REPRESENT Aboriginal Figurative Practice in Western Australia | PART 2

PART 2

FORM acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Western Australia both past and present, whose enduring connection to this Country and ongoing contributions to our collective culture and communities we respect and honour. We appreciate and are deeply grateful for the privilege of working on these lands.

WARNING:

We advise that this exhibition contains the names and artworks of deceased First Nations peoples. Their families and representatives have provided permission for this, in recognition of their significance to Western Australian artistic expression.

Cover: Captain Hedland (still from animation), Layne Dhu-Dickie, animated film, 2023.

REPRESENT ABORIGINAL FIGURATIVE PRACTICE IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA | PART 2

“There’s more power in representing yourself, than being represented by others.”

Sharyn Egan, REPRESENT Cultural Consultant

Rodney Adams

Sophia Alone

Owen John Biljabu

Yanyangkari Roma Butler

Doreen Chapman

Tanya Charles

Layne Dhu-Dickie

Arthur Graham Eades

Sharyn Egan

Wendy Hubert

Brett Nannup

Nyangulya Katie Nalgood

Jean Norman

Rocky Porter

Ross Potter

Allery Sandy

John Prince Siddon

Tyrown Waigana

Wendy Warrie

Mandy White

Cyril Whyoulter

Carol Williams & Tjanpi Desert Weavers

FORM Gallery is delighted to welcome you to REPRESENT (Part 2), a survey of Western Australian figurative expression by Aboriginal artists presented across two exhibitions.

Part 1 (October-December 2023) focused on senior and deceased artists who helped establish Western Australia’s figurative legacy, while Part 2 shows the experimental and emerging practices moving the genre forward today.

For many people, abstract dot painting is synonymous with Australian Aboriginal art, yet First Nations creative expression is as diverse as the people who make it. In recent decades, representational art has enabled Australia’s Aboriginal people to express themselves and tell stories in a powerfully direct way.

In Western Australia, figurative/representational work has been practised by Aboriginal people for millennia, as evidenced by rock art and petroglyphs. More recent figurative innovations include the Carrolup School of the State’s south; the highly innovative sculptural practice of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers; and representations on canvas of the spiritual Wandjina figures of the Kimberley.

FORM Gallery is honoured to have collaborated with Whadjuk Noongar Elder Sharyn Egan as cultural consultant (and exhibiting artist) for this project.

Rodney Adams

Yinjaa-Barni Art

Born: 1975, Yirramagardu (Roebourne), Western Australia

Lives: Yirramagardu (Roebourne), Western Australia

The artistic practice of Yindjibarndi artist Rodney Adams began relatively recently in 2021, but already he has established a following and won awards for his evocative landscapes of his ancestral Country in the Millstream Tablelands. Rodney paints from memory, and many of the places he depicts have now been permanently altered by cyclones or mining. His canvases are a mix of acrylic paint and Pilbara earth.

Rodney’s most recent exhibitions include a solo show Remembering Country (2024) at Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney, and group exhibitions Murujuga: Celebration of an Ancient Cultural Landscape (2023) at Holmes à Court Gallery, and Yinjaa Barni: Colours of the Pilbara (2023) at Chalk Horse.

Rodney Adams

Texture on Canvas, 2022

Acrylic on canvas

152 x 75.5cm

6408-22

$4,870

Rodney Adams

Fortescue Running, 2021

Acrylic on canvas 91 x 60cm

6028a-21

$1,095

Rodney Adams Roebourne, 2022

Acrylic on canvas 61 x 45.5cm

6375-22

$1,090

Sophia Alone

Spinifex Hill Studio

Born: 1985, Port Hedland, Western Australia

Lives: South Hedland, Western Australia

Sophia Alone is a proud Ngarla woman whose family is from the De Grey area about 80 km north-east of Port Hedland. Sophia’s ancestors are Makanykarra. Sophia took up painting in 2020 because she wanted to express her family stories, and her portraits show family members and fellow artists and Studio Assistants at Spinifex Hill Studio.

