Senior Alawa Community Lawman and Artist, Barney Ellaga is to make the long journey down from his traditional homeland in South East Arnhemland to the port City of Fremantle in W.A. especially for the opening of his first solo exhibition in this State. Barney Ellaga’s reputation is already firmly established in the Eastern States after several very successful solo and group Exhibitions in Melbourne and his distinctive, colourful paintings are highly sought after. His work is already represented in the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Ellaga’s new paintings consist of soft, stippled, lines of colour where each line represents a different aspect of his Country. This could be either a spiritual or physical feature of the land. The lines of colour pay homage to the many ancient rock and cave paintings in the Alawa region where the stippled, feathery lines represent the unevenness and roughness of the cave or rock walls. This is a very diverse part of the country with long sweeping rivers, lush vegetation and sweeping, sparse plains and Ellaga’s paintings reflect this complexity.
