Exhibitions

Sabbia is pleased to present new works in ceramics and on canvas from Carlene Thompson.

Carlene Thompson is a multi disciplinary artist, whose materials and processes span across painting, ceramics, printmaking, wood carving and fibre based art. She is a senior artist and community leader in Pukatja in the APY Lands, and has been heavily involved in a number of project based art collaborations that have toured nationally. She is also an independent artist, working from the Ernabella Art Centre and has been instrumental in encouraging future generations of APY artists to follow in her footsteps. The inter-generational transfer of Indigenous and cultural knowledge is a priority for Carlene, particularly the passing of knowledge down to her daughters and her artwork often features families of birds.

Her innovative artwork has often focused on depicting her Father’s Country, Kanpi, in which the creation being is ‘Kalaya’, or emu. Her pieces encompass the cultural richness that Carlene possesses as a proud Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara woman.

In this new exhibition she has worked on the ceramic forms, referencing the tjulpu (birds) nests in the clay body and using sgraffito to reflect her stories. Carlene will also present new canvases alongside her ceramic artwork in this exhibition.

I am always telling the story of my father’s country, a place called Kanpi. I am drawing the tjulpu (birds) and mamu (mischievous spirits) and ngura (county). I want to make something different this time for ceramics. The tjulpu makes a circle in the sand for a maṉngu (nest). The nest holds the whole family. These rings on the ceramics are the circles the tjulpu make on the ground. Family tell the children stories about mamu when they are sitting around the fire at night time. The stories are scary to make them behave.

Carlene Thompson, 2024