Articles
Licentia Poetica
2012.04.12 By Chantel Tian
Summarized your article. Limit to 400 characters.Nganampa Ngura
2012.04.04 By Zeana Haroun
ReDot Fine Art Gallery is honored to host a ground-breaking show “Nganampa Ngura” (Our Place) by Ninuku Arts. Deriving from a tiny community in the north-western corner of South Australia, Ninuku Arts is one of the most exciting art centres to emerge over the past 5 years. They are an important part of the celebrated district known as the APY (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara) Lands which has become known as one of the most dynamic in the whole of Australia, thrusting itself onto the national stage over recent years. Ninuku Arts is an Indigenous-owned organisation based in a tiny community called Kalka. The majority of the artists in the district speak Pitjantjatjara. It is a place of colour and beauty – rocky mountain ranges, cavernous ravines, desert flowers, red earth, narrow trees and flourishing foliage, covering much of the ground. It is not surprising that a lot of the artwork from this area uses a vibrant palette of rich colour. Senior artist Jimmy Donegan is one such artist who is inspired by the colourful landscape. Colloquially known as Mr. D around the art centre, Donegan uses a plethora of colours to depict his Tjukurpa (or Dreaming stories). In a repetition of dotted lines, he carefully dots his canvas with a thin stick which he has either found on the ground or plucked from a tree. Donegan continues to be celebrated as one of the most sought-after artists from the district to Australian and International collectors, galleries and institutions, since winning the prestigious Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Telstra Art Award in 2010. As reported at the time, "Like much of Donegan's work over the past decade, the award winning painting is solemn and emphatic in its design, but dazzlingly illuminated. The artist’s technique is to compose the colour lines of his canvases from thousands of large dots in different hues, which blend into a whole" as stated by Australian Arts Writer Nicolas Rothwell in The Weekend Australian, August 2010. The “Nganampa Ngura” (Our Place) exhibition boasts an exciting group of master works painted mostly by the senior men and women from the Ninuku Art Centre. They are the traditional owners of the land and they hold the stories of the country deep within their hearts. As the name ‘Our Place’ suggests, this exhibition is a subtle statement about ownership and history, but also a joyous collection of paintings acting as an invitation to the viewer – an invitation onto the land of the old men and women. As well as teaching the international audience about the culture, the show also aims to teach the emerging artists from the district. It is critical to the continuation of this great indigenous culture that it continues to be taught to the future generations. As senior man and Ngangkari (traditional healer) Harry Tjutjuna describes, “Old generation are here now and I am old generation too. Lots of old generation have passed away. What can we do? What happens when I pass away? New generation got to learn Tjukurpa (Dreaming Stories).” Harry Tjutjuna is the most senior of the artists exhibiting. His unique style and approach has made him one of the most sought-after practicing artists in the country. He paints a range of stories with both authority and courage. He is known for the drippy, painterly qualities in his technique, and is a natural colourist often choosing a palette of vibrant, poppy hues. Stanley Young also uses lots of colours but he lays them down with precision and a steady hand into a composition of structure and minimalism. The women featured in the show definitely lean towards a more feminine palette. Founding Directors of the art centre - Yaritji Connelly and Molly Nampitjin Miller – attended an exhibition last year at ReDot Fine Art Gallery which celebrated works from two art centres combined - Ninuku Arts and Tjungu Palya. Both directors are featured again in this show. They have had, and continue to play a pivotal role at the art centre. Yaritji Connelly describes where the name of the art centre comes from, “Ninunya mulapa minyma Tjukuritja, palupalanguru kurunpa mukuringanyi pulkara” (Our spirits have a deep attachment to the bilby. The bilby woman is our true creation ancestor and this means we have a need for her in our spirit and soul.) The name of the Art Centre derives from ‘Ninuku Tjukurpa’ meaning Bilby Dreaming, which is the main Dreaming story in the country surrounding the Kalka Community. Yaritji has a unique approach to painting. She mostly paints a story called Malara. It features a water snake. Connelly depicts this snake by painting sweeping curves and connecting them by lose, fluent dotting. Subtle colour shifts come by her tinting her colours and sometimes dipping in two paint pots before laying down the dots. Molly Nampitjin Miller uses a similar approach as is evident by the beautiful colour shifts in the painting by her is this show. The most revered female artist at Ninuku Art Centre is Puntjina Monica Watson. Her works have a stand-alone quality which commands the attention of the audience. She has a quirky approach to composition, creating a border or frame with every painting dotted heavily with lines of bright colourful dots. The open space in the middle often features landmarks such as a rockhole, from the country she paints known as Pukara. Monica paints tirelessly every day but still spends many, many hours on her canvases. They are so heavily and carefully dotted, meaning large-scale works can take her several months to create. In contrast but by no means any less labour-intensive, is the work by Tjulkiwa Atira Atira. This artist is one who has