Since beginning her art practice Sophia has exhibited in Revealed Exhibition: New and Emerging WA Artists at Fremantle Arts Centre, and her painting Respect Grandfather Kutri Makanykarra won the prestigious Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture at The Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2022. It shows her grandfather, a Ngarla Elder, standing at Losers Hole while they visited a gravesite at De Grey Station where his family is resting. In the same year, Sophia also won the Lester Prize’s Minderoo Foundation Spirit Prize.

Sophia Alone, Dr Andrew Tandy, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

91.5 x 91.5cm 23-138

$2,760

Sophia Alone

Ruby, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

45.5 x 61cm 23-271

$1,005

Sophia Alone

Adam, 2023

Acrylic on canvas 71 x 61cm 23-511

$1,580

Owen John Biljabu

Martumili Artists

Born: 1989, Parnpajinya (Newman), Western Australia

Lives: Jigalong, Western Australia

Manyjilyjarra portraitist Owen John (OJ) Biljabu is a direct descendent of several of Martumili Artist’s most eminent artists, including his grandmothers Jakayu Biljabu (dec.), Jugarda Dulcie Gibbs (dec.), Muni Rita Simpson (dec.), and Muntararr Rosie Williams (dec.).

While he often paints stories about Country, learned from his grandparents, OJ prefers to paint portraits and self-portraits. Traditionally, Martu artists are not known for portraiture, however OJ has chosen to use self-taught traditional oil painting techniques to depict his community, other Martu artists and important figures in his life. He is currently the only member of Martumili Artists to do this. OJ’s portrait of fellow artist Corban Clause Williams was a finalist in the national Doug Moran Portrait Prize 2022, and his work has also been displayed at Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists.

Ilyala Boss Biljabu

Owen John, 2022

Acrylic on canvas

61 x 46cm 22-1694

$675

Tanya Charles

Martumili Artists

Born: 1981, Pilbara region, Western Australia

Lives: Pilbara Region, Western Australia

Milangka artist Tanya Charles often paints Jukurrpa

(Dreaming) narratives, using distinct features or colours from the associated landscape to orient each narrative in space. Charles also uses her painting practice to share cultural knowledge, ensuring the continued safe passage of skills and practices which are as important in contemporary living as they have been many years hundreds of years.

Highly controlled, directional line work and tightly regulated patterning makes Charles’s works hum with activity. Upon closer inspection, Charles’s selections of vibrant – sometimes kaleidoscopic – colours can be observed in her local landscape, delightfully pulled from plants, earth and sky.

Tanya Charles, Bush Tucker, 2023

Acrylic on canvas 91 x 91cm 23-791

$1,735

Yanyangkari Roma Butler

Tjanpi Desert

Born: 1959, Wilu Rockhole, South Australia

Lives: Warakurna, Western Australia

Yanyangkari Roma Butler is an award-winning Tjanpi sculptural artist belonging to the Pitjantjatjara language and cultural group. An important senior law woman and an expert storyteller in various forms of art and media, Yanyangkari’s Tjanpi artworks are recognisable for their dynamism and character, quirky details, and inventive stitching. She is also one of the first Aṉangu camerawomen for Ngaanyatjarra Media.

Yanyangkari’s meticulously woven self-portrait, Ngayulu Munu Ngayuku Papa: Me and My Dogs was a finalist in the 2021 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. The life-sized sculpture celebrates the love, companionship and joy shared between Yanyangkari and her beloved papas. Yanyangkari’s works have been featured in many group exhibitions in Australia and overseas.

Yanyangkari Roma Butler

Ngayulu Munu Ngayuku Papa (Me and My Dogs), 2021 Tjanpi (grass) and mixed media Dimensions variable 2540-18

$8,145

Doreen Chapman

Martumili Artists / Spinifex Hill Studio

Born: 1971, Jigalong, Western Australia

Lives: Warralong / South Hedland, Western Australia

Manyjilyjarra artist Doreen Chapman has spent her life moving between Western Desert communities, and now divides her time between South Hedland and Warralong, a community 120km to the southeast. She started painting with her mother, senior Martu artist Maywokka (Mayiwalku) Chapman, at Martumili Artists, and in recent years has been painting at Spinifex Hill Studio in South Hedland.

