2019
January, 2019
Both 'National' Aboriginal Art Galleries on Hold!
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 16.01.19
What is it about projects to create a national Indigenous/Aboriginal art or cultural centre that seems perpetually doomed? Sydney thought about it for Barangaroo, Perth has talked about it. The NT got really excited when the current ALP government was...» Read More
THE WEEKEND
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 21.01.19
What's spiriting about this Sydney Festival production is that brand new names to me in the persons of playwright Henrietta Baird and actor Shakira Clanton, and in the production company, Sydney-based Mooghalin Performing Arts were, between them, able to be...» Read More
#alwayswill be
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 21.01.19
The SBS TV spin-off, NITV is building up to a big day on 26th January with a series of top documentaries and feature films that cover some of the major stories and issues in Indigenous Australia, mostly by Aboriginal creators...» Read More
Man with the Iron Neck
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 25.01.19
It takes much courage and collaboration to put the sorry saga of youth suicide amongst Australia's Aborigines on the stage. Josh Bond started this process after personal experience; the physical theatre company Legs on the Wall took up the baton...» Read More
SPINIFEX GUM
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 27.01.19
Back in December, I previewed the Sydney Festival with its Indigenous director, Jandai man, Wesley Enoch: https://news.aboriginalartdirectory.com/2018/12/blak-out-at-the-sydney-festival.php He made it clear that 25th January – eve of Australia Day – would be Sydney's chance to consider a world before that...» Read More
TUCKSON AND TILLERS
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 30.01.19
Two essays within larger publications have caught my eye as 2019 gets underway. The first is special – a substantial catalogue for the AGNSW show of Tony Tuckson's abstract expressionism has gone further than is the norm, taking us into...» Read More
February, 2019
Discursive Announcements
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 02.02.19
The Honours system in Australia was pretty good to the arts this Australia Day: no fewer than three ACs – the top gong - though I'm bemused at the appearance of Olivia Newton-John at that stratospheric level! Then there were...» Read More
QAGOMA Pays Tribute to Mrs Ngallametta
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 05.02.19
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) today paid tribute to leading Australian artist Mrs Waal-Waal Ngallametta who passed away on 28 January at her home in Aurukun, Cape York. QAGOMA Director Chris Saines said Mrs Ngallametta...» Read More
ADELAIDE'S ABORIGINAL GALLERY PROGRESSES
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.02.19
Despite rumours to the contrary only last month, the South Australian government has shown clear signs that it really intends to go ahead with a project that will take it beyond just art and, unlike its Alice Springs rival, may...» Read More
INJALAK IN TROUBLE
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 20.02.19
It's reported by the ABC that the Injalak Art Centre at Gunbalanya in western Arnhemland has been placed in administration and that its 'Mentor Manager', Felicity Wright – a long-term art centre manager – has resigned. Only 3 years ago...» Read More
30 YEARS OF ABORIGINAL ART IN THE US
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 21.02.19
For some years now I have been suggesting that increased interest and a major market for Aboriginal art was building in America. Several private collections have gone on tour at serious art museums, individual artists like Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri have had...» Read More
DICK ROUGHSEY IS TOPS
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 22.02.19
Well not quite – but bloody close! Christie's, the international auctioneers, has put out three lists of “Must-See” exhibitions – in America, Europe and the Rest of the World. And, surprisingly, Mornington Island's Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey's 'Stories of this Land'...» Read More
THE WEST
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 26.02.19
The West is another country – its deserts and Kimberley wilderness, wheatlands and wineries, two huge areas of mining, and a capital city built on sand that's on the edge of overcoming the feeling that it could be deserted at...» Read More
March, 2019
TJUNGUNGUTJA TO ALICE
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.03.19
A little bit of history via my writing in 2017 when the important exhibition of the Museum & Art Gallery of the NT's collection of the earliest Papunya boards opened in Darwin. Now Tjungungutja – From Having Come Together moves...» Read More
Jarinyanu David Downs Collection Heads to NT
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 19.03.19
In a first for an Australian public institution, a most significant collection of works by the Kimberley artist Jarinyanu David Downs (c.1920-1995) - 23 pieces in all - has been acquired by the Museum and Art Gallery of the...» Read More
