Coming Soon – PARU by the Spinifex Hill Studio Artists

Don’t miss this exhibition of Indigenous art, presented by Artitja Fine Art Gallery, which opens 24 May 2019 at Earlyworks, 330 South Terrace, South Fremantle and runs to 16 June 2019.

You will be treated to representational landscapes, loose abstract imagery and birdlife paintings by critically acclaimed artists from northern Western Australia.

Based in South Hedland, the Spinifex Hill Artists studio was established in 2014. Since then, this Indigenous art collective has achieved national and international success having most recently exhibited in the USA.

Anna Kanaris, Director of Artitja Fine Art, says: ‘This is the first time we have worked with an art centre that is so diverse in its language groups, which is very exciting, as it results in a contrasting range of styles’.

There are over eight different language groups represented in the studio, with artists being from vastly different regions including the Great Sandy, Little Sandy and Gibson Deserts. For one reason or another, mainly family connections, many have settled in the Hedland area, yet continue to have a strong connection to their birthplaces and sacred sites.

Paru is a word for spinifex in two of the language groups represented.

Anna explains that the exhibition will highlight stylistic differences, while bringing together the very important connections to Country that each artist treasures.

She adds that the exhibition ‘radiates joy, peacefulness and a confidence in experimentation, such that art lovers and collectors are increasingly keeping a close eye on these artist’s work’.

Heading south for the opening of PARU will be a small contingent from the SHA Studios, with special guest Walmajarri elder Nyangulya Katie Nalgood, whose delightful bird portraits feature strongly. Her motivation for painting birds, in Katie’s words, are “….birds are the first things we see, you know, when we wake up. See and hear. They wake us up in the mornings, and they go to sleep and we go to sleep. You know us old people start and finish the day with the birds. That’s everyday life between birds and humans, you know. That’s what I think about anyway”.

Artists featured in the exhibition include Doreen Chapman, Maywokka Chapman, Gloria, Mulyatingki Marney, Illyampi Victor Burton, Nyangula Katie Nalgood, Winnie Sampi, Nancy Chapman Nyanjlpayi, and Maggie Green.

Nyangulya Katie Nalgood will be in the gallery for a special IN CONVERSATION event on Saturday May 24th at 2pm with Anna Kanaris. Bookings for this special event, preceding the 6 pm opening, are essential and can be made here.