'Echoes Tracing Northward' is a group exhibition curated by Miah Madden which celebrates works by emerging Indigenous artists from art centres: Iwantja Arts, Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association, Ngukurr Art Centre, Papunya Tula Artists, Warakurna Artists and Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, spanning the Central Desert to the Top End of the Northern Territory. This exhibition acknowledges the artists as cultural custodians, presenting their works as continuations of living traditions that remain grounded in each artist’s connection to country, lore and ancestral lineage. Presenting an array of works across painting on canvas and bark, carvings, and sculptural works, together they highlight the journey of each piece which forms echoes that can be traced through time and place, ultimately sustaining cultural knowledge and ancient practices through artistic expression.

The Art Centres:

Iwantja Arts (APY Lands, SA)
Located in the rocky desert country of Indulkana, Iwantja Arts is renowned for culturally rich projects that celebrate Anangu strength. Known primarily as a painting studio, the centre also supports experimental practices and intergenerational filmmaking.

Jilamara Arts and Crafts (Milikapiti, Tiwi Islands)
Jilamara means ‘design’—derived from ceremonial ochre markings on the body. At this cultural hub on Melville Island, artists translate body painting to canvas, bark, silk and screen-printing, evolving Tiwi knowledge across generations.

Ngukurr Arts (South East Arnhem Land, NT)
Sitting on the banks of the Roper River, Ngukurr is a unique convergence of many clan and language groups, together known as Yugul Mangi. The art centre reflects this diversity through dynamic and individual contemporary practices.

Papunya Tula Artists (Western Desert, NT/WA)
Originating in the desert painting movement of the early 1970s, Papunya Tula is now one of Australia’s most significant art companies. Its unmistakable style derives from ancestral body and sand painting, carefully translated for public audience.

Warakurna Artists (Ngaanyatjarra Lands, WA)
Founded in 2005, this 100% Indigenous owned art centre champions expressive contemporary Western Desert painting. Beyond the studio, it facilitates trips to country and cultural preservation through the practice of Tjukurrpa.

Yarrenyty Arltere Artists (Alice Springs, NT)
Based at the Larapinta Valley Town Camp, this vibrant enterprise is built on family, community and innovation. Working primarily with soft sculpture and painting, Yarrenyty Arltere artists create works that are witty, tender and deeply connected to lived experience.

YRSSWS

YEARS OF RIVER AND OF SUN, OF SAND, THE WIND AND THE SKY selected recent paintings by Max Berry. Courtesy of China Heights Gallery  and their on-going offsite at Louis Vuitton Brisbane.

Berry, who was born in 1987 in Katherine, NT, currently lives and works in Sunshine Coast QLD he has been exhibiting his work since 2011.

Using photographs and images from film and other media, he tackles a breadth of subjects and motifs, including landscape, figures, the mythic and seemingly banal everyday objects and their environments. The resulting paintings suggest an allegorical atmosphere and posses poetic power. 

The process of finding and transforming the images is in the manner of a collector, amassing libraries of material that is not necessarily understood yet intrigues or engages. These are worked through in various stages before reaching the canvas, where he makes the final piece in oils relatively quickly and in some instances in a single session. 

The resulting pictures work together to create a place, where motifs can be symbolic, obscured or warped. this way, they express the slipperiness of representation through painting and the inherent subjective nature of experience and memories.  

Berry’s seemingly understated works combine to prompt careful contemplation.