Exhibition: Inspired | The Collectors Edition

Cooee Art presents an exhibition titled Inspired | The Collectors Edition, Artists from the Kimberley Region.

Few areas in Australia, if any, have an artistic history reaching further back than the Kimberley. West Kimberley’s artistic tradition stems from rock painting, mostly of the deeply Wandjina Deity, still forming the basis of contemporary imagery, now painted mostly on bark and canvas. Some of these cave paintings date back as far as 40,000 years.

The artistic tradition of the East Kimberley area finds its roots much more recently, formed around the founders of the Gija art movement, including Rover Thomas, Paddy Jaminji, Hector Jandani to name a few. Queenie McKenzie, under the urging of Rover Thomas, was the first female artist to paint and exhibit her own works

Developed most famously by Rover Thomas, the language of landscape is incredibly unique to this area, with the country being viewed neither from the birdseye perspective prominent in the Central and Western Deserts, nor from the standing viewpoint employed by European landscape painters. These paintings can be extremely restrained, using only a few colours to depict huge swaths of land. Yet artists can often populate the landscape, as did Queenie McKenzie and Hector Jandany who had their country visited by the Christian God and Jesus Christ, imported by European missionaries.

Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji’s figurative works are built around the important Kril Kril ceremony, from which dance boards, now in galleries or museums, may still bear the marks of the powerful employment.