Golden Years | Ancestry | Australia, long before it had that name
13 May 2017
Golden Years: Karina Coombes & Joanne Nasir
Golden Years commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum through the work of two Indigenous women artists: Karina Coombes (Pirlangimpi, Melville Island) and Joanne Nasir (Darwin). 'Golden' also evokes their shared ochre palette as painters and the sense of 'old' and recent work, particularly with the selection of Joanne's paintings which span a much longer art career. The seed for this exhibition was born at the 2016 NT Expo where Karina and Joanne were displaying their work at nearby, separate stalls, their parallel interests in bold and innovative composition apparent. While their work does not directly address the 1967 Referendum, it shares its central themes of social justice and self-determination. Joanne's work has, for example, focused on histories of incarceration and forced removal in commemorating the 100th anniversary of Kahlin Compound in 2013. Both artists celebrate their particular Indigenous cosmologies and continue to give it new and original form.
Joanne Nasir(b. 1961) has been making art in earnest since the mid-1980s. She is primarily a painter who has also worked across a range of graphic and textile design mediums. She has family affiliations across the NT: Garrawa (Borroloola), and Djugan/Yawuru (Broome), and with connections to the Tiwi Islands as a descendant of the Stolen Generations. Joanne set up her first design company Yurra Yiminga (Two Suns) in the late 1980s and saw success at the International Textile Trade Expo (Darling Harbour, Sydney) and the first Northern Territory Aboriginal Trades Expo. Joanne has held 6 solo exhibitions (in Broome, Darwin, and Sydney) and been involved in group exhibitions throughout Australia and internationally. She has been awarded numerous design commissions (for eg., Careflight's recent Reconcilation Action Plan) through her business Joanne Nasir Art and Design. Joanne also works a a senior trainer for Tanyah Nasir Consulting Service. Joanne cites close friend and mentor fellow Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas as a key influence along with fellow artists Jimmy Pike, Bronwyn Bancroft, Lin Onus, Trevor Nichols, Brenda Croft and (the late) Shane Pickett.
Karina Coombes (b. 1982) is a Tiwi artist from Pirlangimpi (Garden Point) on Melville Island who works through Munupi Arts. Her artistic career began in 2010 under the direction of her grandfather, the late Justin Puruntatameri, a revered artist and ceremonial leader whose own remarkable career as a painter was also then beginning in his late eighties. The Yirrikipayi (Crocodile) is a strong feature of Karina’s work which includes paintings of other animals such as her totems Jarrikalani (Turtle), and Takaringa (Mullet). Karina also paints the night sky as it appears over the Tiwi Islands.
Ancestry
13 May to 10 June 2017
Gallery 2 + Boxset
Jason Sellaiah is an artist originally from Malaysia and now resident in Wadeye (Port Keats), NT. His main medium is sculpture, often in stone and wood though he works across a variety of mediums. Jason spent time in New Zealand after first leaving Malaysia. It was in New Zealand that he learnt carving techniques for sculpture. Ancestryis Jason's first solo exhibition in a public contemporary art space; it follows on from his representation inArtmart 2016(also at NCCA). The exhibition relates to the passing of Jason's father in 2016 (on the same day as David Bowie). Dealing with such a profound loss becomes the artist's trigger to explore the ancestral theme: 'attachment, kinship, creation, genomes, and respect (for) and honour of the dead.'
Australia, long before it had that name
13 May to 10 June
Screenroom
In the artist's words, 'Australia, long before it had that name is designed to take the viewer on a journey along the painted make-believe landscape, based on the country some of us now live in and others have been in for a long time. It will start at the beginning of time and by the inclusion of certain evidence of humans, animals, and plants, it will bring the viewer up to relatively recent times.'
Katherine Bradley is a Darwin-based artist with a landscape painting-based practice which dates from the late 1980s when she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the South Australian College of Advanced Education. Katherine has held numerous solo exhibitions around Australia beginning with Shelter in an Australian landscape(1995, Geraldton Regional Gallery) and, most recently, Australia, before it had that name (Series 1)(2014, Framed Gallery, Darwin) which laid the foundation for her current exhibition to occupy NCCA's Screenroom as a 30-plus-metre frieze. Also strongly informing the exhibition is a 2016 residency at Territory Wildlife Park which enabled the artist to closely study local flora and fauna and seasonal changes (across 6 Top End seasons).
Katherine also holds a Master of Fine Arts (1992, University of Tasmania) and she is a previous finalist in the Togart Award (2013).
