Indigenart, The Mossenson Galleries in Association with the Koorie Heritage Trust, Melbourne, is very proud to present an exhibition of new works by two rising stars of the Aboriginal art scene, Turbo Brown and Lorraine Connelly-Northey.

Koori Alchemy brings together the work of these artists from the northwest of Victoria, who grasp the possibilities for alchemical transformation through the process of creating art out of the everyday.

Dr Ian Bernadt, art collector, will open the exhibition at Indigenart’s Fremantle gallery, 82 High Street, on Saturday 16 February at 2pm. Indigenart is delighted to announce that Lorraine Connelly-Northey will be traveling from Victoria for the opening.

Trevor ‘Turbo’ Brown (born 1967) is a Latje Latje man from Mildura, Victoria, who has gone from homelessness to become a rising star of the Indigenous art world.

In a few short years, art has transformed Turbo’s life, making him one of Victoria’s most prominent emerging artists.

Judith Ryan, National Gallery of Victoria senior curator of indigenous art, has commented that Turbo’s paintings reveal an "energy and integrity that is strongly expressive of his cultural identity".

His first solo show in 2004 was a sellout, and his work has been acquired by collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, where it was displayed, along with Lorraine Connelly-Northey’s, in the historic Land Marks survey exhibition.

Lorraine Connelly-Northey’s artworks are strongly influenced by her mixed cultural heritage. Of Waradgerie (Wiradjuri) and Irish descent, Lorraine was born in 1962 in Swan Hill, northwest Victoria, where she lives and works.

Since 1990, Lorraine has worked with found materials – including rusted wire mesh, galvanised iron, chicken wire and fencing wire, as well as feathers, shells and other organic objects – to respond to her environment and to traditional Aboriginal culture and heritage.

Connelly-Northey uses her knowledge of Aboriginal weaving to transform these discarded materials into elegant forms that suggest traditional material cultural objects, such as coolamons, string bags, dilly bags and possum skin cloaks.

Connelly-Northey’s work has been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, including at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Museum, Object Gallery, Koorie Heritage Trust, Mildura Arts Centre, and Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery.

Her work at the National Gallery of Victoria’s Land Marks exhibition was described by The Australian’s art critic Sebastian Smee as ‘stunning’, and lauded as being amongst the best works in the show.

She was short listed for the 2003 Raka Award, the 2005 Victorian Indigenous Art Award and the 2006 Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award.