Doreen’s award-winning work is widely celebrated and collected for its unique, exuberant subject matter and

colour palette. She has been featured in many group and solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas, and her work is held in many collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria and The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Recent exhibitions include Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, a FORM exhibition at The Art Gallery of Western Australia (2022), and a new body of commissioned work now showing at the 2024 Sydney Biennale, Ten Thousand Suns.

Photograph by Sophia Constantine, c/o Spinifex Hill Studio

Untitled [Self Portrait with Camel], 2020

Acrylic on canvas

76 x 122cm

Untitled, 2019

Acrylic on canvas

101 x 152cm

Untitled, 2020

Doreen Chapman

20-692

$3,175

Doreen Chapman

19-924

$3,785

Doreen Chapman

Acrylic on canvas 45.5 x 183cm 20-810

$3,785

Layne Dhu-Dickie

Spinifex Hill Artists

Born: 2004, Port Hedland, Western Australia

Lives: South Hedland, Western Australia

Banjiyma artist Layne Dhu-Dickie is the creator of a comic book series featuring the fictional superhero ‘Captain Hedland’. He is also a team member at Spinifex Hill Studio. In 2017 Layne was the youngest artist ever to feature in Fremantle Arts Centre’s Revealed Exhibition: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, and in 2019 he was the youngest to be showcased at the Art Gallery of South Australia’s TARNANTHI. He won ‘Best Work by an Artist Under 25’ at the 2017 Hedland Art Awards and his work has been acquired

by the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Janet Holmes à Court Collection.

Layne’s Captain Hedland comic books featured in Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, a FORM exhibition at The Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2022. An animated version of Captain Hedland premiered in Blak Power: 50 Years of First Nations Superheros in Australian Art at the Northern Centre for Contemporary Art Darwin in 2023.

Captain Hedland (details), Layne Dhu-Dickie, animated film, 2023. Not for sale.

Sharyn Egan

Independent artist

Born: 1957, Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia

Lives: Hamilton Hill, Western Australia

Sharyn Egan is a respected painter, weaver, sculptor and curator, who has co-developed the REPRESENT exhibitions with FORM. As a member of the Stolen Generation who grew up in the New Norcia Mission School, much of Sharyn’s artwork is a commentary on her life as a Whadjuk Nyoongar woman and the associated trauma, emotions and deep sense of loss and displacement experienced by Aboriginal people.

Sharyn works in numerous media, including painting, sculpture, woven forms and site-specific installations, often choosing materials such as ochres, resins and grasses that connect to land, especially her home near the lake system in the southern suburbs of Perth. Her woven works include traditionally styled contemporary forms and baskets, as well as larger scale sculptural forms. In recent years Sharyn has been awarded several prestigious public art commissions in Perth, including at Optus Stadium and Elizabeth Quay, and at prominent sites elsewhere in Australia. Her works are held in the collections of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology and the National Museum of Australia.

Sharyn Egan Elaino, 2022

Meadow hay and raffia 100 x 52 x 12cm SE1 $2,200

Wendy Hubert

Juluwarlu Art Group

Born: 1954, Red Hill Station, Western Australia

Lives: Yirramagardu (Roebourne), Western Australia

Wendy Hubert is a respected Yindjibarndi Elder, cultural Custodian, artist and linguist. Born on Guruma Country, Wendy lived at Red Hill Station, Minderoo Station and Onslow before settling in Roebourne, and meeting her husband through her work in community health. Wendy began painting with Juluwarlu Art Group in 2019 and is noted for her landscape paintings depicting scenes from her childhood and important places on Yindjibarndi and Guruma Country.

Wendy’s work has appeared in multiple Cossack Art Awards, in Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists; Ngardamarri: Artists of Roebourne (2021); and Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, a FORM exhibition at The Art Gallery of Western Australia (2022). In 2023 she was a shortlisted finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, and in 2024 she will hold her first interstate solo exhibition at Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin.

Wendy Hubert Ngurra (Yindjibarndi Country), 2024

Acrylic on canvas 80 x 100cm

24-29

$2,300

Wendy Hubert

Always anthills in ngurra (Yindjibarndi Country), 2023

Acrylic on canvas 83 x 97cm

23-190

$2,300

Brett Nannup

Independent artist

Born: 1975, Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia

Lives: Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia

Brett Nannup is a printmaker who was trained in the artform by his mother, iconic Western Australian printmaker Laurel Nannup. Brett’s main conceptual focus is to investigate and interrogate ideas of what it means to be a man in today’s society, as well as exploring his own identity and place in the duality of the Noongar and Western worlds.

