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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, August 18-19 2007
"The old people today are not sure about this abstraction thing" by Angela Bennie
Image right: Fiona Omeenyo, Lockhart River, Feeling Bad From Something, acrylic on canvas, 180 x 118cm, $8000AUD
Omeenyo is fast being recognised as one of the most exciting young talents to have emerged in contemporary Aboriginal art this decade. Since she was in her teens her work has been shown in more than 30 group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, and her solo exhibitions are close to sell-outs.
Omeenyo's (works) are filled with a quiet, strong emotion, many of them held together structurally by the shapes of the ancestral figures of "before time", looped together with long, thin lines of paint emblematic of the blood lines that bind them. The paint is lustrous, its colours those of the sand dunes, the tidal beds, the ochre clay pits, the almost black monsoonal flood waters and the strong dark greens of the rainforest.
"My painting, I really can't explain it, but it takes me to another place," Omeenyo says. "When I am painting, all the stress comes out of me and I just paint. And I feel happy and I let the feeling take hold of my hand, like as if someone is standing there beside me as I paint."
Yet some of her canvases can startle after she weaves in the thin lines of paint around the ancestral beings' necks, like the shackles that bound the old ones, rounding them up into the mission station. The indignity, humiliation and shame is palpable in the imagery.
These images of the ancestors appear again and again in Omeenyo's work as long chain-like links of knowledge and meaning floating among the ochres, crimsons, ribbons of turquoise and the almost black blues of the world around them.
"They are the Quinkan, they are the ancestors from before time and they are everywhere in the land and in the rocks," she says. "They watch over us. Mine are the Awe.
"When I was small, we'd sit near the campfire on the beach and the elders, 'the old girls', would talk to us, tell us the stories of how life was before, back then.
THE SUN HERALD, April 15 2007
Shining Through
"... Robert Murray, whose stunning works on glass are inspired by Wiradjuri Country at a place known as Mungabareena ... Although Roberts is only 23, he has a unique understanding of the material ... he tells traditional stories through weaving a palette of light and colour and depicting Wiradjuri iconography."
AUSTRALIAN ART COLLECTOR, ISSUE #37 July - September 2006
Surviving the Ages:
“Hogarth Galleries in Paddington, Sydney, is one of the great survivors of the commercial art world. An innovator that the rest of the world eventually caught up with, it continues today to hold the line that it has been following for close to 20 years - that of exhibiting a range of Australian indigenous art, from traditional bark painting to emerging young artists ... in solo and community shows."
AUSTRALIAN ART COLLECTOR - ISSUE #40 April - June 2007
Fiona Omeenyo's wombs & ghosts:
"Fiona Omeenyo is the latest to emerge of a group of young female artists who, from their isolated home on Cape York, have been rocking the aboriginal art scene ... While Omeenyo's work looks radically different from what we may have come to expect from Australian indigenous art she remains a 'traditionalist' in terms of the core themes of her work."
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD- THE (SYDNEY) MAGAZINE, ISSUE #35,
February 23, 2006
“Adelaide based (Trevor) Nickolls, an urban Aboriginal artist since the 1970’s, has paved the way for younger indigenous artists. His distinctive illustrative style has immediate appeal and his subject matter addresses complex social issues relating to people, capturing the reality of living at the interface of two cultures. Dreamtime to machine time is his central theme, attempting to articulate the difficult transition indigenous people face in adapting form their traditional customs and ways of living to the mechanisation and technology of the western world…”
Image above: Trevor Nicolls, Landscape with Boab Tree (2002) acrylic on canvas, 94 x 64cm, $7700AUD
NATIONAL INDIGENOUS TIMES
July 21, 2005
"Lorna Fencer Napurrula Fencer ... was born about 1924 at Yartula Yartula and is custodian of inherited land, Yurmurrpa..On opening night at Hogarth Galleries, she and daughter Judy danced up and sang the stories of paintings, such as caterpillar (Luju) Dreaming ... the paintings are not only aesthetically beautiful but also important cultural documents."
ARTS, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
July 17, 2005
"The current exhibition at Hogarth mixes examples from the best of both worlds. In the traditional corner is senior artist Lorna Napurrula Fencer. She is custodian of the Napurrula dreamings - all associated with food plants to be found in the Tanami desert- and her most recent work is vibrant with the life and colour of that spectacular region. In the contemporary corner is Sam Juparulla Wickman who, since 2000, has been making traditional objects such as coolamons and boomerangs, as well as abstract sculptures, in a material that is both ancient, and in this form, breathtakingly modern: glass."
SPECTRUM, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD May 28-29, 2005
"Heart and Sold" by John McDonald
"On the morning her [Rosella Namok] current exhibition opened to the public, I'm told, there were almost 30 people waiting outside Hogarth Galleries. When the door opened, the feeding frenzy began, with buyers racing around trying to beat each other to the best paintings...The only other occasions when I've seen collectors behave in such ravenous fashion was for exhibitions by well-known artists such as Jeffrey Smart, William Robinson or Garry Shead."
AUSTRALIAN ART COLLECTOR
October - December 2004
"Maningrida Exhibition" by Susan McCulloch
"Maningrida's women artists have become especially notable for pushing the boundaries of traditional basket weaving and other fibre arts into new and exciting realms which include complex and highly imaginative sculpture. Here the weavings by Melba Gunjarrwanga, Irenie Naglinba, Jennifer Midji Warridj and others demonstrate the huge range of fibre art from the finely woven pandanus bags and mats to large figurative sculptures."
METRO,SYDNEY MORNING HERALD June 11 - 17, 2004
"Critic's Picks - Rosella Namok" by Belinda Layton
"Thick, luscious paint is heaped on the canvases in the most inviting manner in Rosella Namok's solo exhibition New Paintings. A successful young artist and member of the Lockhart River Art Gang, Namok nods to traditional indigenous storytelling and contemporary themes in her work, drawing strongly on her surrounding environment in a remote Cape York community..."
THE SYDNEY MAGAZINE June 2004, by Victoria Hynes
"The stellar rise of this highly sought- after young Aboriginal painter belies the fact that she's only 25... The artist combines traditional storytelling with contemporary themes and a very distinctive technique that involves layering and scraping back paint to reveal bold lines and patterns."
METRO, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD April 2-7 2004
"Barbara Weir and Friends" by Dominique Angeloro
"Watching grass grow has long been accused of inducing boredom. Yet Barbara Weir continues to excite audiences with her signature " Grass Seed Dreaming" paintings. Painted in green, orange and purples ochres, these works conjure an incredible illusion of depth and movement. This group exhibition includes a series of these luscious works, as well as other striking paintings by several of her contemporaries from Utopia in the Northern Territory."
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