ABORIGINAL LAW
Since I first began experiencing and examining the complexity of First Nations culture, I have become convinced that it was the colonial destruction of the hierarchies and discipline that were Read More
Tarnanthi Returns in October
Australia’s leading Aboriginal art festival, Tarnanthi this year includes exhibitions at the Art Gallery of South Australia, a state-wide festival with exhibitions and accompanying events, and the Tarnanthi Art Fair, Read More
Biennale Goes Indigenous
The Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain have announced a creative partnership to promote First Nations art. The two organisations have established the role of the Read More
Sun and Shadow
I recently remarked on the passing of the Indigenous community art centre as the basis for exhibitions – whether commercial or institutional. And then I recalled that one art centre Read More
Sydney Contemporary Artfair
As your regular commercial gallery has undoubtedly told you several times, the 7th Sydney Contemporary is now OPEN! Those galleries really have to work hard for the Fair– to afford Read More
Diversity in the KWM Award
What is surely the most diverse art award for Indigenous Australia has just uploaded its finalists on to the web. The King & Wood Mallesons Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Read More
Museums on Hold
It seems the only people interested in the much-delayed fate of the important Tarrkarri Aboriginal cultures museum in Adelaide apart from AAD is the ABC. Their reporter asked a vital Read More
Big and Rooted Takes the Telstra
The judges for the 2023 Telstra NATSIA Awards have maintained what seems to be becoming something of a tradition in their selection of the ‘Big Telstra’ winner. It literally has Read More
TIM KLINGENDER 1964-2023
As the Aboriginal art world gathers to commemorate the dynamic and influential career of auctioneer Tim Klingender, I’m going to offer a slightly more personal take. For it was very Read More
APYACC Part 8
The National Gallery of Australia’s Review into the APY Art Centre Collective’s proposed exhibition of 28 paintings under the title, ‘Ngura Pulka - Epic Country’ has cleared the works as Read More
Puncturing Papunya’s Phantasies
The founding myths of Papunya art (and therefore of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement as a whole) have mainly centred on the well-promoted notion that the whitefellar Geoffrey Bardon kicked Read More
Note the Name – Koongotema
Queensland’s Minister for the Arts, Leeanne Enoch last night announced the winners of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair’s first three prizes, headed by Aurukun artist Janet Koongotema taking out CIAF’s Read More
Deep Time in Sydney
The tendency to conflate the quite distinct Aboriginal worlds of Australia’s south-east and its remote north is heroically resisted at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. It’s almost certainly Read More
Not the APYACC
“Only Black hands on Black art” proclaims the Harvey Galleries website provocatively. For they’re playing on a series of articles in The Australian newspaper apparently revealing the substantial work of Read More
FAIRS FARE
“The centres sustain artists,” says the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair’s chair, Ursula Raymond. “They provide employment, they provide a place for people to be able to go and make their Read More
APYACC Part 7
The saga continues with news that the Indigenous Art Code (IartC) has terminated the APY Art Centre Collective’s membership of the Code. As the IartC is the pre-eminent ethical body Read More
IS proppaNOW OCURRENT?
It’s not often that a show garlanded with a US$25,000 prize from America lands in our humble Sydney galleries. But OCCURRENT AFFAIR, the first group show by Brisbane’s political provocateurs, Read More
Mixed News from Mparntwe
Remember that we’ve been promised a National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs for many a year now, well it doesn’t look as though it’ll actually appear until 2028. This Read More
Dark Emu Debate Rides Again
It’s very odd. All parties involved seemed to say that they are seeking a calm and rational debate about Bruce Pascoe’s amazingly popular 2011 book, but then they go throwing Read More
Just Soak in Yuldea
Bangarra Dance Theatre – wasn’t it once Bangarra Aboriginal Dance Theatre? - has a new boss in Frances Rings. She’s a former dancer and creator of seven works before with Read More