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February 25, 2010
© 2008
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Summer Storms features 20 new paintings created during two dynamic workshops held in Brisbane studios in 2009 and 2010. The exhibition features Michael Nelson’s distinctive expressionist broad-brush designs, on vividly bright grounds, appearing somewhat like colossal energy fields! Michael Nelson, who consciously moved away from dot and circle paintings in the late 1990s, continues to work within his strict repertoire of traditional Warlpiri source imagery (such as Rain, Lightning, Yam, Bush Turkey and Kangaroo Dreamings). Such iconic images are laid down with clarity and confidence. In
1984, Michael Nelson won the inaugural National Aboriginal Art
Awards (now Telstra National Indigenous Art Awards). This followed
with selection for the 1986 Sydney Biennale; the Opera House
Bicentenary Commission in1987 for a major canvas measuring 20
meters; The New Parliament House Forecourt Mosaic commission
in Canberra in 1988; and the BMW Art Car commission in 1989. Alongside Summer Storms, the exhibition will also showcase 3 earlier works: Storm Series (15 panels) 2000; Big Rain & Lightning (7 panels), 2002 and Who Speaks? 2002. Who Speaks? is an important collaborative work completed with Imants Tillers. MNJ,
a senior Warlpiri artist, was born in 1946 in Pikilyi (Vaughn
Springs) in Central Australia. He resides at Papunya 250 km
west of Alice Springs. In May 2008, he was awarded an Honorary
Doctorate, University of New South Wales. Michael Nelson continues
to makes the salient point that, whilst his choice of colours,
materials and appearance are continually being reformatted,
his stories have never changed! EVELYN McGREEN: Wawu Bajin limited edition lino prints Evelyn McGreen is a Guguu Yimithirr woman of the Thupi Warra Clan who lives in Hopevale in Far North Queensland. Wawu Bajin (Spirit Baskets) produced in 2009 and 2010, were launched at the CIAF Cairns Indigenous Art Fair in August 2009. These prints have caught the national attention of collectors and curators alike signalling the emergence of so much new talent in Queensland’s far north. This is the first viewing at a commercial gallery. The eight limited edition prints are available individually, or as a folio set. All works are hand coloured lino cut prints which are produced in collaboration with Theo Tremblay and Paloma Ramos at Canopy Artspace Cairns and the Hopevale Arts and Cultural Centre. Evelyn’s eight designs celebrate the basket as both aesthetic object, and as practical material culture, with references to collecting berries, shellfish, bush figs, yams, medicine leaves, or as a strainer for washing clams and shellfish. MICHAEL
NELSON JAGAMARA + EVELYN McGREEN 4 March - 10 April 2010 fireworks
gallery 52a Doggett Street Newstead |