Peter Maralwanga was an artist from Oenpelli (Gunbalanya) who worked for a while in Maningrida before moving to Marrkolidjban, a few kilometres away. In the early 1970s, he met Yirawala, another great Kuninjku artist from this region: he adopted his style. Like most artists in Arnhem Land, he uses the rarrk motif from the Mardayin ceremonies to decorate his creations. His often large barks consist of intensely designed representations of animals or spirits, with a preference for Rainbow Serpents as in this work, but also barramundi, crocodiles, mimih and Yawkyawk. In the early 1980s they were, together with Yirawala, undoubtedly the greatest Kuninjku (Gunwinggu) artists. Peter's work always confines the Rarrk to a figurative element. He uses a variety of techniques, including stippling, monochrome, rarrk, solid colour blocks and parallel rarrk. |
MY SELECTION OF WORKS
