Artist Kenny Brown working on an etching plate during a printmaking workshop held at Jilamara Arts and Crafts in March 2006.
An exquisite collection of 21 new etchings from Melville Island will be launched on Saturday 12 August at 12.30pm at Charles Darwin University’s Northern Editions Gallery.
The exhibition, Jilamara: new etchings from Melville Island, celebrates the culmination of two recent printmaking workshops held between Tiwi’s Jilamara Arts and Craft and Northern Editions. The show will be officially opened by Marion Scrymgour, Minister for Arts and Museums. Artists and art workers will be among the guests at the opening.
Artists featuring in the show include Raelene Kerinauia, Janice Murray, Pedro Wonaeamirri, Dymphna Kerinauia, Timothy Cook, Kenny Brown, Glen Farmer Illortaminii and Conrad Tipungwuti.
‘This is the first time Northern Editions has worked with artists from Jilamara and it has been very rewarding to see such a strong collection of works emerge through this new partnership’, said Emma Fowler-Thomason, manager of Northern Editions.
Printmakers Dian Darmansjah, Leon Stainer and Jacinta Numina-Waugh conducted the initial workshop at Northern Editions in November 2005. This was followed by a second workshop in March 2006 on Melville Island. Trent Walter and Leon Stainer were invited to work with the artists and visited Jilamara to further explore the artistic possibilities offered by the printmaking medium.
Jilamara Arts and Crafts co-ordinator, Danielle Cullen, said: ‘The recent body of work created through these two workshops reveals the rich and diverse artistic tradition of some of Australia’s most exciting contemporary artists’.
Jilamara Arts and Crafts is located at Milikapati (Snake Bay) on Melville Island. The art centre opened in the mid-1980s with a small group of artists using traditional Tiwi and contemporary media to produce paintings, etchings, screenprints, lithographs and carvings. Jilamara continues to be a strong and innovative producer of contemporary fine art and craft.
Northern Editions has been supporting Indigenous printmaking since 1993 and is now the longest established producer, publisher and retailer of limited edition fine art prints in northern Australia. Many of these works have since found their way into major art galleries, museums and corporate and private collections around the world.
Jilamara: new etchings from Melville Island is being launched to coincide with the Darwin Festival and 2006 Telstra Award and will run until 13 October. The gallery is open to the public from 10am to 5pm weekdays in Building 33, at CDU’s Casuarina Campus.
For further details or an interview contact Emma Fowler-Thomason on (08) 8946 6325 or visit http://www.cdu.edu.au/northerneditions/.
View the map of the Casuarina Campus.
To make a booking on the free bus tour of Darwin’s leading art galleries on Saturday 12 August contact Darwin Festival Office on (08) 8981 0083 or email michelle@darwinfestival.org.au.
An exhibition of paintings and prints by Waringarri artist, Alan Griffiths, will also open at Northern Editions on Saturday, 12 August. This exhibition Alan Griffiths: paintings and prints will be held in The Gallery, Building 12 and will run until 8 September.