Maningrida Arts
Fibre Artist, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory
MANINGRIDA ARTS AND CULTURE, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory
Maningrida Arts & Culture is based on Kunibídji country in Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory. The area where artists live encompasses 7,000 square kilometres of land and sea, and over 100 clan estates, where people speak more than 12 distinct languages. Aboriginal people in this region are still on country, surviving and resilient because their country is the centre of their epistemology, their belief system, culture – djang.
Artists’ works from the larger Maningrida region can be seen in collections and institutions around the world. We work with museums, contemporary galleries and high-end retailers both nationally and internationally on projects throughout the year.
Maningrida Arts & Culture is a pre-eminent site of contemporary cultural expression and art-making, abundant with highly collectable art and emerging talent.
Through their homelands resource organisation, Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, artists turned an art trade that began just over 50 years ago into a multi-million dollar arts and cultural enterprise. Maningrida Arts & Culture supported hundreds of artists on their homelands, more than 20 artworkers, held 20 exhibitions annually, won prestigious awards, and enjoyed the international fame and success that the boom in the Aboriginal art market of the 1990s and 2000s enabled.
Acclaimed senior artists including John Mawurndjul, brothers Owen Yalandja and Crusoe Kurddal, Bob Burruwal, Lena Yarinkura and Laurie Marbaduk continue to expand their mediums and narratives. Artists such as Paul Nabulumo, Samson Bonson, Anniebelle Marrngamarrnga, Samuel Namundja, Kay Lindjuwanga and Fiona Jin-majinggal have emerged to become a formidable force in the national and international landscape. They sit alongside the leading proponents of a fibre sculpture movement. Frewa Bardaluna, Helen Stewart, Vera Cameron, Lorna Jin-gubarrangunyja, Freda Wayartja Ali, Bonnie Burarn.garra and Doreen Jinggarrabarra are a group of mostly female artists who reinterpret functional forms using natural fibres to create highly sought-after pieces across the fine art and interior design sectors.
We protect the place in history for those artists who have come before, among them: Yirawala, Wally Mardarrk, John Bulunbulun, Peter Marralwanga, England Banggala, Elizabeth Mipilangurr, Lena Djamarrayku, Mary Marabamba and Jack Wunuwun.
