An Array of Talent on Display at Garma's Gapan Gallery
4 July 2018
Artwork from some of the Top End’s leading talents will be on show at the spectacular open-air Gapan Gallery at this year’s Garma.
Yothu Yindi Foundation CEO Denise Bowden said five Arnhem Land arts centres would be represented at this year’s 20th anniversary event.
The five arts centres showcasing work are:
• Bula’Bula Arts Aboriginal Corporation;
• Buku-Larrnggay;
• Elcho Island Arts;
• Gapuwiyak Culture and Arts Aboriginal Corporation; and
• Ngukurr Arts Aboriginal Corporation.
“Art has always played a central role in the cultural expression of Arnhem Land communities, giving form to Australia’s first creation stories and laying bare the complex relationships that Yolngu have with land, sea, animals and ancestral beings,” Mrs Bowden said.
“Today we are seeing the next generation of artists using modern and contemporary techniques and inspiration to breathe new life into these time-honoured artistic traditions.
“Yolngu art is admired and valued not just throughout Australia, but around the world, and this year’s Gapan Gallery will showcase the very best of what’s on offer.”
Bula’Bula Arts, which services Ramingining and its 11 surrounding outstations, aims to preserve and foster Yolngu culture. It takes its name from the message embodied in the
area’s principal creative being, Gandayala the Red Kangaroo, and broadly translates to mean ‘knowledge’.
Buku-Larrnggay – ‘the feeling on your face as it is struck by the first rays of the sun’ – is located in Yirrkala and services that community and about 25 surrounding homelands. Renowned for its bark paintings, Yirrkala artists were among the first Indigenous artists to utilise the power of the visual medium for political expression, including the famous Yirrkala Church Panels and the Yirrkala Bark Petition.
Elcho Island Arts is located in Galiwin’ku, Elcho Island, off the northeast coast of Arnhem Land. Its artists are renowned for their design and knowledge of traditional bush materials, and their artworks are widely exhibited nationally and in major collections worldwide. Re-launched in 2018 under the direction of senior Yolgnu artists, the art centre assists emerging and established artists from Galiwin’ku and surrounding Marthakal homelands in artwork production, professional development and the promotion and distribution of Yolngu art and design.
Gapuwiyak Culture and Arts Aboriginal Corporation is a recent initiative of the remote East Arnhem Land community of Gapuwiyak, created to enhance the wellbeing of Yolngu people living in the region by supporting their cultural practices, values and intellectual property, while providing opportunities for leadership, meaningful employment and professional development.
Ngukurr Art Centre, which sits a stone’s throw from the banks of the Roper River in Ngukurr, Southeast Arnhem Land, is unique – bringing together people of many different clans and language groups, including Ngalakgan, Alawa, Mangarrayi, Ngandi, Marra, Warndarrang, Nunggubuyu, Ritharrngu-Wägilak and Rembarrnga. Although there has never been one distinct style of art in the area, Ngukurr artists use bold colours and adventurous techniques to interpret traditional stories and landscapes.
Garma 2018 will take place between Friday 3 August – Monday 6 August at Gulkula in northeast Arnhem Land.
Tickets for this year’s event have now sold out.
Media Contact: Jason Frenkel 0402 282 251