Respected elder and senior painter Mavis Ngallametta (1944–2019) passed away mere months after QAGOMA confirmed her solo exhibition for 2020. True to her generous character and larger-than-life personality, Ngallametta was determined for the show to go on, even as her health declined. In late October 2019, the artist’s friend and artistic advisor, Gina Allain, spoke…
Continue reading » “Mavis Ngallametta: Show me the way to go home”
We highlight two large-scale paintings by Indigenous artists from Central Desert communities in South Australia — Wawiriya Burton’s Ngayuku ngura – My Country 2018 and Nellie Ngampa Coulthard’s Tjuntala Ngurangka (Country with Acacia Wattle) 2018 — two vibrant compositions that hum with energy and evoke the colours and heat of desert sands. My Country Burton…
We highlight five women artists who reflect on the cultural traditions of water, consider our reliance on water, and examine the environmental and social challenges faced by the world today. 1. Lorraine Connelly-Northey Lorraine Connelly-Northey descends from the Waradgerie [artist’s spelling] nation but grew up downstream of the Murray River in Swan Hill, on the…
Continue reading » “5 Women artists with a connection to water”
Known for her versatility as an artist, her work ethic and her unconventional lifestyle, Loma Lautour is an eccentric and engaging personality in Australian art history. Living a bohemian existence in Sydney’s artist community during the 1920s and 30s, she established herself as a talented sculptor, jeweller, modeller, printmaker and craft-worker. Loma Lautour Loma Kyle…
Shirley Macnamara is a fibre artist with a significant career dating from the mid 1990s. Her work Wingreeguu 2012 is a woven sculptural installation based on traditional Indjilandji/Dhidhanu Alyawarre spinifex shelters. Macnamara spoke to Diane Moon about her work. Shirley Macnamara | I live on a cattle station which I run with my son and…
Before colonisation, the coastal shellfish reefs in Brisbane’s Moreton Bay — fostered using aquaculture techniques — were a major source of food for Aboriginal people of the region. Over centuries of feasting, towering middens created from discarded shells and bones were impressive sights on the local islands and beaches of the mainland. Megan Cope’s RE…
Continue reading » “Installation takes the oyster shell as its subject”
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.