Current Issue #488

TARNANTHI Announces 2017 Program Highlights

TARNANTHI Announces 2017 Program Highlights

TARNANTHI has announced a suite of highlights for its upcoming 2017 iteration, including a strong focus on presenting artists from the APY Lands and a swathe of artists from across the continent.

The Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art will this year showcase more than 1000 artists at the Art Gallery of South Australia and 20 further partner venues. The celebrated TARNANTHI Art Fair will also continue to be presented at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, featuring work from more than 40 art centres and artists from across Australia.

This year’s focus on work from the APY Lands will feature artists from the following art centres: Ernabella Arts (Pukatja), Tjala Arts (Amata), Mimili Maku Arts (Mimili), Iwantja Arts (Indulkana), Tjungu Palya (Nyapari), Kaltjiti Arts (Fregon) and Ninuku Arts (Kalka).

A further 45 APY Lands artists have worked on collaborative men’s and women’s paintings, which will be represented by two epic works, while Robert Fielding’s black and white photography of the artists at work will also feature.

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Kungkarangkalpa – Seven sisters, 2016

“These artists are embodying the essence of breaking new ground with their art making,” TARNANTHI’s artistic director Nici Cumpston says in a release. “Through years of experience and presenting their work across the country, they are now driving their own practise to ambitious new levels.”

Such artists include Mumu Mike Williams, whose paintings depict statements regarding heritage, ownership and custodianship as well as the conflict between Commonwealth law and Anangu lore. Another example is that of the collaborative exhibition between painter and ceramicist Pepai Jangala Carroll and potter Derek Jungarrayi Thomspon, Mark and Memory, which follow the pair’s recent pilgrimage to their ancestral lands of the central Western Desert.

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Every face has a story, every story has a face: Kulila!, 2016

Further afield, Alice Springs artists from Yarrenyty Arltere will exhibit self-portrait sculptures in the exhibit Kulila and the South Australian Museum will present NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, which explores the concept of home in the Western Desert.

“TARNANTHI presents an opportunity to listen to where the artists want to take their ideas and then support them to achieve their vision,”Cumpston says.

TARNANTHI
Various venues
October 13 to October 22
tarnanthi.com.au

Header image:  Pepai Jangala Carroll, Ernabella Arts, Pukatja, South Australia (photo: John Montesi)

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