Aboriginal Art in America

Aboriginal Art in America

By Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection and The Virginia Audio CollectiveSociety & CultureEducationArtsPlaces & TravelVisual Arts
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Aboriginal Art in America episodes

  • Jack Kelly's Rockhole by Queenie McKenzie

    Jack Kelly's Rockhole

    1997 
    90 x 120 cm
    Queenie McKenzie, indigenous Australian, b. 1915
    Natural pigments on canvas 
    Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. 
    Gift of Richard Klingler and Jane Slatter, 2019.Notes go here

    4 min
  • Ngarralja Tommy May
    Ngarralja Tommy May has been making art for over 30 years and this year his painting, Wirrkanja, won the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Henry Skerritt introduces us to the artist and reminisces about his 2016 visit to the Kluge-Ruhe.
    4 min
  • Nganampa Ngura, Our Country By Tjala Arts
    Nganampa Ngura, Our Country (2013) is a work of grand ambition and stunning color, it shows the ways in which these senior women see the world, connected by kin and country. From the tiny flowers of the bush plum to an epic painting on canvas, all actions are interrelated. In our globally connected world, these artworks remind us that every “little thing” is part of the grand tapestry of existence. The thirteen artists who made this work are: Wawiriya Burton, Ruby Williamson, Barbara Moore, Mary Katajuka Pan, Nyurpaya Kaika Burton, Naomi Kantjuriny, Iluwanti Ken, Mona Mitakiki Shepard, Tjungkara Ken, Sylvia Ken, Katanari Tjilya, Maringka Tunkin and Paniny Mick.
    4 min
  • Brothers Moving Targets By Tony Albert

    Tony Albert’s “Brothers” engages with issues of race, police violence, discrimination and identity. This single installation features twenty-six portraits of young Aboriginal men with targets painted onto their chests, as well as designs and symbols that Albert associates with strength and resistance. Albert was inspired by events that took place in Sydney in 2012, when two teenage Aboriginal joyriders were shot and injured at the hands of police. Following this, a protest was held at Sydney’s Town Hall, and friends of the victims appeared with targets drawn on their chests. For Albert, the target symbolizes the daily experiences of being racially targeted. It also refers to the stereotypes applied to Aboriginal people as a result of government policies, such as the Northern Territory Intervention.

    Tony Albert is a Girramay artist. His work is held in numerous public and private collections internationally. In 2014 he won both the $100,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize and the prestigious $50,000 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. He is known internationally and recently unveiled a major commission in Sydney’s Hyde Park, a monument dedicated to Australia’s Indigenous military service men and women.
    Brothers (Moving Targets)
    2015
    41 3/8 x 28 1/4 in. (105.09 x 71.76 cm)
    Tony Albert, Indigenous Australian, b. 1981 
    Scarred pigment print on paper
    Gift of the Artist, 2016

    3 min

About Aboriginal Art in America

From the publisher's feed

Each week we spend a few minutes getting to know a work by an Indigenous Australian artist. We'll talk about medium, style, the evolution of Aboriginal art over its 50,000+ years, and the ways these works and artists transcend and translate the issues of the day from the other side of the world.