National Indigenous Visual Arts Action Plan 2021-2025
“Indigenous art centres provide a useful gauge of the health of the whole sector. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, art centre sales had been growing for almost a decade. Between 2011 Read More
A Purple House for Balgo
Balgo/Wirrimanu is in the news in a number of places currently. While the earliest work from the community – lost for many years – has just gone on show at Read More
Mrs N Yunupingu 1945/2021
Sad news from Yirrkala, where the Buku Larrnggay Art Centre has announced the death of Mrs N Yunpingu, and is closed for Sorry Business. Last year, the very distinctive artist Read More
Adelaide’s Time
What is increasingly being recognised as Australia's most important event in Indigenous art, Adelaide's Tarnanthi Festival, has just opened. How does it compare with the annual Telstra NATSIAAs and the Read More
‘Ancestors, artefacts and empire’
There's a map at the beginning of a newly launched book by the British Museum which pinpoints all the institutions in Britain and Ireland that hold objects made, used or Read More
A Special Gallery
In the small north-west Victorian town of Sea Lake there's a tourist attraction called Lake Tyrrell. And until Covid it drew a large number of Chinese tourists - each attracted Read More
NT Slapped over the Wrist
Yet another twist in the lengthy saga of a National Aboriginal Art Gallery (NAAG) for Mparntwe/Alice Springs. If you recall, the Territory's Labor government in Darwin has been determined to Read More
Two Long Lives
Two ambivalent lives long spent in the Indigenous sphere came to an end this month. One made indispensable ethnographic films that became politically unfashionable at his peak; the other lived Read More
Papunya Tula Celebrates
Just as the SH Ervin Gallery in Sydney surprised me earlier this year by celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Papunya Tula Art movement a year early, so the PTA Read More
‘Culture is Life’
There's no doubt that Wayne Quilliam can take fabulous images of his fellow First Nations people. The lutruwita man from Tassie's Central Highlands has been at it for 30 years, Read More
Kilgour Prize-winner is Noongar
West Australian Noongar artist, Lori Pensini has celebrated a breakthrough win in the prestigious Newcastle Art Gallery portrait prize with an intimate reflection on inter-racial relationships and her own family Read More
Lee-Ann Buckskin at AACC
Indigenous cultural leader, Lee-Ann Tjunypa Buckskin has this week taken up the newly created role to drive the planning, programming and curation for Adelaide's Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre. The Read More
Truganini Wins at Last
For anyone who read my review in May last year, there will be some joy and much expectation that Cassandra Pybus's book about Truganini (and George Augustus Robinson, the so-called Read More
New Indigenous Art Enquiry
Moving at the sort of lightning speed that we've come to associate with the rescue of Afghan translators from Kabul and the delivery of COVID vaccinations in Western Sydney, the Read More
Aboriginal Cultures Centre to ‘Grow from the Ground’
Plans for Adelaide’s Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre (AACC), whose reference design was unveiled in February, have now entered the South Australian planning approval process, after being submitted to the Read More
Going Euro Hunting
A fascinating artwork comes up for sale at the auctioneers Bonhams in Sydney later this month. Its significance lies in the fact that it was the first artwork sold by Read More
INDIGENOUS ART UP NORTH
Good news from Cairns, where various events around the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair – itself postponed until November – are able to go ahead after 4pm today when the city's Read More
40 Finalists for Lester Portraiture Prize
There are 40 finalists in this year's Lester (Portrait) Prize, which include both Aboriginal artists and subjects. Attracting nearly double the entries on last year, the Lester Prize (previously known Read More
‘ART OF THE NATION’ 2021
Does that headline sound a bit pretentious? It's the Museum & Art Gallery of the NT's slogan for the Telstra NATSIAAs 38th iteration. Well, having seen and thought about its Read More
2021 Salon des Refuses in Darwin
The annual prelude to the big Telstra NATSIAAs show has hit the ether just a tad en retard! But it looks to be worth the wait with 45 artists covering Read More