Brett has exhibited across Western Australia, and in Canada and the United States. His works are held in collections including the Berndt Museum of Anthropology, Harvard Art Museum, the Janet Holmes à Court Collection, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Australia, New York Public Library, and the Western Australian Museum.

Brett Nannup

$1,000 (framed)

Djitty Djitty, 2023

Intaglio print, line etching, ink on paper

39.5 x 54cm

$1,000

Brett Nannup Wagyl, 2023

Intaglio prints / etching prints / Ink on Paper 54 x 66cm BN1

$1,000 (framed)

Brett Nannup Silence, 2023

Acrylic on canvas 54 x 65.5cm BN2

(framed)

Nyangulya Katie Nalgood

Spinifex Hill Studio

Born: 1946, Liveringa Station, Western Australia

Lives: South Hedland, Western Australia

Nyangula Katie Nalgood is a Walmajarri artist, born in the Kimberley. She grew up on a remote station north of the Fitzroy River, and now lives with her family, many of whom are also artists, in South Hedland. Her husband was acclaimed Nyangumarta/Warnman/Manyjilyjarra artist Nyaparu (William) Gardiner (dec.).

One of the most popular artists currently working out of the Pilbara region, Nyangulya is nationally acclaimed for her paintings of birds, with her work appearing in solo and group exhibitions in Australia and overseas. She was a shortlisted finalist for the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2021 and featured as part of TARNANTHI at The Art Gallery of South Australia in 2023. Other recent exhibitions include Tracks

We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, a FORM exhibition at The Art Gallery of Western Australia (2022); Jalmarra-Jarti: all the birds have wings (2023) and No Clock Only Birds (2024), both at Paul Johnstone Gallery in Darwin.

Nyangulya Katie Nalgood

Flying Owl, 2023

Acrylic on canvas 61 x 61cm 23-671

$1,950

Nyangulya Katie Nalgood

Yellow, Blue and Black Bird, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

56 x 91.5cm

23-731

$3,510

Nyangulya Katie Nalgood

Flying Eagle, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

76 x 122cm

23-765

$7,220

Jean Norman

Juluwarlu Art Group

Born: Yirramagardu (Roebourne), Western Australia

Lives: Yirramagardu (Roebourne), Western Australia

Painting from life, Yindjibarndi Elder Jean Norman’s paintings can be viewed as a record of the native flora that thrives on her Ngurra (Country). Norman’s paintings often feature flowers because of her appreciation for their beauty, “After the rain I love to go out on Ngurra (Country) and see all the beautiful native flowers blooming across the land”, but also because she can no longer observe animals to paint, “I don’t see as many animals anymore that’s why they are not in my paintings...when we were little kids we would see plenty.”

Norman’s landscapes are characterised by the distinct treatment of each plant species represented. Every shrub, bush, tree or flower is celebrated and distinguished with a unique application of brushstrokes, mark-making techniques, and colours. Norman’s work featured in Raw Colour (2021) at Holmes à Court Gallery @ No. 10 and it was selected to promote the 2023 Jury Art Prize.

Jean Norman

Ngurra Country, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

62.5 x 54cm 23-79

$800

Ross Potter

Independent artist

Born: Meanjin (Brisbane), Queensland

Lives: Walyup (Fremantle), Western Australia

Ross Potter is a Kamilaroi man and professional artist living and working on Whadjuk Noongar boodjar. Ross uses pencil and paper to produce highly detailed, often large-scale representations of his subjects. Through magnifying microscopic features, Ross brings the abstractions of reality to our attention, while telling compelling stories of everyday life. One of his most well-known works is a life-sized drawing of Perth Zoo’s beloved elephant Tricia (1957-2022), which he created at Fremantle Arts Centre during the exhibition Animaze: Amazing Animals for Kids in 2018.

Ross’ work has also featured in numerous exhibitions and has been shown in the Fremantle Biennale and at Boola Bardip Western Australian Museum. Ross has undertaken artist residencies across Western Australia, including at Cossack and Margaret River, and will soon embark on his first international residency in Iceland.

