Sam TJAMPITJIN (born circa 1930)

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Dorothy NAPANGARDI (born 1956)

Dorothy's paintings are highly sought after by both collectors and curators worldwide. In 1991 she won the Best Painting in European Media, 8th National Aboriginal Art Award; in 1998 the Northern Territory Art Award; and she was "Highly Commended" for the 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award in 1999. In 2001 Dorothy won the 18th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award ,presented by Telstra, with her spectacular black and white painting titled, "Salt on Mina Mina".

Napangardi's paintings adorn the walls of institutions such as The Australia Council; the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany and the Kelton Foundation in Santa Monica, U.S.A.

Dorothy was first introduced to painting in 1987 by her friend and artist, Eunice Napangardi.She now paints her country, Mina Mina without any traditional iconography from her familial lines, creating her own innovative language to portray her country. Dorothy's paintings are created by an intricate network of lines that collide and implode on top of each other creating a play of tension and expansion, transporting the viewer through a myriad of intersections. Her view is constantly changing: one painting giving an aerial perspective; the next as if she has placed a microscope to the ground. Dorothy now resides in Alice Springs where she paints full time in her own studio at Gallery Gondwana

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Alick TIPOTI (born 1975)

Alick Tipoti is a Torres Strait Islander who is guided by the traditional cultural practices of his people. He believes in the Zugubal who were spoken about for many years by his ancestors. He is most diligent about what he sees as his responsibility to document the stories, genealogies, songs and other aspects of his culture so that it is available for future generations to learn, understand and practice. He speaks his native language, Kala Lagaw Ya of the Maluilgal nation of Zenadh Kes. Alick believes that language is the vital ingredient that binds all cultures in the world today. ‘Without your language you become a foreigner, lost in another persons culture. One of my favourite English word is analyse. In my language we call it Ses Tham or Thapul. Singing and dancing are forms of art that branch out from the centrepiece called language. Everything you do, traditionally or culturally, evolves from a language. When you know the language, you know your culture.’ Alick has researched the genealogy of Zenadh Kes. He says that when you practice something about your culture, it is important to know your roots and your identity as this will help you choose your path in life. He has been given the traditional name of ZUGUB which enables him to relate to the spirits of his ancestors, the ZUGUBAL. This provides him the insight and ability to translate the words of these ancestors into the beautifully delicate and complex imagery of his linocuts. ‘When I work late at night carving traditional designs, I can sense the presence of the spirits who I verbally acknowledge and thank in language for their guidance and help in visualising the words they have given me. I vividly remember an unusual event late one evening where I was guided to resketch and change the interperation of a block I was about to carve. This was just one of the many occasions when I have connected with the Zugubal who have instructed me on the proper ways of our cultural traditions.’ “In my life I have come to a level of understanding that I pray to the Zugubal of my culture” The artist holds an Advance Diplomain Arts, Thursday Island TAFE College and a Batchelor of Visual Arts, Australian National University, Canberra.

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Lily Mindindil KARADADA (born 1937)

Lily Karadada was born in her father's country in the land of the Pitjarintjin people, Prince Regent River, on the Mitchell Plateau, Western Australia. It is said that the Wandjina spirit figure is the embodiment of the rain spirit and ancestor of the Wunambul, Nagarinyin and Worrora peoples of the northwest Kimberley region. Representation of this spirit are found in caves and rock formations of the area, where large images of the Wandjina are painted using ochres and clay, usually from a frontal aspect, with no mouths, large black eyes and a slit or beak-like nose.

Lily specialises in painting the Wandjina and on this coolamon she has painted three Wandjina spirits using ochre and acrylic paints, in a veil of dots representing the rain generated by the spirit and the blood/water bond between man and nature.

Along with her art production, which includes painting and carving, Lily also plays an important role in her community as a respected elder, passing on the Wandjina story on to the younger Pitjarintjin/Woonambal generations.

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Dorothy NAPANGARDI

Dorothy Napangardi is an Australian Aboriginal artist, one of the three thousand or so Warlpiri speakers who live in or are originally from the Tanami desert region of Central Australia. She was born circa 1956 in the area called Mina Mina and grew up in the settlement town of Yuendumu where her father is still a senior lawgiver. Christine Nicholls, a specialist in aboriginal art, writes that “Dorothy Napangardi’s success as an artist lies in her ability to evoke a strong sense of movement on her canvases, an effect she achieves because of her remarkable spatial sense and compositional ability.” Nicholls goes on to say that the work “can be appreciated on multiple levels”.

