Sabbia Gallery Sydney is Australia’s foremost commercial gallery specialising in the representation and exhibition of our finest artists working in ceramics and glass.
As part of our ongoing commitment to the promotion of the Australian contemporary studio practices of ceramics and glass and the artists that work within them, we are pleased to present Tjungu Warkarintja, Fifteen Years (Working Together, Fifteen Years) running from 5 to 29 March 2014.
We will be hosting an exhibition floor talk and artist demonstration during the course of the exhibition. Details closer to the date.
This is a unique exhibition presenting a select group of premier award winning Indigenous artists from Ernabella, Australia. These artists, including Tjimpuna Williams, Ngunytjima Carroll and Derek Jungarrayi Thompson will be showing new work in ceramics that have been created on Country, and during their residencies in Jingdezhen, China and the Australian National University Ceramic Workshop, School of Art, Canberra.
In May 2013 Tjimpuna Williams and Derek Thompson travelled with mentor Janet DeBoos to Jingdezhen, international home of porcelain, to undertake a New Work residency. Tjimpuna’s mother was an accomplished batik artist and integral part of Ernabella Arts, who travelled in her time to Indonesia and Japan with her artwork. Ernabella Arts celebrated 65 years in 2013, and many important relationships have formed over the years between the arts centre and other internationally recognised artists and institutions.
There is a Pitjantjatjara term, Milpatjunanyi, which refers to the ancient practice of story telling through drawing in sand. This is a practice which continues to this day, and is echoed in the Ernabella artist’s use of the sgrafitto technique on clay. The artists tell their stories by placing their incredible marks upon the surfaces of the large ceramic forms to create truly exceptional artworks. These forms and vessels are now being sourced by some of Australia’s major arts institutions, and will be exhibited in the March exhibition at Sabbia Gallery.
The title of the exhibition refers to the strong community of artists at Ernabella Arts working together as a group, and with a diverse number of artisans from both Australia and China. It is now fifteen years since the first exhibition of pottery from Ernabella was shown, of work made in Adelaide at the JamFactory in 1998. That exhibition was titled Tjungu Warkarintja: Working Together. This exhibition is a reflection on fifteen years of working together.
This will be an extraordinary exhibition with some highly collectible pieces. There are works that measure close to two metres in height, with beautiful sgraffito created by incredible storytellers over the surfaces of these dominant ceramic forms. The batiks will present the diverse range of work that Ernabella Arts has become world renowned for.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR FOR A FULLY ILLUSTRATED DIGITAL CATALOGUE PLEASE CONTACT THE DIRECTOR ANNA GRIGSON ON anna@nullsabbiagallery.com