Ross Potter Beneath the Leaves of Fallen Trees, 2023 Graphite on paper 70 x 70cm RP2

$1,950 (framed)

Ross Potter Night and Day, 2023

Pencil on paper 20 x 20cm (x2) RP1 $1,650 (mounted on perspex)

Tyrown Waigana

Independent artist

Born: 1996, Walyup (Fremantle), Western Australia

Lives: Walyup (Fremantle), Western Australia

Tyrown Waigana is a Wardandi Noongar and Ait Koedal man, giving him connections to Indigenous peoples from southwest Western Australia and Saibai Island in the Torres Strait. As a multidisciplinary artist and designer, Tyrown’s practice includes painting, illustration, sculpture, animation and graphic design, and he runs his own design business, Crawlin Crocodile, which focuses on bridging the gap between contemporary/traditional Indigenous art on digital platforms.

In 2020, Tyrown won the National NAIDOC poster competition with his design depicting the story of the Rainbow Serpent coming out of the Dreamtime to create the land. His work has been displayed at Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Out of Bounds at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, and the Australian Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Tyrown Waigana

Pretty Pale Privilege To Ponder The Poor, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

80 x 85cm

TW1

$635

Tyrown Waigana

Beyond Blue Bug And Black Eye, 2023

Acrylic on canvas 80 x 85cm TW2

$635

Mandy White

Independent artist

Born: 1978, Guildford, Western Australia

Lives: High Wycombe, Western Australia

Amanda (Mandy) White is an artist of Yamatji heritage, whose work explores her fascination with the spirit beings that exist in the Noongar and Yamatji landscape. Stories about these entities are strongly linked to her mother (deceased), her family and culture. Animals, including Mandy’s whimsical interpretations of her beloved pets, also feature prominently in her art. She began creating art at DADAA (Disability and Disadvantage in the Arts Australia) in 2010.

Mandy’s work has appeared in many exhibitions and art prizes including Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Sculpture by the Sea, and the City of Joondalup Invitation Art Prize. She was awarded an As We Are Artist Mentorship at Bathers Beach Art Studios, Fremantle, and has led workshops for the People with Disability WA Conference and Community Arts Network.

Mandy White Spirit Mother, 2020 Acrylic, charcoal on canvas 61 x 122cm MW1 $1,410

Mandy White

Gina with Seahorses, 2021

Acrylic, charcoal on canvas 61 x 91cm MW2

$970

Mandy White

Creatures and Critters, 2021

Acrylic and posca pen on canvas 91 x 122cm MW3

$1,760

Carol Williams

Martumili Artists

Born: 1972, the Pilbara, Western Australia

Lives: Parnngurr, Western Australia

Putijarra artist Carol Williams grew up in Jigalong and Wiluna before moving to Parnngurr Community when she was a teenager. Her work often features the birds and animals of her Country. Carol went to school at Karalundi (Carolundi) mission in Meekatharra, where her mother Noreena, also an artist, was schooled. Carol’s grandmother Daisy Kadibil was one of the three young sisters taken from their family to Moore River Settlement, 1600km away from home, in 1931. The story of the girls’ arduous escape and long walk home is immortalised in the book Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington (Nugi Garimarra, 1996) and the 2002 film adaptation, The Rabbit Proof Fence.

Carol’s work was exhibited in 2023 in Le Chant Aborigène des Sept Soeurs at the International Development for Australian Indigenous Art’s (IDAIA) Paris gallery.

Carol Williams

Rabbit proof fence, my two nannas made it home, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

Tjanpi Desert Weavers

Tjanpi (‘grass’ in Pitjantjatjara language) is a social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council, which works with women living across Australia’s remote Central and Western deserts. Tjanpi artists use native grasses to make spectacular contemporary fibre art, weaving baskets and sculptures that display endless creativity and inventiveness. Tjanpi represents over 400 artists from 26 remote communities spread across the NPY Lands, which span the border region of Western Australia, Northern Territory and South Australia. In recent years many Tjanpi artists have extended their practices to share stories of community life through film. Blending stop-motion animation with footage of the storytellers narrating to camera, these films were created in collaboration with filmmaker Jonathan Daw and feature Tjanpi’s distinctive woven sculptures and stories of bush life spoken in the Ngaanyatjarra language.