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Emily Kame KNGWARREYE (1916-1996)

All the paintings of Emily Kame KNGWARREYE, so spectacular and diverse in style, express a central theme - that of her identification with the earth and land itself: Anmatyerre country, the country of the yam and the emu. Unlike the powerful men's paintings with which the art world was so familiar, detailing aerial perspectives of sacred sites across the landscape, the women's art of the Anmatyerre and related Alyawarra people is quite different; it is close and particular. One can view it as an expression of the phrase often used by Aboriginal people from religious or traditional backgrounds: "The earth is my mother". The earth itself, the land and its plants, is a woman; the country Emily is expressing is herself. This can be seen in her name alone: Kame, meaning yam flower or yam seed. Emily was often called by her compatriots "boss woman, yam".

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G.W. BOT

G. W. BOT is inspired by the landscape, the physical and metaphysical one. She is not a landscape artist, but her art reflects the rytms of the land, and her personal journey within the landscape, and in particular her garden. It shows her delight in materials and texture, and intricately working her surfaces. In her early prints Bot depicted a domestic space, using te imagery about her to convey her life as a mother, and gave this a spiritual resoannce. In her later work she has focused more on the environment about her.

According to Aboriginal totemic belief, each member of a clan inherits a totemic relationship with a particular plant or animal of the region.  G.W. Bot likes this idea of oneness with the environment.  Where she lives wombats are especially prevalent and they have become her totemic animal.  The earliest written reference to a wombat occurs in a French source where it is called "le grand Wam Bot," and hence her exhibiting name - G.W. Bot.

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Christopher CROFT

Christopher CROFT, born in Melbourne in 1947, has been living and working in London for the past three years after having resided in France, Germany, Italy and New Zealand.
Christopher CROFT is considered to be one of the most visible representatives of contemporary Australian art in the way he combines surreal inspiration, inherited from Magritte and Duchamp, with a selection of settings found across modern civilization.

A sery of his works is being exhibited at the moment in Lyon (France) at the
Gallery Anima(l)
20, rue des Remparts d'Ainay
69002 Lyon
(33) 04 78 37 13 07

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Abie LOY

Abie LOY's works will be exhibited from 13th till 17th of september at the Galerie 51, 51 rue de Seine, 75006 Paris

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Dennis NONA

Dennis Nona was born in 1973 on Badu, one of the tropical islands in the Torres Strait, situated between the northern point of Australia and Papua New Guinea. After learning
traditional wood sculpture during his childhood, he studied art at Cairns TAFE (School of decorative arts) and later, specializing in engraving, obtained a diploma of Visual Arts at the Institute of Art of the National Australian University, Canberra. He is currently undertaking a Master of Arts degree in Visual Arts at Griffith University, Brisbane.
His chosen techniques are linocut prints and etchings as the texture of the paper, the manufacture procedures as well as the inks and pigments used seem to give more power to his oeuvre. From engraving to engraving unfolds a “film” more often in black and white or sometimes “coloured” into which the spectator enters easily.
Considered as one of the best representatives of Australian printmaking, Dennis Nona has influenced other emerging artists of his community. His works are present in most of the major Australian museums including the Queensland Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia as well as international galleries such as the Tate in London. They are regularly selected at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. His prints notably were part of the benchmark exhibition “Islands in the Sun: Prints by Indigenous Artists of the Oceanic Region” at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in 2001.

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Ann THOMSON

Ann THOMSON'S paintings come from her subconscious, they are not the result of one particular place or image, rather ideas and images which have unconsciously been gathered through her life. Although they examine themes, such as flight, cityscapes, landscape, water and the harbour, etc. her paintings cannot be pinned down to a specific area. They are vehicules for ideas which have worked through to her canvas.

Ann THOMSON says that when she begins a work she "jumps into open space", she does not try to force or control her work. The theme comes from within her. She paints and thinks in layers, pushing away a subject if it imposes itself, working against it. She builds up a canvas, often putting thin paint over thick, at times letting the paint fall by its own volition so that it dribbles down the canvas, at others guiding it with broad brush strokes. To achieve the tactile surface of her work she builds up areas of the canvas, the scratches the paint back, using scrapers, trowels, and even sandpaper. Manipulating it to achieve a three dimensional effect, where foreground unites with background. She likes to create the awareness that "I have been there", a sense of space in front of the canvas, which, with the depth she creates, adds to mystery of the painting.

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Roy WIGGAN

Roy was born on Sunday Island in 1930 in north western Australia. He is a Bardi elder who represents the culture of his people through sacred dance totems known as the ilma. These ilma are rare items as Roy is the only Bardi elder who makes these ceremonial pieces....

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Elizabeth Marks NAKAMARRA

Elizabeth Marks helped her husband, Mick Namerari Tjapaltjarri, with some of his paintings, and since his death in 1998, became an artist in her own right. She was born in Papunya.

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