ADELAIDE'S LEAPS & BOUNDS
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 21.03.19
With a Federal election imminent, there was Liberal consensus in Adelaide as the Federal Government announced it would deliver “$129 million for a series of projects designed to boost the cultural economy of Adelaide’s world-renowned arts, food and cultural scene”....» Read More
Parrtjima and CIAF announce 2019 plans
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 27.03.19
The official program for Parrtjima – A Festival in Light 2019 has revealed a huge 10 nights of large scale light installations, artworks, workshops, talks, films and live music for the whole family. Parrtjima will again be held in the...» Read More
Kunmanara Williams Stars at The National
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 30.03.19
I start my thoughts on the very lively new tripartite exhibition in Sydney – The National 2019 – on a sad note....the death of Mumu Mike Williams, the great artist/politician from Mimili Maku art centre in the APY Lands. His...» Read More
April, 2019
Does the Souffle Rise Twice in Alice?
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 02.04.19
The Northern Territory Government insists that it is building The National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs. And to prove an advance on what had looked a process stalled when ten responsible Aboriginal Traditional Owners of the site the Government...» Read More
An Indigenous Biennale?
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 10.04.19
Well, do we have an Indigenous Sydney Biennale or not? The third oldest Biennale in the world (after Venice and Sao Paulo) has begun to announce its artists selected for next year – opening on March 14th. Along with the...» Read More
Gagosian Goes Aboriginal
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.04.19
The prodigious Gagosian Gallery has announced that it “is pleased to present a special exhibition of contemporary Indigenous Australian painting from two significant American collections - the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia and the Collection of...» Read More
May, 2019
Telstra NATSIAA finalists announced
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 01.05.19
68 Indigenous artists from across Australia have been selected as finalists for the 2019 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAAs), the country’s longest running and most illustrious Indigenous art awards. Telstra has announced that it is...» Read More
WHO'LL WIN THE WYNNE IN 2019?
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 02.05.19
It's been 4 years since anyone but an Aboriginal artist has won the country's premier prize for landscape painting – the Art Gallery of NSW's Wynne Prize. And this year may be no different as precisely half of the selected...» Read More
GAGOSIAN OPENING TONIGHT
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 03.05.19
“In a few days time an exhibition will launch in New York that will reshape the future for the Indigenous Australian art market”. That's an incredibly bold statement by Melbourne (and New York) dealer D'Lan Davidson. But then he's linked in to...» Read More
INTERESTING TIMES
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 13.05.19
Every day I get a feed from Google telling me of every mention of Aboriginal art on the internet. Some days it's just a couple. Today there's Aboriginal art in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Kalgoorlie, Forbes, Myrtleford, Darwin, Bendigo, Adelaide and...» Read More
DIGGING FOR HONEY ANTS AT PAPUNYA
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.05.19
Unusual for Aboriginal Art Directory – a link with something to listen to! Recently, John Kean – an early Papunya Tula Artists staffer, researcher and frequent writer about those pioneering days at Papunya in the 70s – was asked to...» Read More
Art and the Election
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 17.05.19
The arts haven't exactly been at the centre of debates during the current election campaign. Let's face it, the arts haven't turned the electoral tide since 1993 when Paul Keating discovered how enthusiastic cultural people were for his government, which...» Read More
The Gagosian Effect
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 20.05.19
As I predicted, the arrival of a significant Aboriginal art collection at one of the world's most prestigious art dealers – Gagosian in New York – accompanied by the name of a famous collector (and inimitable comic) Steve Martin is...» Read More
The 12th National Indigenous Arts Awards
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 27.05.19
Tonight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and all who love the arts will celebrate the contribution of First Nations artists at the 12th National Indigenous Arts Awards being presented at the Sydney Opera House. Respected elders actor Uncle Jack...» Read More
The Spirit of Churaki
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 28.05.19
They've escaped from Queensland and appeared for one night only (why??) in the Sydney Opera House as part of the Vivid Festival. And what sunny Queensland joy they brought with them – along with the sort of First Nations sensibility...» Read More
Namatjira Wins the Ramsey