Ngayuku Papa: Tiny ( My Dog – Tiny) is a tale of community life and a beautiful friendship between a Ngaanyatjarra woman and her beloved dog, as told by lead artist Cynthia Burke, while in Ngayuku Papa: Bluey & Big Boy (My Dog: Bluey & Big Boy) Maureen Butler-Baker tells the story of her two dogs Big Boy and Bluey, and how they help her son hunt for perentie, a much sought after traditional food.

Tjanpi Desert Weavers

Ngayuku Papa: Tiny (detail), 2018.

Image by Jonathan Daw.

©NPY Women’s Council

Tjanpi Desert Weavers

Ngayuku Papa: Bluey & Big Boy (detail), 2018.

Image by Jonathan Daw.

©NPY Women’s Council

New Directions

Allery Sandy, Wendy Warrie and Cyril Whyoulter are three highly regarded artists from the remote Pilbara region who have gained national recognition over recent years for their abstract and semi-abstract depictions of Country. In recent months, each artist has begun independently to explore a more figurative style, and FORM Gallery is delighted to showcase these new works which indicate a bold new creative style.

Allery Sandy

Yinjaa-Barni Art

Born: 1955, Yirramagardu (Roebourne), Western Australia

Lives: Yirramagardu (Roebourne), Western Australia

Allery Sandy is an accomplished Yindjibarndi Elder, award-winning artist, educator, performer and community leader, and Director of Yinjaa-Barni Art. Her distinctive aerial perspectives typically celebrate the wildflowers, creeks, rivers, and bush foods of her Country.

A finalist in 29th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards, Allery’s works have featured in many national exhibitions, most recently in Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, a FORM exhibition at The Art Gallery of Western Australia (2022), and Ngardamarri: Artists of Roebourne (2021). Her paintings are held in the collections of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Flinders University Art Museum, Parliament House of Western Australia Collection, Australian Embassy in Yangon, and Restore Hope Foundation. Allery is also an accomplished singer and founding collaborator of Songs for Freedom produced by Big hART. She has performed with the ensemble at the Perth Festival and Mona Foma.

Allery Sandy

Rugged Country Table Land, 2023

Acrylic on canvas 63 x 74.5cm

Wendy Warrie

Cheeditha Art Group

Born: 1970, Yirramagardu (Roebourne), Western Australia

Lives: Cheeditha Community, Western Australia

Wendy Warrie is a Yindjibarndi/Kariyarra woman living in Cheeditha Community, who started painting in 1999 through Roebourne TAFE and the Bujinhurrba project in Cossack. She then joined Roebourne Art Group and now paints with Cheeditha Art Group. Wendy’s artwork focuses on the creation stories of the Yindjibarndi people, particularly the Barrimirndi (Rainbow Serpent), and the landscapes of her Country. Her practice often shows where the tide comes in and meets the flooded rivers.

Wendy’s works have featured in many exhibitions in Western Australia, including Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, a FORM exhibition at The Art Gallery of Western Australia (2022); Ngardamarri: Artists of Roebourne (2021); Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists; Colours of Our Country; Ngurra Nyingu, and the Cossack Art Awards. Her work is represented in the Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art.

Wendy Warrie Out On the Horizon, 2024

Acrylic on canvas 70 x 80cm 1/24

$8,525

Cyril Whyoulter

Martumili Artists

Born: 1985, Port Hedland, Western Australia

Lives: Parnpajinya (Newman) / Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia

Kartujarra artist Cyril Whyoulter is closely related to many acclaimed senior Martu artists, including Bugai Whyoulter and Pinyirr Nancy Patterson (dec.). He is also a respected cultural leader in his community and a strong proponent of the importance of intergenerational knowledge transfer. Cyril first developed an interest in art making when he began colouring in pencil with his grandfather Larry Patterson. An avid experimentalist and prolific painter, he has since mastered many painting techniques and developed his own signature style.

Cyril was a finalist in the 35th and 36th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. His work has recently appeared in Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, a FORM exhibition at The Art Gallery of Western Australia (2022); Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists; and Le Chant Aborigène des Sept Soeurs at the International Development for Australian Indigenous Art’s (IDAIA) Paris gallery (2023).

