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.