outside of Alice Springs) attracted some...» Read More
September, 2017
Carnivale at Bundaberg
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 06.09.17
Bundaberg, the gateway to the Southern Great Barrier Reef, will play host to a troupe of local and touring artists, acrobats, writers, filmmakers, choir singers and Indigenous designers from 6 to 15 October for Crush Festival 2017. The 10-day festival...» Read More
October, 2017
TARNANTHI 2017
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 10.10.17
The program has been published for the second Tarnanthi Festival in Adelaide. At the Art Gallery where Director and curator Nici Cumpston holds sway, no fewer than 189 artists are listed as showing their wares – 58 involved in the...» Read More
RETURN OF MUNGO MAN
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 11.10.17
The bones of Mungo Man, discovered in 1974 and studied in Canberra ever since, will return at last to Lake Mungo in far western NSW on Friday 17th November. And the Aboriginal Advisory Group (AAG) to the Willandra Lakes World...» Read More
Death at Kintore
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 17.10.17
Papunya Tula Artists has announced the death of artist Kumantjayi (Morris) Gibson Tjapaltjarri on Saturday 7th October 2017 at the age of about 60. Kumantjayi was the eldest son of Pintupi painting royalty, Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi and Ningura Napurrula...» Read More
The Scholls Donate Half their Art
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 23.10.17
A massive 199 pieces of Aboriginal art are being donated from the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection in Miami to three US museums. The lucky trio are the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – recent beneficiary of Indigenous...» Read More
November, 2017
PAINTING COUNTRY
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 01.11.17
Most people know and happily accept that canvases by remote Aboriginal artists may look abstract but invariably involve a representation of parts of the Country that is so important to them....rockholes, food sources, ancestral Dreaming tracks, caves, saltpans, etc etc....» Read More
The Late Mary Macha
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 02.11.17
Somehow, the Aboriginal Art Directory failed to report the death in March of a woman of great importance in the development of Aboriginal art – Mary Macha. She grew from a West Australian job in the State's Native Welfare Department...» Read More
Entries Open for 2018 NATSIAAs
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 14.11.17
Entries are open for the 2018 NATSIAAs, now awarding $80,000 in prizes including the prestigious Telstra Award (the most outstanding work in the exhibition, $50,000) and prizes in the following categories: Telstra Bark Painting Award $5000 Telstra General Painting Award...» Read More
THE APY LANDS COME TO SYDNEY
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 23.11.17
Exciting and slightly controversial news – artworks by artists from the ever-fruitful APY Lands in the north of South Australia will be sold directly to the Sydney public at a Darlinghurst gallery from next year. The news hit the ground...» Read More
20% Off until End November
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 24.11.17
A collection of seven works by the original Papunya Tula Aboriginal artists is being offered at 15-20% discount until the end of November 2017 (when the works will be removed). These paintings are arguably the best on the market at...» Read More
Moodoonuthi - 'Little One'
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 27.11.17
The second generation of the acclaimed Bentinck Island artists – famously lead by the late Sally Gabori – is emerging with its own distinctive style. Just like Gabori, who covered canvases in huge blocks of radiant colour in order to...» Read More
Great Artists, Great Stories, Limited Time
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 30.11.17
The sale of a collection of five works by the most elite of the original Papunya Masters at 15-20% discount has been extended until 25th of December 2017 (when unsold works will be withdrawn). These artists have achieved some of...» Read More
December, 2017
ONES COUNTRY - BANGARRA DANCE
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 01.12.17
The art of telling stories via dance is an imprecise one. In classical ballet there are usually familiar stories supported by emotional music and a set repertoire of gestures with which choreographers communicate different passions and essential plot developments. In...» Read More
BARBARA AND THE CAMP DOGS
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.12.17
It sounds like a rock group. It is an all-girl rock group, that just happens to be lead by the Kunwinjku/Yugoslav actor Ursula Yovich – an 'Aboriginal' actor who has achieved colour-blind cross-over into shows like 'Mother Courage', 'Snugglepot and...» Read More
TOMMY WATSON
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 18.12.17
It's been confirmed that the 82 year-old Tommy Yannima Watson has died in Alice Springs. The old man produced scores of glorious paintings reflecting an extraordinary ability to abstract his deep understanding of Pitjanjatjara law and legend, but was cruelly...» Read More
CHRISTMAS GOODIES
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 21.12.17
If you're looking for that last minute Christmas present to grace your loved ones' coffee tables for 2018, look no further than Jacquie McPhee's self-published book about her collection under the title, 'the greatest passion of all'. It's full of...» Read More
The UN comes to Sydney Airport
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 22.12.17
Sydney Airport and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) this week announced that Toowoomba-born Kamilaroi artist Archie Moore has been selected to realise a major work of contemporary art for the airport’s T1 International Terminal. 'United Neytions' is a...» Read More
