Bad News, Good News
How to sell bad news as though it was all tickety boo! This is how the ‘Tarrkarri Update’ from the SA Government announced unhappy developments at its promised Centre for Read More
Momentous Celebration
The Australia Council announces “Purrumpa – a momentous five-day national celebration of First Nations arts and culture bringing together leaders from across the country”, and it starts today in Adelaide. Read More
Proppa Prize Winners
I’ve been saying for many a month that Australia’s First Nations artists are more appreciated around the world than they currently are in Oz, and now our provocateur Blak artists, Read More
Budget Backs Whadjuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre
One of the few exciting announcements regarding the arts in yesterday’s Federal Budget would have to be the $50 million confirming an ALP election promise for the Whadjuk Aboriginal Cultural Read More
Art Fairs Down South
Spring is springing and the First Nations art fairs that operate in the wintery north – Darwin and Cairns – are now replaced by Tarnanthi in Adelaide and the SOUTHEAST Read More
BALGO : CREATING COUNTRY
What do you do with a book that you are becoming convinced is a masterpiece, possibly even the best book ever written about Aboriginal art and culture? Well, the only Read More
Ngarralja Tommy May : 1935- 2022
“Thank you mob in Darwin for this business. Thank you. At last. I feel proud. I've been trying all my life, all the time second, fourth, last, sometimes nothing. But Read More
First Nations Director for National Aboriginal Art Gallery
Exciting news from Mparntwe/Alice Springs. The first Indignous appointment to the leadership of the troubled National Aboriginal Art Gallery team has been announced, with applications open until 6th October. S/He Read More
Critiquing the Critics
Three recent heavyweight reviews of Indigenous art in three newspapers – The Wall Street Journal, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian – raise fascinating questions about how and why Read More
The Queen in Arnhemland
An excellent article on the Artshub website considers the late Queen Elizabeth as a subject for Australian art. Of course, Vincent Namatjira features, alongside Paul Ryan, Karla Dickens and Sir Read More
Sydney Contemporary ‘22
Ninety galleries showing art from 34 countries under one vast industrial roof, all showing off the art they are proudest of, and which they think will sell best. Sydney Contemporary Read More
Marvellous Madayin
A momentous event occurs in the tiny New Hampshire town of Dartmouth next week. And it’s part of a surprising pattern in which Australia’s Aboriginal art is clearly taken more Read More
Myths of First Nations Art
“Myth – Traditional story, usually concerning some superhuman being or alleged event which attempts to explain natural phenomena; especially a traditional story about deities and the creation of the world Read More
Two Significant Announcements
Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) has announced that artist and designer Francoise Lane will be its Artistic Director following the departure of Janina Harding at the completion of last month’s Read More
Post-NATSIAAs
While the Telstra NATSIAAs naturally hit the headlines with their $100,000 main prize going to a mighty woven sail from Milingimbi and another $90,000 in prizes both supporting the Indigenous Read More
Telstra NATSIAAs
In Darwin at NATSIAA’s time, it’s an oddity that the Salon des Refuses actually opens before the big show. In France, where they invented the concept, and in Sydney where Read More
Darwin 2022
All the news of late from the Northern Territory has concentrated – quite rightly – on Garma, its Festival restored after two years hiatus, and the politics surrounding the Government's Read More
Tuppy Takes the Hadley’s
The tendency for landscape art prizes like the Wynne and Tasmania's rather newer Hadley's Art Prize to be dominated by Aboriginal artists' work seems self-perpetuating. Their unique relationship with Country Read More
Di Kershaw 1945/2022
The sad death from cancer has been announced of one of the most characterful women in the colourful world of Indigenous art. Di Kershaw - partner of Mick – had Read More