Brother and sister Reinhold and Vanessa Inkamala will exhibit their exquisite works at Aboriginal Contemporary Sydney this August! Reinhold will showcase his vibrant canvases, while Vanessa will present her delicate watercolour paintings. Both have focused on Tjoritja (The West MacDonnell Ranges), their traditional land.

Exhibition opens: August 17, 2024
To receive the exhibition catalogue, please contact Aboriginal Contemporary Gallery

Experience the rich diversity of desert art and culture at the 31st Desert Mob in Mparntwe Alice Springs.

Now managed entirely by Aboriginal-led organisation Desart, the Desert Mob Exhibition presents hundreds of new artworks from emerging and established artists. If you’ve been looking for a beautiful piece to add to your collection, the works are available to purchase in-person at Araluen Arts Centre, and online HERE.

The trademark exhibition was curated by two Aboriginal women for the first time in the event’s history. Senior curator-at-large at the National Gallery in Canberra, Hetti Kemerre Perkins, and assistant manager of Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre Marisa Maher.

Pictured: Mervyn Rubuntja, Selma Coulthard, Dellina Inkamala and Vanessa Inkamala with the Iltja Ntjarra display at Desert Mob 2022.

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

Pmarra Nurna-kanha Ntarntarai – Care for our Country

The 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022)

When: March 12 – June 13 2022

Where: The Cutaway – Barangaroo, Sydney

Iltja Ntjarra Artists will feature in the Biennale of Sydney with an installation titled “Pmarra Nurna-kanha Ntarntarai – Care for our Country. The exhibition will launch to the public on March 12, at The Cutaway, Barangaroo.

Iltja Ntjarra’s project for the 23rd Biennale of Sydney is co-curated by Marisa Maher working closely with the Artistic Director and Curatorium of the 23rd Biennale of Sydney.

Participating artists: Mervyn Rubuntja, Selma Coulthard, Vanessa Inkamala, Clara Inkamala, Kathy Inkamala, Dellina Inkamala.

With support from: The 23rd Biennale of Sydney, The Australia Council for the Arts, Artback NT with funds from Northern Territory Regional Arts

Below: Vanessa Inkamala, AHEAD, recycled road sign

Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre has been working with the Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, and with artist Tom Nicholson, on a major project that tells the story of the Kuprilya pipeline.

The exhibition titled Kuprilya Kwatja Etatha will feature at the Art Gallery of South Australia from 15 October 2021 to 30 January 2022.

Albert Namatjira, in the early days of his painting life, before he met Rex Battarbee, made handmade Boomerangs and painted on them and did pokerwork on them. The boomerangs that Albert painted on told an important story of life at Hermannsburg. One of the most important of these boomerangs tells the story of the building of the pipeline from Kuprilya. This offered inspiration for the Kuprilya Kwatja Etatha exhibition.

Participating artists, visual arts – Dellina Inkamala, Benita Clements, Selma Coulthard, Kathy Inkamala, Reinhold Inkamala, Vanessa Inkamala, Hubert Pareroultja, Ivy Pareroultja, Mervyn Rubuntja, Betty Wheeler and Marcus Wheeler
Video work – Gloria Moketarinja

Tarnanthi will also hold an online art fair from October 15 to October 18. Head to the Tarnanthi Website for more details.

Hubert Pareroultja and Mervyn Rubuntja win the Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award (NATSIAA) with their work on silk  ‘Through the veil of time’ (2021).

Judge’s comments: ‘Hubert Pareroultja and Mervyn Rubuntja’s immersive work Through the veil of time transported the judging panel to the Central Desert, and allowed us to experience Country through the eyes of the Hermannsburg School. Traditionally small-scale watercolourists, we were excited to see the artists working collaboratively and scaling up the size of their work’.

Now in its 38th year, the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) are considered the most exciting and prestigious art awards for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, bringing together entries from established and emerging artists, and reflecting the incredible variety of artwork being created by artists all over the country.

Through the veil of time is now on show at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT).

This May Iltja Ntjarra artists will feature at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide!
Our exhibition opens on Thursday May 27th and will feature artists Mervyn Rubuntja, Hubert Pareroultja, Reinhold Inkamala, Benita Clements, Vanessa Inkamala, Kathy Inkamala, Betty Wheeler, Selma Coulthard and Clara Inkamala, alongside watercolours from the South Australian Museum’s collection.

If you are in Adelaide make sure to visit this special event!

Image above: Mervyn Rubuntja, The Ghan, Central Australia

Kutja Malla Manttara – Collecting (Bush foods) in cloths
RAFT artspace, Alice Springs
27 February – 20 March 2021
In partnership with the Batchelor Institute

Image curtesy of RAFT artspace. Photography by Martina Capurso