Mossenson Galleries will be participating in the 2008 Melbourne Art Fair. The Melbourne Art Fair is the leading art fair and public exposition in the Asia Pacific Region and one of Australia’s most significant exhibitions of contemporary visual art. Dr Diane Mossenson, has curated work from senior Kimberley artists Omborrin, Ngarra, and Loongkoonan, together with a selection of major works by leading contemporary Nyoongar painter Shane Pickett for exhibition The gallery is particularly pleased that Omborrin will travel to Melbourne to be present at the Fair. Our Stand B70 is on the upper level and we look forward to seeing you all there.

To co-incide with the Melbourne Art Fair, Mossenson Galleries Collingwood will be holding an exhibition of special 'collectors' works including new works by Shane Pickett, Omborrin, Loongkoonan, Ngarra, Gilgi, Lucy Ward, Josie Kunoth Petyarre and Dinni Kunoth Kemarre.

Omborrin was born around 1930 at Kunmunya on the Kimberley coast. In 2002, Omborrin began painting, drawing on a lifetime’s accumulation of knowledge. His paintings of spirit figures, such as Wandjina, Schuwarr and Amalan, and his beloved Munja country resound with a deep integrity and respect for his rock art heritage whilst presenting a unique vision entirely free of hyperbole. Painted with a reductive energy, all unnecessary elements are expelled from the canvas, allowing their elemental spiritual energy to pour forth.

2008 has been an exciting year for Omborrin having his work selected to hang in the Alice Prize, the Fletcher Jones Painting Prize and in the 2008 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. This is the fourth time that Omborrin has been selected to show in this award.

Shane Pickett has recently won the 2008 NAIDOC Week Moorjditch Mar-Daa Art Award. This year, the award, whose title is Nyoongar for ‘great painting’ featured many of Perth’s leading Indigenous artists. The award is further recognition that Shane is one of the nation’s most exciting contemporary Indigenous artists. Shane’s work is currently touring the country as part of Culture Warriors: The National Triennial of Indigenous Art, which is currently on display at the Art Gallery of South Australia before heading to the Queensland Art Gallery. A new body of major works by Shane will be on show at Mossenson Galleries’ stand at the 2008 Melbourne Art Fair.

Born around 1910, Loongkoonan is the oldest living Nyikina speaker and one of Australia’s oldest practising artists. A revered matriarch in her community her life experiences inform Loongkoonan’s shimmering and delicate paintings of Nyikina country.

Covered in overlapping dots, they sparkle with a gentle melding of colour and form that perfectly balances delicacy with emotive urgency. In Loongkoonan’s paintings ‘bush tucker’ acts as a metonym for a lifetime’s accumulated knowledge and serves as a referent for a time when the hierarchies of Indigenous knowledge and learning were respected. Balancing nostalgia with an obvious joie de vivre, er works are defiant statements of the continuation of Indigenous culture . According to Loongkoonan, “When I was young I footwalked all over Nyikina country. Footwalking is the only proper way to learn about country and remember it. I paint Nyikina country the same way that eagles see country when they are high up in the sky.”

As a sharp contrast to the body of work on canvas exhibited at the 2002 Melbourne Art Fair, Ngarra’s 2008 exhibition will feature an intrguing selection of works on paper. Ngarra’s selected entry for the 2008 Telstra NATSIAA, is a major new 12 panel of works on paper depicting various aspects of his beloved Andinyin Country.

Ngarra was born around 1920 in the bush at what is now called Glenroy Station. His formative years were spent at Warrangadada (Mornington Range) where he lived in the traditional manner with a small group of Mananambarra or elders. This experience makes Ngarra a singular figure amongst Kimberley elders. Anthropologist Kevin Shaw has noted “Ngarra is a living treasure, one of the few remaining people on earth who lived through the superimposition of pastoral capital over the gatherer-hunter way of life. Globally his works are of great significance.”

Ngarra’s paintings are profound repositories of allegory and metaphor that reveal his distinctive ability to transform elements of his traditional culture into compelling visual and political statements. An artist of versatility and subtlety, Ngarra’s works encompass a range of themes from important Dreaming stories through to playful images of pastoral life. A master colourist, he is one of the few Indigenous artists in Australia to color mix his own paints from a basic palette. Ross Moore has praised Ngarra’s “remarkable iconic shorthand [with which] he condenses stories of frontier experience”, while Robert Nelson has compared Ngarra’s paintings to musical notes, pulsing in an ethereal veil of “gravity and airiness.”

JOSIE KUNOTH PETYARRE & DINNI KUNOTH KEMARRE AT THE BASIL SELLERS ART PRIZE

Running concurrently with the Melbourne Art Fair is the inaugural $100,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize at the Ian Potter Museum at Melbourne University. Husband and wife team Dinni Kunoth Kemarre and Josie Kunoth Petyarre are the only Indigenous artists of the sixteen finalists to have been selected for the exhibition and they have created a body of work exploring the cultural connections between ‘bush’ football and its more urbanised AFL counterparts. Dinni and Josie are pleased to have been included in this exciting event, Josie and Dinni will be travelling from Utopia for the opening on July 31. The Sellers Prize runs until September.

2008 XSTRATA EMERGING INDIGENOUS ART AWARD

Mossenson Galleries congratulates Loongkoonan, Glenn Pilkington, Dinni Kunoth Kemarre and Josie Kunoth Petyarre who were selected to participate in this year’s Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award at the Queensland Art Gallery. The Xstrata Award is one of the prestigious events in the Indigenous calendar. This year, the preselection committee selected ten emerging artists from across Australia, and the gallery was pleased to be so strongly represented by Loongkoonan, Glenn, Dinni and Josie.

Loongkoonan travelled from Derby for the opening of the exhibition and was very happy to see her delicate depictions of ‘Bush Tucker in Nyikina Country’ displayed to great power and effect at the Queensland Art Gallery. Whilst in Brisbane, Loongkoonan met with Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and took the opportunity to visit QAG’s blockbuster Picasso exhibition. The Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award runs until 12 October 2008.

OTHER PRIZES & RECENT ACQUISITIONS

Mossenson Galleries congratulates Omborrin and Gladdy Kemarre on their selection in the 2008 Fletcher Jones Painting Prize. Held at the Geelong Art Gallery, the Fletcher Jones is one of Australia’s premier contemporary painting prizes. Omborrin has also been selected in this year’s Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Mossenson Galleries congratulates all of its represented artists selected for this year’s Telstra NATSIAA, which include Ngarra, Loongkoonan, Dinni Kunoth Kemarre, Josie Kunoth Petyarre, Lucy Ward, Peggy Wassi, Glenn Pilkington, Emma Daniel Nungarayi, Gilgi, and Pauline Moran. The Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards will be opened at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory on 15 August and run until 26 October 2008.

Mossenson Galleries would like to congratulate some of its artists who have recently been acquired by major collections. The National Museum of Australia acquired five works by Roebourne artist Loreen Samson from the exhibition Marni Bura held at Mossenson Galleries Collingwood. The Art Gallery of South Australia acquired bark paintings from Margaret Rarru, Lena Walyuntjulnalil and Susan Yirrawurr from the exhibition Yunumu, The University of Western Sydney acquired a work by Helen Ganalmirrawuy from the same exhibition. The National Maritime Museum acquired new works by Glen Namundja, Bruce Nabegeyo and Alfred Walpay. Artbank acquired works by Gilgi and Loongkoonan.