Salon Art Projects
This year Salon Art Projects returns with eight exhibitions that place Indigenous art front and centre. With an exciting program of group and individual exhibitions in galleries around town complementing the Salon des Refusés, which is presented this year in a digital format, there's a whole swag of beautiful art to immerse yourself in – both online and in person.
The Salon des Refusés is an exhibition of works submitted but not accepted into the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Its quality demonstrates the superb standard of art being created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, and provides insight into where the movement has come from, and where it is heading. This year, the 2021 Salon des Refusés is presented online.
WHEN THU 5 AUG – SAT 25 SEP
INFO salonartprojects.com.au
Lennard Walker, 'Tali', 2020, acrylic on linen, 290x200cm. Courtesy Spinifex Arts Project. Photo: Fiona Morrison.
Patsy Mudgedell – AwakeningPatsy is a contemporary artist redefining what Aboriginal art is, and can be. Through her richly textured paintings, Patsy encourages respect for Country.
“... an artwork is a good way of showing that respect. It’s alive like we are alive. It takes care of humans and humans can take care of the land. It’s an active thing. This is why people have a duty of care to their areas. They have a responsibility and with that comes authenticity.”
WHEN FRI 6 – SAT 28 AUG
AT PAUL JOHNSTONE GALLERY
Pauline Sunfly Nangala
Pauline Sunfly paints her parents’ Country, her ancestral places south of her home at Balgo (Wirrimanu), which borders both the Tanami Desert and the Great Sandy Desert in northern Western Australia. Her striking paintings depict ancestral paths, ceremonial designs and the stories of important tjukurrpa sites associated with the native cat, goanna and kingfisher. They are reimaginings of deep cultural knowledge painted with a unique contemporary expression.
WHEN FRI 6 – SAT 28 AUG
AT PAUL JOHNSTONE GALLERY
Maru Munu Piranpa (Black and White)
Kaltjiti Arts is a community based art centre in the remote community of Fregon in the APY Lands of South Australia. It was established in 1961 as an outstation of the Ernabella mission and focuses on artistic excellence. Maru Munu Piranpa (black and white) exemplifies the extraordinary talent of Kaltjiti Arts and includes exceptional works by artists such as Taylor Cooper, Witjiti George, Matjangka (Nyukana) Norris and Imitjala Curley.
WHEN UNTIL SAT 21 AUG
AT PAUL JOHNSTONE GALLERY
Carbiene McDonald 
Carbiene McDonald resides in Papunya, a four-hour drive to the North West of Alice Springs. In his paintings, he depicts four Dreaming stories (tjukurrpa) that he inherited from his father. These tjukurrpa are associated with a series of waterholes running between Docker River and Kata Tjuta. Specifically, it includes four important sites. As a young man, Carbiene returned to these places and retraced the footsteps of his father. These memories stay with him vividly today.
WHEN UNTIL FRI 6 AUG
AT OUTSTATION GALLERY
Pantutjara – Timo Hogan
Timo Hogan does not paint the picture. He paints the story. And the story is the big picture. He calmly applies the paint to Lake Baker with the quiet authority of someone recreating the country they know intimately. For here at Lake Baker, Timo tells of the religion within the landscape and the inhabitants that made it so. He surveys the Wati Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Men Creation Line) of his birthright and brings this into focus on the two-dimensional plane for all to see.
WHEN SAT 7 – SAT 28 AUG
AT OUTSTATION GALLERY
Waltja Tjuta: Family“Our art room is family coming together. Our door is always open, you are always welcome. There are eight languages that come into this art room. We sit around together talking, laughing, sorting out problems, encouraging each other to be the winner at art! This art room belongs to us. We can’t live without our art anymore, we can’t live without this room and we can never live without family.”
WHEN THU 5 – SAT 14 AUG
AT TACTILE ARTS
MurrÅiny – A story of metal from the east
Hit by shotguns, burnt by Dry season fires, rusted by monsoonal rain, discarded signs litter Territory roadsides. A group of seven Yolngu artists from Yirrkala have come to rescue, recycle and rework these battered warriors in new ways that have never been seen before.
Murrnginy is the Yolngu word for steel. It is also the name by which this nation was known by its neighbours and the first Europeans who encountered them. This name references the shovel nosed spears made here since pre-Cook times. Old signs are new again.
WHEN SAT 7 AUG – SAT 25 SEP
AT NCCA
Love art? Click here to check out August's Visual Arts listings.
Images from top:
1. Patsy Mudgedell. Photo courtesy Warlayirti Artists
2. Pauline Sunfly. Photo courtesy Warlayirti Artists
3. Taylor Cooper. Photo courtesy Kaltjiti Arts
4. Carbiene McDonald, 'Four Dreamings' (detail), 2021, acrylic on linen, 152x91cm
5. Timo Hogan, 'Lake Baker' (detail), 2021, acrylic on linen, 290x200cm
6. Louise Robertson , ' Big Owl ', soft sculpture - mixed media
7. Wanapati YunupiÅu working on found street sign. Photo: David Wickens
