My paintings create a window into the past. I travel through this window and bring back the markings of my ancestors into the present day. - Shane Pickett, 2008

With works in most major Australian public collections and a extensive exhibition history behind him, Shane Pickett is fast becoming one of the country’s most eminent abstract painters. A fascinating series of stylistic developments have taken place over Pickett’s thirty year artistic career and his recent works are testament to a the regeneration and resilience of Nyoongar tradition and to the intuitive and skilful expression of Indigenous Identity.

The Mossenson Galleries, Subiaco, is proud to present a body of this senior artist’s most sophisticated work yet. Gnaalong Moort Koorndaam Koort (Our People’s Dreaming Art)will be opened at 6pm on Wednesday 19 March 2008 by Chief Judge Antoinette Kennedy. Shane Pickett will be present for the occasion.

Pickett describes his recent works as a way of forming a “deeper and closer bond to the world of his people” and the painting process as a method of “gaining a greater respect and understanding of the art and knowledge from the past”. He sees each work not only as creative but also as historical, a document which records knowledge from the past for the benefit of generations to come. He would like his works to be seen as books which keep important information safe.

He sees his paintings as metaphors for an ancient knowledge of the country his people possessed, and that much has been destroyed along the way. Pickett is a quiet and stealthy urban warrior, layering seams of precious knowledge away for the right time.

Brenda Croft, senior curator at the National Gallery of Australia, recently acknowledged Pickett as an artist of great significance by selecting him for inclusion in the Gallery’s Culture Warriors triennial which showcased the works of forty Aboriginal artists making notable contribution to their culture.

Among Pickett’s many accomplishments is his success in the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory’s prestigious Telstra Art Award in 1986 and, more recently, being awarded first prizes at the Sunshine Art Award (2006), Joondalup Invitation Art Award (2006) and the inaugural Drawn Together Art Award (2007).