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 30.05.19
The vision and ingenuity of artists under 40 from across Australia is on display at the second iteration of the Ramsay Art Prize in the Art Gallery of South Australia. Held every two years, the Ramsay Art Prize invites submissions...» Read More
Marrugeku 'Dancing Forwards'
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 31.05.19
The Marrugeku Company has an interesting history. It grew from the non-Indigenous Stalker Company which discovered the First Nations through the innovative work, 'Mimi' – the spirits of Arnhemland wielding their wickedness on stilts! Later co-Artistic Director Rachael Swain bonded...» Read More
June, 2019
NY is the Epicentre
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 05.06.19
As predicted some time ago on AAD, Sotheby’s is moving its Aboriginal art auctions from London to New York in November. There contemporary canvases and historic artefacts will hang in the auction house’s revamped galleries alongside blue-chip modern and contemporary...» Read More
FAIRS FAIRS
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 06.06.19
Have you noticed that no city these days seems to be able to survive without an Aboriginal art fair – held annually? Is this market demand, or is it the demand of the art centres to get more of their...» Read More
SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 07.06.19
The Sydney Film Festival has had an honourable history of selecting excellent Indigenous films in recent years – with particular mention of Warwick Thornton's witty Southern Cross doco, 'We Don't Need a Map', last year's legal/political 'Wik v Queensland', Warlpiri...» Read More
Large Scale Digital Art Exhibition
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 20.06.19
A large-scale 24-hour digital art exhibition featuring photographic work of Wayne Quilliam, curated by aMBUSH Gallery, will run in the bustling outdoor space of Sydney's Darling Quarter over NAIDOC Week. Called Insta-Culture, the exhibition comprises 16 images (each 2.4m x...» Read More
July, 2019
The McKenzie Powerhouse
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 22.07.19
In 2016, Elder Regina McKenzie and her daughter, Juanella, woke to the news that the Flinders Ranges in outback South Australia was being considered as a dumping site for nuclear waste from Scotland. Regina, a Traditional Owner of the Flinders...» Read More
Save the Date - Tarnanthi in October
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 31.07.19
Tarnanthi, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art, returns for the fourth time in October. Internationally acclaimed and recognised as the largest festival of its kind every second year, Tarnanthi 2019 includes...» Read More
August, 2019
Blak Douglas Wins the Kilgour
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 02.08.19
When we interviewed Blak Douglas about his Lucky Country series being acquired by the National Gallery of Australia in 2017, we ended by asking, Where to from here? And he answered, "The sky's as limited as a Michael Riley masterpiece"....» Read More
2019 Telstra NATSIAAs
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 09.08.19
The political flavour of last weekend's Garma Festival has swept across Arnhemland to Darwin and crept up in the background for this 36th iteration of Australia's major Indigenous art event. Several of the 68 artworks chosen as finalists - including...» Read More
NINGALI
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.08.19
Josie/Ningali Lawford-Wolf, the great Wangkatjungka/Walmatjarri actor who emerged (along with a few others of her ilk) during the 1997 Sydney Olympic Festival of the Dreaming with her one-woman eponymously-titled show has died while on tour at the Edinburgh Festival with...» Read More
THE NIGHTINGALE
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 16.08.19
As Australian audiences brace themselves for Quentin Tarantino's latest exploration of gratuitous violence, bear in mind that Australia's own dark side will be on view in cinemas from August 29th – in 'The Nightingale'. Such a sweet bird! But Jennifer...» Read More
Movement at the Station in Alice
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 27.08.19
The Business Case for the Northern Territory's National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs (Mparntwe) has been published by EY Consultants (aka Ernst & Young) at a cost of $224,000. Coverage so far has emphasised the numbers – but an...» Read More
Funding for Indigenous Art
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 29.08.19
It's a long list but important to have on the record for anyone interested in the sheer size of the Aboriginal arts industry and the amount of public money that supports organisations that claim to turn over $30m a year....» Read More
Woven Furniture
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 31.08.19
Koskela, one of Australia’s leading furniture and design brands, is presenting Ngalya, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Koskela’s social impact projects working with Australia’s First Nations People. Koskela has opened an exhibition including a new collection of lighting designs in...» Read More
September, 2019
Victorian Bonanza!