relatively recently found her stride. She paints an area or story known at Arulya. She does this by painting a series of bold lines (often in black and white) down the canvas and then dotting them with varying-sized dots. Atira carefully mixes a range of colours, each one only subtly different to the next. The result is a very optical and modern outcome, quite striking amongst the other desert works. This exhibition is a true celebration of the men and women’s contribution to culture and art. It showcases an exceptional and masterful collection of works – many of which are large-scale – to give the audience powerful insight into their place, their country and their story. The exhibition will be accompanied by landscape photographs from the district, portraits of the artists and documentation which will give the viewer great context for the paintings. It will be the first independent exhibition by Ninuku Arts internationally and it will be held in Singapore. The exhibition opens Wednesday 23rd May at 7.30pm.PANU
2011.12.10 By Zeana Haroun
“We painted these dreaming’s on the school doors because the children should learn about our Law. The children do not know them and they might become like white people, which we don’t want to happen….We want our children to learn about and know our Law, our Dreaming’s. That is why we painted these dreamtime stories” – Paddy JAPALJARRI STEWART In the early 1970s the people of Yuendumu began transferring their traditional stories, dreaming’s (tjukurrpa) and ground paintings to western mediums such as canvas boards and plywood; then to the doors of the Yuendumu school. In 1984 five aboriginal artists, including Paddy, painted thirty iconic doors at the Yuendumu school. These thirty doors represented the dreaming of the Warlpiri people, an extraordinary history of sacred rituals, painted to remind the children of their patrimony – the web of sites and obligations that extend across Warlpiri country. The painting of the school doors was initially conceptualized to educate the children of the community, what better way to ingrain culture than by putting it on the doors the children would need to pass through repeatedly on a daily basis; but it also had an impact on the larger community – it bought together five artists from two classicatory groups, kirda (father, owner) and kurdungurlu (teacher, servant, worker, policeman). These two groups learnt and shared the different tjukurrpa’s depicted on each door openly, something that in normal life would not have necessarily happened. Each door represented either the Honey Ant tjukurrpa, or any of the many other tjukurrpa’s – Water, Snake, Possum, Kangaroo, Big and Small Yam, just to name a few, that are sacred to these people and their lands. The Yuendumu community is in the Tanami Desert, 300 km north-west from Alice Springs, the remoteness of this special community has helped the kinship maintain their strong language, social and spiritual traditions, which are the inspiration for the beautiful, artistic expressions of the association’s older artists. For thousands of years the Warlpiri people traced their dreaming symbols onto ground paintings as part of their ceremonies and when the ceremonies were over the images would be brushed away by hand or by the desert winds. Nomadic, desert life is all about change, but the doors remained in place at the school for twelve years, resisting erasure despite the desert wind and sun, surviving robust treatment from Warlpiri school children. We wake and we open doors, we work and we open doors, what would life be without doors? Western society would be lost without them, but what good is a door in the desert? To Aboriginal culture, and the old traditional way of life, doors served no functional purpose whatsoever. It was thus ironic and poignant that the painting of the Warlpiri tjukurrpa’s should be done on the school doors, a fitting marriage of two very different cultures finding a common place to communicate, through the education of the young and the future. Of those five pioneering men, only Paddy JAPALJARRI STEWART is still alive. A gentle, intelligent man, incredibly knowledgeable about the country and the laws associated with it, he has had an extraordinary life as an artist. He was born in Mungapunju, just south of Yuendumu and as a young man he was a station worker at Mt Allen, Mt Dennison and in the top end of Australia. His artistic career commenced in the early 1980’s and has only gained momentum and significance through the years, over 100 group shows have included this cultural heavyweight’s work and it remains a mystery why it has taken until 2012 to witness the first ever solo exhibition of his works at the tender age of 76 or so. Paddy (affectionately known as ‘Cookie’ in reference to his early years as a cook in the Papunya Tula community) has had his work added to some of the most renowned museums in Australia - Flinders University Art Museum, South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, just to name a few. This amazing man is a force to be reckoned with and has accomplished so much in his lifetime – from a school bus driver, to a remarkable artist who has travelled to Paris with five others creating a ground painting installation at the exhibition 'Magiciens de la Terre' at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Indeed Paddy was widely acknowledged as being the force behind the school project given his close ties to the school and his role of teaching young children both kardiya and yapa (non-aboriginal and aboriginal). In 2000 Paddy undertook to produce 30 etchings of the original doors in collaboration with Paddy Sims. The first print of the etchings was all on one page and had its debut alongside the Yuendumu doors while they were exhibited in