JOURNEY - PIPPIN DRYSDALE & YINJAA-BARNI ARTISTS

JOURNEY PIPPIN DRYSDALE & YINJAA-BARNI ARTISTS

Linton & Kay Galleries, Perth, Australia

JOURNEY PIPPIN DRYSDALE & YINJAA-BARNI ARTISTS

“Australia” says Pippin Drysdale, “is considered ‘young’ in many ways but the truth is that its culture is amongst the oldest in the world. I endeavour to reflect this through my three dimensional porcelain creations, each one inspired by our bare and bleak continent and the first nations that have called it home for so long.”

Pippin works intuitively, driven by her passion to create, drawing on assimilated experiences of place, topography, of remote communities, of changing light, flora or fauna, that give rise to her abstract interpretations. Her ceramics are world-renowned as reflections of the famous Kimberley and Pilbara regions, many echoing the ‘vastness’ of place while others explore the ‘smallness’ of things. “Light,” says Pippin, “can make the most imposing edifices appear soft, ghostly, fragmented. Light governs my reactions to the everyday making memories re surface, metaphorically taking me from a sunrise in the desert to early spring in the Pilbara or the majesty of our galaxy in the night sky.”

Some collections in Journey echo the topography and colours of the banded iron formations of Karijini that date back to the archaic epoch of our planet. Others result from a fleeting glimpse of a dragonfly. But in each case her response is captured on the interiors and exteriors of the collections: marbles with finely incised and coloured lines, vessels with interiors of intense colour that are hypnotic and breathtaking, perfectly describing mood, time, and memory.

For 45 years Pippin Drysdale has worked from her ordered studio in Fremantle, Western Australia, with a collaborative team, especially her thrower, Warrick Palmateer, a superb ceramic artist in his own right.

Her participation in major international art shows including TEFAF Maastricht and New York, PAD Design Fair, London, Masterpiece London Art Fair and the Salon of Art and Design, New York has brought her work to a wide number of collectors. The Duke of Devonshire has acquired significant works by Drysdale for the Chatsworth Collection, and she is represented in over 60 public and corporate collections around the world.

Drysdale is excited to exhibit with artists from Yinjaa Barni Arts, including Maudie Jerrold, Allery Sandy, Marlene Harold and Melissa Sandy.

At 79, Pippin Drysdale’s creative energy burns as brightly as ever. Each day sees her creating new works, experimenting with colours, dependent on the complexities of porcelain and the vagaries of the kiln, counting every trial a success, and still learning as much from the triumphs as the failures.

By Margaret Jeffery

PIPPIN DRYSDALE

Above:

Pippin Drysdale and long time thrower, Warrick Palmateer, in her ordered studio in Fremantle.

Right:

Two installations by Drysdale currently on exhibition at Chatsworth in the exhibition ‘Living With Art That We Love’, presented by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

PIPPIN DRYSDALE

ABBREVIATED BIO*

Pippin Drysdale is revered as Australia’s most internationally successful ceramicist, her work held in over 60 public and corporate collections around the world and major museums including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Chatsworth Collections, counting more than 450 exhibitions nationally and internationally and more than 60 solo shows.

1943 born Melbourne

1982 Diploma in Advanced Ceramics, Western Australian School of Art and Design

1982 Anderson Ranch, Colorado, USA studied with influential artist potters Daniel Rhodes and Toshiko Takaesu

1985 graduated with Bachelor of Art (Fine Art) (WAIT) now Curtin University

1987 2007 numerous Australia Council for the Arts grants

1992 ArtsWA Travel Grant secured study tour to Central Australia

Significant current Group Exhibitions:

2022 Living with The Art We Love, Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, The Chatsworth Collections, Derbyshire, UK;

National Touring Exhibition SIXTY: The Journal of Australian Ceramics Sixtieth Anniversary 1962 2022

Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 2022 Sydney

Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections @ COLLECT, London, UK

Awards:

2020 Honorary Doctorate of the Arts from Curtin University

2015 State Living Treasure Award by the Western Australian Government

2011 Artsource Lifetime Achievement Award

2007 Master of Australian Craft

Drysdale has been honoured with two retrospective exhibitions at John Curtin Gallery, Lines of Sight in 2007 and Confluence in 2018

Drysdale is represented by Linton & Kay Galleries, Perth, Adrian Sassoon, London, Joanna Bird, London, Sabbia Gallery, Sydney, Australian Galleries, Melbourne and Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA.