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 04.09.19
Victoria is positively buzzing with the exciting breadth of First Nations' art and craft this month. I wonder how it's all coincided? But let's start with the Bendigo show of Indigenous Batik that opened last month: Desert Lines : Batik...» Read More
Sydney Goes Contemporary
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 08.09.19
It's that time of year again for the now-annual Sydney Contemporary art fair at Carriageworks in Sydney. Ever innovative, this year the show began early in the unlikely setting of the Sofitel Hotel on Darling Harbour where 3 suites and...» Read More
'Mapa Wiya' (Your Map’s Not Needed)
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 13.09.19
The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas is opening today its first major museum exhibition devoted to Australian Aboriginal art:'Mapa Wiya' (Your Map’s Not Needed): Australian Aboriginal Art from the Swiss Fondation Opale. The show includes more than 100 works created...» Read More
Fondation Opale Glows Opalescent
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 17.09.19
A follow-up to my Menil Collection story from Houston – for my enthusiasm for America's current positivity towards Aboriginal art may have allowed me to miss the Big Story. Which is the significant emergence of the Fondation Opale at Lens...» Read More
Mparntwe Muddles On
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 19.09.19
A week ago, the Alice Springs Town Council rejected the NT Government proposal for a complex land swap which would build the new National Aboriginal Art Gallery on the current Town Hall site in exchange for the council moving to...» Read More
WE ARE COMING TO SEE YOU
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 27.09.19
This book is a rare treat in offering both fabulous pictures of rock art in the west Kimberley while also giving the local Gaambera, Wunambal and Dambeemangaddee peoples' understanding of that art and its relevance to their lives today. The...» Read More
October, 2019
FIBRE ALCHEMY
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 02.10.19
From ghost net sculpture to body amour, a new fibre art survey show The Alchemists, brought together by FORM in Perth, draws together diverse contemporary weaving practice from Indigenous artists and art centres across Australia. Opening at The Goods Shed,...» Read More
Impasse in Alice
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 14.10.19
Last week in the confidential part of its executive development committee, the Alice Springs Town Council, secretly voted to reject a swap offered it by the NT Government of its current town centre offices for a new Town Hall and...» Read More
Jandamarra: Sing for the Country : Ngalanyabarra Muwayi.u
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 16.10.19
If you are in Sydney on Friday, it would be a mistake to miss out on the single performance of 'Jandamarra', the dramatic cantata telling the story of Aboriginal Australia's Ned Kelly – the Geronimo of the Kimberley. Killed by...» Read More
Natives Go Wild
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 23.10.19
Is the mischievously entitled 'Natives Go Wild' our first Indigenous cabaret? The Sydney Opera House's own Head of First Nations' Programming, Rhoda Roberts has written this bitter sweet entertainment and found a cast that actually has more of a Pacifika...» Read More
It's Time for Tarnanthi
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 25.10.19
Somebody once announced “It's Time”, and won a famous election. Now another Somebody – Djambawa Marawili AM – has declared, “This is the time when we should show the culture and the wisdom of the Country” to the world beyond...» Read More
Warlimpirrnga Wins Copyright Claim
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 29.10.19
The successful, if gloomy, Netflix TV series, 'After Life' in which the English actor Ricky Gervais plays a widowed man in a state of aggressively deep depression, chose – for no obvious reason – a near copy of an early...» Read More
November, 2019
Cultural Momentum
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 05.11.19
I never thought my first live sighting of and listening to the great Chinese/American cellist and social activist, Yo-Yo-Ma would be in the great open void beneath Barangaroo Park. But that's what happened this morning as he passed swiftly through...» Read More
