Wood carving is an important ceremonial art in Aurukun, a town and coastal locality in western Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland. Major sets of carved icons used in public ceremonies in the 1950s and 60s have been collected and are now housed in Australia’s major museums. The renaissance of art in the community has centred…
Enjoy this series of videos exploring the work of Mavis Ngallametta (1944-2019) with Katina Davidson, Curator of Indigenous Australian Art, and co-curator of the exhibition ‘Mavis Ngallametta: Show Me the Way to Go Home’. Turn up the volume on the walk-through tour, relax, and float away in the beauty of her work. Mavis Ngallametta made…
Prior to commencing painting, Mavis Ngallametta (1944–2019) was a renowned weaver. An elder of the Putch clan and a cultural leader of the Wik and Kugu people of Aurukun, Ngallametta was one of the most well-regarded senior community-based artists in Australia. She made a profound contribution to arts and culture nationally before her passing. Over…
Continue reading » “Mavis Ngallametta found a new home in her painting”
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”
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”
Passionate and rebellious, Helge John ‘Jon’ Molvig (1923–70) was a relentless artistic innovator, who, in the 1950s and 1960s, attained national recognition. Newcastle-born, Molvig moved to Brisbane in 1955 and dominated the city’s art scene until his death just before he turned 47. With great energy, he created figure studies, portraits and landscapes, making radical…
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.