Alice Springs. The etchings in a set were launched in 2001, to great acclaim with the set winning the Telstra, 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Award. The iconic doors have since been unhinged permanently and are on display at the South Australian Museum as part of their permanent collection, but we at ReDot Fine Art Gallery are fortunate enough to have the only exhibit replicas of the school project along with the artist proof of the works on paper. Paddy has painted this entire series, recounting and re-telling each of the dreaming’s depicted on those iconic doors so many years ago. The combination of Paddy’s stately importance within the Warlpiri community, the deferral to his ancestral knowledge, his advancing years, combined with the impact and cultural significance of the doors, make this particular exhibition a once in a lifetime experience. This is not a show to miss. This is a show that will make an irreversible impression on your understanding and appreciation of culture, art and Aboriginal civilization. ReDot invites anyone fascinated by indigenous art and culture to step into a world that is familiar in its simplicity but memorizing in its depth and wonder. The living stories virtually leap off each canvas and beg the viewer to look more deeply for meaning and consequence, for understanding and order. ReDot Fine Art Gallery is honoured to host Paddy JAPALJARRI STEWART’s first ever Solo Exhibition, titled ‘Panu’ (All). A fitting climax to a career of a man who’s knowledge of the desert and its mystical laws is ALL encompassing. The show will run February 15 2012 - March 31 2012 at ReDot Fine Art Gallery, 39 Keppel Road, Unit #02-06, Singapore.Adung's Symbolic Art
2011.10.17 By Apsi Cai
Summarized your article. Limit to 400 characters.Driving His Passion
2011.09.23 By Jocelyn Aps
Summarized your article. Limit to 400 characters.A passion yet to be explored
2011.08.26 By Jerry Dean
For such a long journey in art, my deep passion still boils down to wall paintings. See my works. Judge if I deserve recognition in a field of art which until now I am falling head over heels in love withInfluences from Picasso
2011.07.08 By Edgardo Parducho
I started as a copier artist with focusing on hyper realism. I discovered my interest to unconsciously divert to shadows of images. Creativity rules my mind and thoughts of Picasso’s works in geometric shapes is also applied to mine. My unique painting style is a product of my father’s teaching and influence, my experiences, and work practices.From Brain To Paint
2011.06.28 By Deden FG
I think that process is never done that is why I need to keep learning, learning, and learning. In artistic life, career is all about learning process. It is not about ending result, neither economy factor nor popularity.Destined to Paint
2011.05.25 By Arnaldo Mirasol
I chose to pursue Painting, which according to my eldest sister is a profession suitable only for rich people who'll still eat even if they never sell a single painting. She must be wrong thereBuilding Confidence in Art
2011.05.18 By Jhoie McNally
Towards the end of my first year in university, I decided to switch course to Fine Arts because I felt that Fine Arts was more related to what I was doing. Unfortunately, I had to break off my studies before completing the degree, for lack of funding.Art Collector Interview: A Retirement Dream
2011.04.20 By Francis Choo
Stepping into Francis’ beautiful house, one is immediately taken in by the rustic Buddha sculptures, carefully polished wooden furniture and soothing greenery. Yet, without a strand of doubt, the exquisite collection of paintings takes center-stage.Art Stage Singapore 2011
2011.01.18 By Artyii
A few responses we heard from Art Stage's private preview night.Thank God For Art Collectors
2011.01.13 By Arnel Mirasol
Where would painters like me be if there are no art collectors? Maybe, God forbid, some would have done a Van Gogh and just commit suicide. Morbid as this may seem, for the weak-hearted artists, suicide is the rational thing to do when no one appreciates what they do and they can't even earn a living from doing it.OH! Singapore
2011.01.05 By Artyii
For two weekends, Marine Parade - a public housing estate in Singapore - will be transformed into a museum that’s literally scattered around the estate.Watercolor Made Easy
2010.11.11 By Jeanette Mok
Like all forms of art, watercolor painting is not a medium one can grasp easily. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. I will take you through 13 simple steps to painting your own honeysuckle spray bearing in mind that watercolor painting is actually a build up of layers of colors. This is an easier approach to applying color to your canvas.Can the Internet be the Answer to Artists' Troubles?
2010.08.26 By Thuy Phuong
Are Vietnamese artists overlooking the internet - an incredible tool in making their artworks available to a larger audience?Vietnamese Art - Through the Years
2010.08.24 By Thanh Kieu Moeller
How has the Vietnam War and Doi Moi influenced art in North and South of Vietnam? Thanh Kieu Moeller tells us all.Art Tips: Frame Mats for Art
2010.08.02 By Artyii
Selecting a right mat can complement your art fairly well. People however spend hours selecting a right frame without paying attention to the mat.Frédéric de Senarclens
2010.07.21 By Artyii
The Art of Art Investing by Frederic de Senaclens...Mr. President and Me
2010.07.20 By Ragnhild Flatabo Narverud
While art scouting in Ho Chi Minh City I came upon an unexpected companion.Rediscovering Void Deck 2010 - Holland Village, Singapore
2010.07.15 By Artyii
Rediscovering Void Decks 2010 is Artyii's pioneer initiative to bring fine art into Singapore's otherwise common looking neighbourhood "void decks". See wall murals here..
