For the Anangu people, Piriyakutu is the time of the warm spring winds. It is the time before the really hot season begins, when warm winds blow in through the Musgrove Ranges, sweeping the frost from the ground. It is a time of abundance and rebirth – of desert blooms, bush tucker and dingo pups. The light is soft and the landscape is transformed.

In recent years, the tiny remote community of Fregon has witnessed another bold transformation of the landscape. Located in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands, Fregon is situated 350km east of Uluru in the remote north-west of South Australia.

The APY lands have been the site of one of the most compelling and explosive visual renaissances of the 21st Century. According to Tracey Lock-Weir, Senior Curator at the Art Gallery of South Australia, “The paintings of the APY lands have a quality of extroverted ecstasy … [expressing] their country in bold forms and saturated colours that explode across the painted canvas in graphic outline.”

According to the cultural anthropologist Dr Diana James, the power of this vision is a direct extension of the artists’ profound connection to their homelands. “These older people have a different eye for the landscape that comes from a lifetime of being one with the landscape. In a blackened and burnt landscape, these artists can still see the glow of spring.”

For the senior artists of Kaltjiti, Piriyakutu is also a time of deep cultural importance. It is the time for ceremony and returning to sacred places and traditional lands. In their depictions of sandhills, silver grevillia and swirling desert blooms, the artists find a spiritual rejuvenation that presents a direct expression of their deep cultural connection to the landscape

Piriyakutu: Time of the Warm Spring Winds features new works from TALI TALI POMPEY, MAYLENE RUSSEL, ROBIN KANKAPANKATJA, IWANA KEN, TJAYANGKA ROBIN and ANDY TJILARI.

Indigenart, The Mossenson Galleries in conjunction with Kaltjiti Arts, Fregon, is proud to present this important new exhibitions senior artists of Fregon. The exhibition will be opened at 6pm on Wednesday 22 November 2006 by Dr Diana James. Indigenart is extremely pleased to announce that Tali Tali Pompey, Tjayangka Robin, Iwana Ken and Robin Kankapankatja will be present for the opening.