IT FLOWS Cooee Art Leven www.artleven.com
17 Thurlow Street, Redfern, Sydney
COOEE ART LEVEN
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU 14.12.23 - 13.01.24
Gadigal land belonging to the Eora nation
1
2
IT FLOWS | JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU
14.12.23 - 13.01.2024 OPENING | THURSDAY 14th DECEMBER Louise Martin-Chew
‘Gungurri traces’ take us closer to the detail, circulating around two sinuous targets, like rocks around which the colours and shapes eddy, while ‘Maranoa (Spring)’ (2023) and ‘Winter Light’ (2023) also peer deep into the river, their dark tones enlivened with colour, a glow that reflects evening and the changing seasons. Dr Lisa Chandler notes the shifting meaning of water for Currie, writing, ‘More recently her works have encompassed the river as a metaphor for flow, interconnection and ongoing change—a vital force that cannot be contained.’
Flow States is an exhibition of recent paintings by Joanne Currie Nalingu, inspired by her Gungurri Country, the fast-flowing Maranoa River, and her memories and recent experience. In this selection of works, she explores the carriage of culture, the layers carried through deep time, and the changing currents incised by line, the shadows of the past and the future, and her personal resilience through this present.
Currie Nalingu is part of the influential generation of Aboriginal artists who emerged in south-east Queensland in the late 1980s, the likes of Lin Onus, Laurie Nilsen, Gordon Bennett, Vernon Ah Kee, Judy Watson, Gordon Hookey, Fiona Foley and Jennifer Herd. Self-taught, her rise to prominence has been quiet, steady, a reflection of her unassuming personality and the burgeoning recognition of her deeply felt contribution.
The river, strongly represented in these recent paintings, is a touchstone for Currie Nalingu. It is a motif that emerges from her childhood, growing up living on the banks of the Maranoa river at the ‘Yumba’ (East Mitchell Aboriginal Settlement). She said:
This year her achievements were acknowledged with a survey exhibition titled Veiled Histories—Joanne Currie Nalingu (Gungurri) at Caloundra Regional Gallery, on the Sunshine Coast, where she lived until relatively recently. Her five panel ‘Drift and meander’, 2022, which brings together the ‘calm’ white river imagery with the dominant ‘pressurised’ black, was acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art’s Future Collective in November 2023. For Land Holds Memory, which included four other senior artists responding to five sites in Queensland, the landscapes produced evoke the spirit and experience of different areas of Country.
I use black and white a lot – it’s a strong contrast, with different colours underneath to give them different atmospheres. When I paint the white rivers, it’s very calm and peaceful. The black ones are harder to paint. They remind me of the pressure around me. Painting helps keep my self together. Thinking of family, the good times, and bad times. But that river is really a symbol of all rivers, for all people I think. I think of the Maranoa but it could be any river.’ The black and white works are extended in this exhibition with highly colourful explorations, layered to evoke past histories, and using words to assert ongoing cultural traditions. ‘The river (day to day)’ (2022) is a tour de force, bringing many aspects of her painting practice together. It includes the shields as shadowy presences that float behind the water lines, a reminder of the layers of language and culture beneath our feet, enlivened by shifting colours across the surface canvas. For Currie Nalingu, the river is a shield, as suggested in the titles. They draw together, protective and strong.
Currie’s other major career achievements include the Wynne Prize in 2008, and she is a many times finalist in the Darwin NATSAII Awards. Public artworks for The Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital (2020) and Brisbane Airport Corporation (2006) have also been delivered to her specifications. In Currie Nalingu’s artmaking, she acknowledges the difficulty of disruptive past yet, in these works, celebrates leaving these pressures behind. Her artwork has flourished in reflecting the power of her culture, with her personal innovation, resilience and ability to conjure the river’s unknowable depths.
