Welcome to Country and Exhibition Celebration: Three Echoes — Western Desert Art

Join Benalla Art Gallery for the official celebration of Three Echoes — Western Desert Art.

This exhibition explores the poetic notion of echoes – how metaphorically and metaphonically we can echo a thought, a sentiment or a consciousness.

In the 1970s Australian Aboriginal people from the desert began talking to the world through art, transferring their creation stories of the land and people to canvas. Now in the 2020s, this foundational echo is going back and forth.

The exhibition showcases 81 paintings, prints and batiks by 57 acclaimed artists heralding from Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff), Papunya and Utopia Aboriginal communities in the western desert regions of the Northern Territory, Australia. The works in this exhibition are drawn from the early 1970s to early 2000s, Three Echoes – Western Desert Art celebrates our world’s oldest continuous living culture and artistic traditions that span tens of thousands of years.

Welcome to Country by Nikki James, proud Yorta Yorta woman and Winton Wetlands’ Koorie Cultural Officer

Exhibition to be launched by Djon Mundine OAM FAHA

RSVP
Numbers are strictly limited.

Image:
Long Tom Tjapanangka (born 1929 – 2006)
Pintupi/Ngaatjatjarra language groups
Mereenie Range with Sacred Tree and Snake 1996
acrylic on linen, 152 x 198 cm
Photograph by Mark Ashkanasy
© Long Tom Tjapanangka l Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd

Three Echoes – Western Desert Art is an initiative of Museums & Galleries Queensland developed in partnership with Karin Schack and Andrew Arnott, and curated by Djon Mundine OAM FAHA. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through its Visions of Australia program and through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. It is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. Museums & Galleries Queensland is supported by the Tim Fairfax Foundation and receives funds through the Australian Cultural Fund.