Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri - Marawa

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, Marawa, 2016, Acrylic on Belgian linen, 112 x 101.5cm

MARAWA WARLIMPIRRNGA TJAPALTJARRI 27 APRIL - 13 MAY 2017

MARAWA WARLIMPIRRNGA TJAPALTJARRI Opening Night: Saturday 29 April 2017, 3-5pm 27 April - 13 May 2017, Tue-Sat 10am-5pm 76 Paddington St Paddington NSW 2021 RSVP 02 9660 7799 or via Eventbrite Piermarq is proud to present Marawa - a selection of paintings by Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, one of Australia's most acclaimed contemporary Aboriginal artists and a leading figure of the Aboriginal Australian painting community.

In late 1984, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri’s family emerged from the desert in Western Australia by chance and made contact for the first time with Western society. The discovery of the "Pintupi Nine" or "lost tribe” caused a media sensation. However the family was quick to point out that they were not lost; when others in their community re-located to settlements in the 1950s and 60s, they had chosen to live off the land as traditionally practiced by their ancestors.

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri’s paintings are an abstract recreation of his family’s dreaming. The elaborately topographical patterns of his paintings, created with thousands of delicate concentric lines, often depict sacred landscapes. This body of work specifically focuses on Marawa, a clay pan to the west of Lake Mackay, that features in the travels and initiation stories of the Pintupi ancestors called Tingari. For time immemorial Pintupi men would gather there for ceremonies, re-living the legends of the Tingari. For the most part, these sites and their accompanying rituals are a mystery to outsiders, but this does not interfere with comprehending the visual power of Warlimpirrnga’s work.

Few painters can match the optical intensity found in Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri’s paintings. Loosely applied, the lines accumulate into continuous surfaces that, however simply made, are never still or flat. The lines shift direction gently, in curves, or abruptly, in angles. His paintings undulate in swells and swirls; they shimmer and gleam with the potency of the sacred sites and objects from which they are drawn.

Marawa opens on Saturday 29 April, 3 - 5pm at Piermarq, Paddington and runs until Saturday 13 May 2017.

WARLIMPIRRNGA TJAPALTJARRI (b. approx. 1958) Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri (b. approx 1958) is one of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary Aboriginal artists and a leading figure of the Aboriginal Australian painting community. Born around 1958 near Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay) in Western Australia, Warlimpirrnga and his family lived nomadically until 1984, when the family re-emerged from the desert by chance and integrated into the communal fold of Kiwirrkura.

The discovery of the”Pintupi Nine” or “lost tribe” caused a media sensation. However the family was quick to point out that they were not lost; when others in their community relocated to settlements in the 1950s and 60s, they had chosen to live off the land as traditionally practiced by their ancestors.

With their “discovery,” Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri and his family were thrown into the spotlight and an unfamiliar world. As the senior male of the group, Warlimpirrnga led his family into this world; drawing on all of the survival skills he had learned as a huntergatherer. Despite his relative youth, Warlimpirrnga’s upbringing made him a formidable repository of 40,000 year old knowledge and he quickly assumed a position of authority within the Pintupi, admired for his prodigious knowledge of healing, law and ceremony.

By 1984, painting was an established and central part of modern Pintupi life. It was over a decade since the founding of Papunya Tula Artists—the community art centre that sparked an artistic renaissance in Aboriginal painting. Three years after settling at the community of Kiwirrkurra, Warlimpirrnga began to paint. Under the tuition of a senior artist in the community, he produced his first painting in April 1987. His first 11 works were exhibited in Melbourne at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 1988, with the entire body being acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne. Since that time, as his reputation has grown, his work has found particular appeal among prestigious international collections, including the National Musee Des Arts Africains et Oceaniens, in Paris. In 2015, Warlimpirrnga had his first solo US exhibition at Salon 94 in New York, cementing his status as one of Australia’s most successful Aboriginal artists.

Warlimpirrnga’s paintings are an abstract recreation of his family’s dreaming. The elaborately topographical patterns of his paintings, created with thousands of delicate concentric lines, often depict sacred landscapes - specifically lake Mackay and Marawa, a clay pan to its west - that figure in the travels of the Pintupi ancestors called Tingari.

Traditionally, the journeys of the Tingari were recounted in the designs used on pearl shells and kurtitji (ceremonial shields); the prized possessions of ritual healers, of which Warlimpirrnga is one. Few painters can match the optical intensity found in his paintings.

They shimmer and gleam with the potency of the sacred objects from which they are drawn.

Artist Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 112 x 101.5cm

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 112 x 101.5cm

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 112 x 101.5cm

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 122 x 91.5cm

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 152.5 x 122cm

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 152.5 x 122cm

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 152.5 x 122cm

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 183 x 152.5cm

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 183 x 152.5cm

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri Marawa, 2016 Acrylic on Belgian linen 152.5 x 244cm

ARTIST CV

WARLIMPIRRNGA TJAPALTJARRI

EXHIBITIONS 2017 Marawa, Piermarq, Sydney NSW 2015 Maparntjarra, Salon 94, New York City, US 2010 Desert Icons, Australasian Arts Project, SG 2003 Kintore Kiwrrkurra, Melbourne VIC 2002 Native Title Business, National Travelling Exhibition, AUS 1999 Tjangala, Exhibition with Ray James, Melbourne VIC 1993 Aboriginal Art Exhibition 1991 Friendly Country, Friendly People, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs NT 1990 L’ete Australien a Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gallery, Montpellier, FR 1989 Mythscapes, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne VIC COLLECTIONS Kelton Foundation, USA Macquarie Bank, Sydney National Gallery of Victoria National Musee Des Arts Africains et Oceaniens, Paris, France PUBLICATIONS Kennedy, R, An Aboriginal Artist’s Dizzying New York Moment, New York Times (May 2015) Smith, R, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri’s Aboriginal Dreamtime Paintings, New York Times (October 2015)

Contact us +61 2 9660 7799 info@piermarq.com.au 76 Paddington St Paddington 2021 NSW