COOEE ART LEVEN
IT FLOWS
3
IT FLOWS | JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU 4
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Flow State | 2023 acylic on canvas | 110 x 260 cm
COOEE ART LEVEN
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Wind on the Water | 2023 acylic on canvas | 110 x 260 cm
5
IT FLOWS | JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU 6
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU River Sand Lines | 2023 acylic on canvas | 100 x 150 cm
COOEE ART LEVEN
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Hover | 2023 acylic on canvas | 110 x 120 cm
7
IT FLOWS | JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU 8
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU River Lines II | 2020 acylic on canvas | 50 x 50 cm
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Gungarri Traces | 2022 acylic on canvas | 40 x 40 cm
COOEE ART LEVEN
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Heading West (Summer Light) I | 2023 acylic on canvas | 50 x 75 cm
9
10 IT FLOWS | JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU
COOEE ART LEVEN
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU The River (day to day) | 2022 acylic on canvas | 178 x 300 cm
11
IT FLOWS | JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU 12
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Maranoa (Spring) | 2023 acylic on canvas | 50 x 75 cm
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Gungarri Traces | 2022 acylic on canvas | 50 x 50 cm
COOEE ART LEVEN
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU River Lines I | 2020 acylic on canvas | 50 x 50 cm
13
IT FLOWS | JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU 14
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Heading West (Winter Light) | 2023 acylic on canvas | 76 x 120 cm
COOEE ART LEVEN
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Gungarri Traces | 2022 acylic on canvas | 50 x 62 cm
15
JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU Born | Language | Country | Region |
1964 Mitchell QLD Gungurri Maranoa River Mitchell QLD
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
IT FLOWS | JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU
2023 It Flows FireWorks Gallery Brisbane 2020 River Marks FireWorks Gallery Brisbane 2013 Mina Mina Maranoa FireWorks Gallery Brisbane 2011 Blood River Black Water FireWorks Gallery Brisbane Blood River Black Water Despard Gallery Hobart 2010 Blood River Cooee Art Gallery Bondi Beach NSW 2009 Waterline FireWorks Gallery Brisbane Dark River Line Museum of Brisbane 2007 Joanne Currie Nalingu: Maranoa Lines Fire-Works Gallery Brisbane 2003/4 Give ‘em Currie Caloundra Regional Art Gallery 2000 The River FireWorks Gallery Brisbane 1998 Waterways FireWorks Gallery Brisbane 1998 Maranoa Country FireWorks Gallery Brisbane 1997 Joanne Currie Griffiith University The Magazine Space Brisbane 1993 Back to the Yumba Mitchell Civic Centre 1993 Stories from the Mitchell Yumba Mitchell Civic Centre & Fire-Works gallery Brisbane
16
2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993
SHOOSH! The History of the Campfire Group Institute of Modern Art Brisbane Out of Country QIAMEA Travelling Exhibition Washington DC Virginia USA Queensland Indigenous Artists Grosse Kunstausstellung Museum Kunst Palast Germany Six Coats of Black FireWorks Gallery Brisbane CHOGM Campfire Group Exhibition Hyatt Hotel Coolum Urban Blackness Noosa Regional Gallery Queensland Features FireWorks Gallery Brisbane Landmarks DAR Festival Brisbane Powerhouse The Road to Cherbourg (with Campfire Group) Global Arts Link Ipswich Powerful Medicine: DAR Festival Brisbane/Papunya Cultural Exchange Big Smoke Cooee Art Sydney Skin and Division: Michael Eather and Friends Brisbane City Gallery All Stock Must Go! (with Campfire Group) Asia Pacific Triennial Queensland Art Gallery Saltwater Freshwater Borewater (with Campfire Group) Regional Galleries Association of Queensland Touring Exhibition Seven Deadly Australians FireWorks Gallery Brisbane Blakness: BlakCityCultureAustralian CentreofContemporaryArt Melbourne Political Posters Brisbane City Gallery Place and Interface Touring Exhibition Knowing the Sensorium Institute of Modern Art Brisbane Aboriginal Perceptions Brisbane City Gallery Woorabinda Artists Conference Campfire Consultancy Woorabinda Campfire Group exhibitions Spring Hill Baths Brisbane A Different View Touring Exhibition Island (with Campfire Group) 9th Biennale of Sydney Bond Store Art Gallery of NSW
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
COMMISSIONS
2023
