Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre will participate in the 2022 Australian Ceramics Triennale in Alice Springs Apmere Mparntwe. The art centre will feature in the Clay on Country exhibition at the Araluen Arts Centre, and will also showcase unique ceramic vessels and platters at the art centre’s own gallery space. Additionally, Iltja Ntjarra will facilitate a watercolour painting masterclass to the public. Read on for more information.

Clay on Country
Developed by Artback NT, Clay on Country showcases the work of over 30 artists living and working in Central Australia, including Iltja Ntjarra artists Benita Clements, Dellina Inkamala, Selma Coulthard, Vanessa Inkamala, Clara Inkamala and Mervyn Rubuntja.

Where: Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
Exhibition opening: Tuesday 19 July, 3pm

Our Country in Paint and Clay
This exhibition showcases both watercolour works on paper and hand painted ceramic vessels and platters. The Iltja Ntjarra gallery is situated on-site at the art centre so come along during opening hours to view the works and meet the artists.

Where: Iltja Ntjarra Art Cenre, 29 Wilkinson St. Alice Springs
Exhibition opening: Wednesday July 20, 5.30pm

Watercolour Masterclass
Join artists from Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre for an informal and immersive experience learning to paint watercolours in the Hermannsburg painting tradition. Paint alongside descendants of iconic artist Albert Namatjira and experience, absorb and practice their approach to landscape painting.

Where: Iltja Ntjarra Art Cenre, 29 Wilkinson St. Alice Springs
When: Monday July 18, 1pm
Bookings essential: Click HERE

Selected drawings and paintings from our exhibition Kuprilya Spring – Living Water/Kwatja Etatha are now available on our website. The collection was exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2021 during Tarnanthi, the festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and has now become available for purchase for the general public.

The Cross Arts Projects, Kings Cross, Sydney

We are thrilled to be exhibiting at The Cross Art Projects, Kings Cross, Sydney.

The exhibition will launch on 12 March at 3pm

Exhibition ends on 9 April 2022.

One too many, is a new body of work by artists from the powerhouse art centre and studio Iltja Ntjarra in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). The artists juxtapose the luminous watercolour heritage of Albert Namatjira and Central Australia’s blindingly glorious landscapes with overlays of modernity and powerful political and social statements. One too many opens a window onto the rivers of grog that blight lives and litter landscapes. If you’ve had one too many, you have drunk too much alcohol.

The exhibition’s opening scene is an installation of flattened beer cans, wreckage collected from beside the road between Mparntwe and Ntaria (Hermannsburg), a former Lutheran mission. Painted on each crushed and re-burnished aluminium can is a vignette, a miniature painting that recalls country and western songs about roads that “take me home”. The land is home to the Western Aranda people. The litter suggests you could be singing your heart out as you travel on any Australian country road.

This road runs beside Tjoritja West MacDonnell National Park to old Hermannsburg mission and new mission. Here is the old stone church where Selma Coulthard, artist and project co-ordinator says, ‘you will end up unless you stop drinking.’

Mervyn Rubuntja, Selma Coulthard, Vanessa Inkamala, Dellina Inkamala, Benita Clements, Marcus Wheeler, Betty Wheeler, Dianne Inkamala and Reinhold Inkamala will be exhibiting their extraordinary collection.

Below: Dianne Inkamala – Old Mission Church in Ntaria (Hermannsburg)
Acrylic on recycled aluminum can. 14 x 9 cm