Untitled, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

$500

Cyril Whyoulter

REPRESENT (Part 2) also features some not for sale works by the following artists:

Arthur Graham Eades

Independent artist

Born: 1930s, Broomehill, Western Australia

Lives: Katanning, Western Australia

Arthur Graham Eades paints from memory, often playing with negative space and block colours to construct captivating compositional arrangements. Taking up painting at almost 80 years old, art has become a way for Eades to process the cruelties he experienced as a young Noongar man. “I hope if there is someone who had the same cruelty dealt to them, they tell someone. Through this time of telling my story and learning to paint on canvas, has been a healing to my soul and to help me take another step in my older senior years.”

Arthur became known to the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery through working with the Katanning Art Centre to enter work into BRAG’s Noongar Country exhibition in 2020. In addition to his inclusion in REPRESENT (Part 2), his work has featured annually in Noongar Country since 2020.

John Prince Siddon

Mangkaja Arts

Born: 1964, Great Sandy Desert, Australia

Lives: Fitzroy Crossing, West Kimberley, Western Australia

Walmajarri artist John Prince Siddon started painting after a horse-riding accident ended his time as a stockman working on cattle stations. Joining Mangkaja Arts in 2009, Prince took up a family tradition. Like his father, Pompey Siddon (dec.) who was one of the art centre’s founding members, Prince developed a distinctive style and earned recognition from his peers as a prolific and dedicated painter, declaring “Once I learnt how to paint, I just couldn’t stop.”

Collating personal and national histories with narrangkarni (ancestral Creation Stories), Prince’s diverse practice spans sculpture, canvas, board and hide. It is always recognisable, however, for its explosions of colour and enticing variety of brushstrokes, where fluid, sweeping markmaking is elegantly balanced beside carefully considered dotting. Prince’s 2020 solo exhibition at Fremantle Art Centre, All Mixed Up, was described as “eclectic, gothic, psychedelic” by critic John McDonald for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Rocky William Porter

Martumili Artists

Born: 1972, Warburton, Western Australia

Lives: Warakurna, Western Australia

Rocky William Porter grew up in Docker River in the Kimberley but was born during a family vacation to Warburton. Perhaps his holiday birth laid the foundations for his playful, tongue-in-cheek artistic approach. Rocky’s distinctive style and signature references to pop culture giants (featuring Elvis Presley and 1980s Western movie iconography) offer an ironic entry point for the artist to engage with experiences of remote living, and to celebrate contemporary Warakurna pop culture and Tjukurrpa.

Rocky’s bright, streamlined colour palette recalls traditional arcade game aesthetics, perhaps a nod to his school days in Coolgardie, where he remembers spending his free time playing Space Invaders with friends. Rocky has been a part of the Warakurna Art Centre since 2018. His work has appeared in in several instalments of the Desert Mob exhibitions, and as part of In Cahoots (2017) at Fremantle Art Centre.

Art Centres

Bunbury Regional Art Gallery’s Noongar Art Program

Martumili Artists

FORM’s Spinifex Hill Studio

Tjanpi Desert Weavers

Warakurna Artists

Yinjaa-Barni Art

Acknowledgements

FORM would like to thank the participating art centres and artists for their involvement in this project.

FORM Building a State of Creativity Inc.

39 Gugeri Street

Claremont, Western Australia, 6010

FORM Gallery

4 Shenton Road, Claremont, Western Australia, 6010

mail@form.net.au

+ 61 8 9385 2200

REPRESENT was published by FORM Building a State of Creativity Inc in MArch 2024, to accompany the exhibition of the same name at FORM Gallery.

Curated by Andrew Nicholls with the participating artists and art centres, and cultural consultancy from Noongar Elder Sharyn Egan

Project managed by Emily Coy

Text by Andrew Nicholls

© FORM 2024. All rights reserved.

Copyright for imagery and written content in this publication is held by FORM Building a State of Creativity or the individual contributors, where applicable. Every effort has been made to adhere to best practice ICIP protocols.

www.form.net.au

Exhibition Presented By Creative Thinker Partner Government Partners