2020 2017 2013 2013 2007 2006 05-06 2004 2002 2001 99-20 1999 1998 92-95
2022 2021 2019 2017 2016 2014 2013 2012 2010 2006 2005
Land Holds Memory, Caloundra Regional Gallery Morbid Curiosities FireWorks Gallery Brisbane Veiled Histories: Joanne Currie Nalingu & Jennifer Herd Caloundra Regional Gallery River Totem Revival: Ian Waldron & Joanne Currie Nalingu FireWorks Gallery Brisbane Tjanpi Desert Weavers and three Indigenous women painters Despard Gallery Hobart In Context FireWorks Gallery Brisbane She Walks the Line FireWorks Gallery Brisbane The Long Hot Summer FireWorks Gallery Brisbane Gold Coast Art Prize Gold Coast Art Centre Gold Coast River Days Gympie Regional Gallery Queensland Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (exhibited by FireWorks Gallery Brisbane) Melbourne Art Fair (exhibited by FireWorks Gallery Brisbane) Desert Winter Dreaming Cooee Art Gallery Ripples on the water Lines in The Sand (with Kathleen Petyrare) Depot gallery Danks St NSW Homage to the Square FireWorks gallery Brisbane Smoke: Campfire Group and other commissioned works FireWorks Gallery Brisbane & Despard Gallery Hobart
River Totem Revival Royal Brisbane Hospital Ash River Barry Nilsson Offices Sydney & Hobart Ash River 215 Adelaide St Corporate Commission Brisbane CBD Dark River Line 213 Mary St Corporate Commission Brisbane CBD Maranoa: Wind on Water Brisbane Airport Commission Pathways Design for Textiles Artisan (prev. Craft Queensland) Brisbane Shield Billboard Commission QUT Creative Industries Precinct Kelvin Grove Brisbane SMOKE(with Michael Eather)CooloolaSunshineTAFE PublicArtCommission Participating Artist (with Campfire Group) - Dogwood Crossing @ Miles Mural Project Coolangatta TAFE - Public Art Commission Participating Artist (with Campfire Group) Flotilla Installation Museum of Melbourne Participating Artist (with Campfire Group) Journey Tracks 4x4xMore Motorama Showroom Brisbane Participating Artist (with Campfire Group) Connecting Worlds Home Bush Bay Hotel Mural Project Sydney Story Bridge Abutment Brisbane City Council Women’s Public Hospital Rest Area - Mater Hospital Brisbane Numerous school and public building mural projects throughout Queensland
AWARDS + GRANTS
PUBLISHED MATERIAL & ARTICLES
2023 2023 2020 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2011 2010 2009 2008 2005 2004 2003 2001 1999 1998 1996 1992
2010 - 2011 Louise Martin-Chew Blood River, Black Water FireWorks Gallery Brisbane, Despard Gallery Hobart & Cooee Art Gallery Sydney NSW (Catalogue) 2007 Michael Eather The Substance of Joanne Currie Antiques and Art Queensland July-November p50 (Article) Joanne Currie Nalingu: Maranoa Lines Fire-Works gallery Brisbane 2006 Three Large Rooms Fire-Works gallery Brisbane (Catalogue) Gatherings II: Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art From Queensland Australia Keeaira Press Southport (Publication) 2005 Michael Eather ed SHOOSH! The History of the Campfire Group Institute of Modern Art Brisbane (Publication) Dark and the Light III Fire-Works gallery Brisbane (Catalogue) 2004 Give ‘em Currie – reinventing traditional stories and designs Namalata Thusi Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy 1st Quarter, no. 23 Out of Country QIAMEA Traveling Exhibition USA (Catalogue) 2003 Art Gallery Gives Caloundra Currie Caloundra City Living Edition 7 December p12 (Review) Telstra: The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards Touring Exhibition (Catalogue) 2002 Urban Blackness Noosa Regional Gallery (Catalogue) Lines II Fire-Works gallery Brisbane (Catalogue) 2001 Gatherings I: Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art From Queensland Australia Keeaira Press Southport (Publication) Debra Aldred Campfire Creations The Courier Mail Issue 18/7 p36 (Article) 2000 Artistic Flow Brisbane News September 26 (Review) The River Fire-Works gallery Brisbane (Catalogue) Joanne Currie: The River MAP October Issue14 (Review) 1999 Central Queensland Art Purchase Rockhampton Art Gallery (Catalogue) 1998 Julia Ross Cultures Unite Brisbane News August p25 (Review David Broker Skin and Division: Michael Eather and Friends Eyeline Summer pp24-26 (Review) Tressa Berman Sitting around the Campfire Art Papers Vol 22 Issue 6 November/December pp26-29 (Paper) Rosemary Sorensen Avenue for Artists The Courier Mail February 28 p16 (Article) 1997 Waterways Fire-Works gallery Brisbane (Catalogue) Louise Martin-Chew Exhibitions The Australian August 8 (Review) Ken Turnbull Conversation Gets Under Your Skin Business Review Weekly September 8 (Review) Leone Stanford Two Worlds, Michael Eather and Friends The Review September (Review) Margo Neale Skin and Division: Michael Eather and Friends Brisbane City Gallery (Catalogue) 1996 All Stock Must Go! (with Campfire Group) Asia Pacific Triennial Queensland Art Gallery (Catalogue) 1994 Blackness: Blak City Culture Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Melbourne (Catalogue) 1993 A Different View Touring Exhibition (Catalogue)