Journey is her third exhibition at Linton & Kay Galleries

* For a copy of Pippin Drysdale’s full CV, please email info@lintonandkay.com.au

Pippin Drysdale

YINJAA-BARNI ARTISTS

Yinjaa-Barni Art is a not-for-profit Aboriginal Corporation based in Roebourne, working as a collective of Aboriginal artists who predominantly belong to the Yindjibarndi language group. The Yinjaa-Barni artists are known for their deeply personal works of collective memory, rendering the wildflowers, river systems and landforms of their country onto canvas. “Yinjaa Barni is working together, doing things together, you know, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, at least your heart is in painting, and working together. We like to keep that spirit going, YinjaaBarni, you know and it’s always working together.” Allery Sandy, artist

Maudie Jerrold

Marlene Harold

Language: Yindjibarndi Country: Millstream Tablelands

A Yindjibarndi elder and founding member of one of the region's first art groups, Bujinhurrba, Maudie Jerrold is part of the backbone of Pilbara Aboriginal art. Born in Hooley Creek near Wittenoom and raised in Roebourne, Maudie has witnessed and helped guide her community through dramatic lifestyle changes.

Maudie's colourful and intricately patterned artwork relates to the landscapes of Yindjibarndi and Ngarluma Country of the Pilbara, paying specific attention to the flora of the area and often depicting plants or flowers that have a medicinal or ceremonial purpose.

Language: Yindjibarndi Country: Millstream Tablelands

“According to Yindjibarndi law, in the beginning the sky was very low. When the creation spirits, Marrga (The Spirit God of The Land), arose from the ground they raised the sky and the world out of the ocean. This creation story is called Ngurra Nyujunnggamu (When the World was Soft). The Marrga (The Spirit God of The Land) gave names and form to the country and then to all the birds and animals. Finally, they created the Ngardangarli (Aboriginal people). This is a dreamtime story handed down by our ancestors.”

Marlene Harold, artist

YINJAA-BARNI ARTISTS

Language: Yindjibarndi Country: Millstream Tablelands

An accomplished painter, educator, performer and community leader, Allery Sandy is a Yindjibarndi artist from Roebourne. Her distinguishing aerial perspectives typically celebrate the wildflowers, creeks, rivers, and bush foods of her Country.

Allery's artworks build on underpainting with sponge and brush work, creating a layer of fine dot work, and crafting a sense of movement and depth of field on the canvas.

Allery Sandy

Language: Yindjibarndi Country: Millstream Tablelands

“My story of Becoming One has the most meaning to me. My Mum was indigenous, my Dad is white. I don’t agree with the constant ripping apart of the two cultures. Because I indeed believe that they work together well. We both need each other to work in this world of ours. I also paint about my Country, about the wildflowers that suffocate the Country in a beautiful way, and I paint about things that have deeper meaning for me. My arts centre is my home away from home. Surrounded by family. We thrive on each other. I think that's one of the reasons we keep going. That's why we're strong, as artists, because we help one another through.”

Melissa Sandy is a Yindjibarndi artist who was born in Port Hedland and is based in Roebourne. Melissa's mother's Country surrounds the Millstream Tablelands, while her father hails from Adelaide.

Melissa Sandy

Sandy HIDDEN CREEKS

Marlene Harold IN THE BEGINNING WHEN THE WORLD WAS SOFT

Allery Sandy MARNI

Sandy

Maudie Jerrold

COSSACK TIDAL FLOWS

Maudie Jerrold

Melissa

Melissa

Melissa