Emu Runner
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 10.11.19
So, pretty much wherever you look these days, there's an Aboriginal film or TV series. Last year's AACT Awards hailed Warwick Thornton's 'Sweet Country' in just about all major creative categories. And Best TV Drama Series was the Ivan Sen...» Read More
Going Native in the Kitchen
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 15.11.19
John Newton is keen that we eat 'The Oldest Foods on Earth', ie Australian Indigenous foods, grown (sometimes cultivated), cooked and tasted here for up to 60,000 years. He's so keen that his 2016 book of that name on the...» Read More
Re-imagining a museum of our First Nations
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 19.11.19
This story is re-published from The Conversation under Creative Commons license. It was written by Kieran Wong, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University. Kieran Wong also consults to COX Architecture, who are the Lead Architects for the Quandamooka Art, Museum...» Read More
AUSTRALIA'S CROWN JEWELS
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 24.11.19
I've written much in recent months about the absence of progress in developing the hoped-for National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs. And, just a few days ago, I discovered and republished a story about the Quandamooka people's plans for...» Read More
The Auction Time of Year
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 28.11.19
“Toward the end of 1991, women’s Awelye ceremonies were being held in Utopia. December was overwhelmingly humid with hot northerly winds. The anticipation of rain and the ongoing ceremonial activity enlivened the spiritual atmosphere. A number of exceptional paintings (by...» Read More
Linear?
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 30.11.19
“Linear explores over 60,000 years of creative, scientific and technological development and ingenuity through the stories, content and work from leading Indigenous cultural practitioners from across Australia”. Well, I guess Sydney's Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences – better known...» Read More
December, 2019
Daniel Boyd Shines Again
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 03.12.19
Internationally renowned architect Sir David Adjaye of Adjaye Associates and award-winning Sydney-based contemporary Aboriginal artist Daniel Boyd have been chosen to design a new public square and artwork near Circular Quay in Sydney. Based in Accra, London and New York,...» Read More
KNOWLEDGE GROUND
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 09.12.19
“Dance is so ephemeral; we felt we owed it to acknowledge 30 years of dance and more than 200 alumni – dancers, designers, musicians, etc, and, above all, the cultural custodians who gave us the stories”. Steven Page – who's...» Read More
Festivals in the Blak
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 11.12.19
“With the ubiquity of Indigenous cultural practice today, you just can't put on a festival without it”. That bold statement by the non-Indigenous Iain Grandage, newly arrived as Director of 2020's Perth Festival (7th Feb to 1st March) would be...» Read More
Cairns Airport Commission
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 11.12.19
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) and Cairns Airport are seeking creative submissions from Queensland’s Indigenous artists to have their artworks featured prominently within the Airport’s newly redeveloped T2 Domestic Terminal. CIAF and Cairns Airport developed their already established partnership at...» Read More
Sotheby's NY Inaugural Aboriginal Art Auction
Posted by Aboriginal Art Directory | 17.12.19
The first dedicated Aboriginal art auction in the US by an international auction house was held by Sotheby's in New York on December 13. The sale surpassed its high estimate with 88% of all lots sold and set eight new...» Read More
Influential Emily
Posted by Jeremy Eccles | 18.12.19
It's the silly season when TV is supposed to be on endless repeat and politicians go home and leave us alone for a while. However, this year the combination of Brexit, Trump and Australia's inextinguishable fires seems to have changed...» Read More