King & Wood Mallesons First Nations Art Award Griffith UniversityArt Museum FINALIST Sunshine Coast Art Prize Caloundra Regional Gallery FINALIST Sunshine Coast Art Prize Caloundra Regional Gallery FINALIST Tattersall’s Landscape Art Prize FINALIST Tattersall’s Landscape Art Prize FINALIST Tattersall’s Landscape Art Prize FINALIST Tattersall’s Landscape Art Prize FINALIST Tattersall’s Landscape Art Prize FINALIST Tattersall’s Landscape Art Prize FINALIST Telstra: The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards FINALIST The Whyalla Art Prize FINALIST Stan and Maureen Duke Gold Coast Art Prize FINALIST The Sulman Prize Art Gallery of New South Wales FINALIST The Wynne Prize Art Gallery of New South Wales WINNER Highly Commended Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award Telstra Art Awards FINALIST The Wynne Prize Art Gallery of New South Wales WINNER The Wynne Prize Art Gallery of New South Wales FINALIST Telstra: The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards FINALIST Telstra: The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards FINALIST Telstra: The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards FINALIST Telstra: The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards Art of Place Australian Heritage Commission: National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition Old Parliament House Canberra FINALIST Telstra: The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards FINALIST Telstra: The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards Art of Place Australian Heritage Commission: National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition Old Parliament House Canberra WINNER Maroochydore Art Prize Professional Development Grant Arts Queensland WINNER Maroochydore Art Prize
SELECTED COLLECTIONS Artbank Bega Valley Regional Gallery Brisbane Airport Corporation Caloundra Regional Gallery Department of Premier & Cabinet Queensland Brisbane Griffith University Art Collection International Education Services Brisbane Mater Hospital Brisbane Museum of Brisbane National Gallery of Australia Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art Queensland Museum Queensland Children’s Hospital QUT Art Museum University of Queensland Art Museum Rockhampton City Gallery
ON PARALLEL FLOW Cooee Art Leven is proud to present two solo exhibitions: Joshua Bonson: Ancestor’s Footsteps and Joanne Currie Nalingua - It Flows While on view simultaneously, each is its own body of work, created entirely independent of one another. Still, the parallels are striking. At surface level, both artists depict bodies of water, each of them deeply significant to their respective history and connection to Country. The artists’ respective subjects - the Maranoa River for Currie Nalingua and the Arafura Sea for Bonson - act as containers of memory, personal and ancestral. For Joanne Currie, the river links back to childhood, “growing up living on the banks of the Maranoa river at the ‘Yumba’ (East Mitchell Aboriginal Settlement)”*. For Bonson, the Arafura sea connects his home in Darwin to his ancestral Country in the Torres Strait.
IT FLOWS | JOANNE CURRIE NALINGU
In both cases, the subject offers a fleeting self portrait in the water’s reflection, like an ever-moving and refracting mirror, containing within itself a history that reaches back generations. As the viewer, we are invited to participate: Bonson leads us charging over the tumultuous Arafura sea on the back of his totem, the saltwater crocodile. Joanne Currie invites us to the bank of the Maranoa, where we may kneel and lean out over the water, as far as we can before tipping over; briefly we glimpse a reflection in the rippling surface. The minute I was flying over the ocean heading to the islands I could feel my ancestors with me. Every painting is a celebration of heritage, a piece of The Torres Strait and carries its own personality. - Joshua Bonson
I’ve always painted about the Maranoa area, the traditional designs found on shields and artefacts, the lines and colours of the river…I try to keep it simple…clean and sharp! 18 - Joanne Currie Nalingua
COOEE ART LEVEN
PROUDLY SPONSORED BY MUNDA WINES Ancient soils, ancient culture.
19