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Summer 2010 Exhibition Program at Clifton

The Opening show at Sheahan Galleries 2- 24 January 2010, presents new work by Maningrida artists-couple, Lena Yarinkura and Bob Burruwal. They are influential artists using traditional media, pandanus, wood, ochres, bush string and wax, and techniques such as weaving and carving, to create contemporary sculptures. Their work engages both the sacred and the non sacred figures and clan stories, including the stunning Wyarra spirit family, camp dogs, Morning star poles and Tree all featured in the show at Sheahan Galleries.

 

Yarinkura’s work has recently featured in the Queensland Art Gallery’s Indigenous fibre art survey, Floating Life  And Object gallery’s Managerie  featured Lena’s famous Camp Dogs.

 

Emerging artist Jackie Cavallaro’s show consists of exquisite cutouts, boxes, domes and diaries. These objects are a beautiful counterpoint to the animated fibre works of Lena Yarinkura and Bob Burruwal.

 

Other artist’s featured at the gallery in this current program are: David Green, who has successfully juggled his academic career with his career as an artist for over 50 years. Hilary Herrmann is a Bangalow artist whose career is on the rise and whose abstract expressionist work fits nicely within this tradition of Australian painters.

 

Photographer Gary Lee offers a selection of portaits called “On  the Verge” this show follows on from his successful shows at Gallery 4a, and the groundbreaking More than My Skin, curated by Djon Mundine at 24 Hour Art. This show continues Lee’s interest in maleness and the celebration of male beauty. This work’s focus is on males in their late teens from the NSW coastal town of Bulli.

 

Other guest artists include, Marita Macklin, Juilee Pryor, and Tanya Stubbles.  The showroom program concludes on the 28th of March 2010 and will reopen in June for a Winter program.

Presence - small works from Maningrida, 8 May - 5 June 2009

This recent show offered a rare opportunity to see the most exciting contemporary work from the Maningrida Community in Arnhem Land, the hub of what is arguably the most significant art movement of the late 20th century and early 21st century. The beautiful objects from this community are prized by national and international collectors. This exhibition showed works by highly established and senior artists as well as imaginative and striking works by younger emerging artists.

Lena Yarinkura's fibre sculptures like 'Camp Dog' and her 'Yawk Yawk' are particularly charismatic. Her 'Yawk Yawk' fibre sculpture has the loveliest face I've ever encountered on such a work.

The exhibition has stunning carved works by artists such as Irenie Ngalinba, Stephen Kawurriku and Emmanuel Wurrkidj, that resonate powerful spiritual connection to land and culture. The shimmery surface of the barks, Mimi and the Lorrkon are entrancing.

Also included are Morning Star Poles, the central object in the ' Marradjin' ceremony are decorated poles painted with clan designs, fibre and feathers, and are presented with the associated song series.

Woven fibre sculptures characteristic of women's art from Maningrida are figurative representations of ancestral spirits such as the mermaid like Yawk Yawk as well as bush mice, possums and camp dogs. Sylvia Campion has taken a new path with innovative installation fibre sculptures using materials gathered from her clan estate. 'Tree' is a delightful assemblage of bush mice and Kordow tree.

Many of the artists have exhibited in numerous significant group and solo exhibitions at Hogarth Galleries, Annandale Gallery in Sydney as well as renowned Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, in Melbourne.

For further information: Linda Sheahan 0403874640