Happy New Year!

It has been an incredibly exciting 2007 at aboriginal art collection. We opened the gallery, launched our website, held our first exhibition, and just recently moved into our new premises in the River North gallery district. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to bringing you more special exhibitions and work from Australia's greatest indigenous artists again in 2008.

WE HAVE MOVED!

We are excited to announce that aboriginal art collection has moved to a permanent gallery space at the River North gallery district, on the 3rd Floor of the Gruen Galleries Building, 226 West Superior Chicago, IL 60610.

The gallery is now open Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 5pm, and Saturday from 11am to 6pm. All other viewing times are by appointment. Please come and see us at our new space and view our complete collection of paintings.

NEW IN THE GALLERY

We have a number of new paintings on offer. Below are some featured artists whose works have been acknowledged with major awards, institutional collections and record breaking prices. We have added a new page to our website to allow you to easily view new artworks on offer at the gallery. Please visit our website for further details or contact us by email for further images.

Gloria Petyarre (c. 1938)

Gloria Petyarre is a dynamic force in Australian art. Throughout her career, Gloria has been an ambassador for the art in her region (Utopia) and her highly innovative and direct style has placed her in a unique position within the Contemporary Aboriginal art movement.

A multi-award winner, in 1999 Gloria won the prestigious Wynne Landscape Prize and has been selected as a finalist four times since, which reaffirms her position as one of the most talented and well-known Aboriginal artists. Her work has featured many times in the most important Aboriginal art prize in the country, the “Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Art Award in Darwin.

She first gained recognition as an artist working in the medium of batik, exhibiting with the Utopia women in shows around Australia and abroad for a decade (1977-87) before taking up the medium of canvas, painting her first work for CAAMA's Summer Project exhibition. In 1990 she travelled to Ireland, London and India as a representative of the Utopia women, accompanying the Utopia: A Picture Story exhibition (Tandanya, Adelaide, The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin Ireland, and Meat Market Gallery, Melbourne, 1991). In 1991 she had her first solo exhibition at Utopia Arts in Sydney.

Her work is based on the body paint designs for her Dreamings, at first showing clearly the designs painted across the women's breasts and shoulders in the ceremony. Since those early highly distinctive works, she has developed her painting to higher levels of abstraction, continually experimenting with line and color. She says she prefers the greater freedom and control she finds with the medium of acrylic on canvas. Several of the works in her solo exhibition had no dots at all, but bands of brilliant color whose optical effects have evoked comparisons with the British artist Bridget Riley.

Gloria's work features on the cover of The Art of Utopia (Michael Boulter), and has been included in major survey and solo exhibitions in Australia and internationally. Gloria’s record at auction was also topped in November 2007 for Bush Medicine 2004, which brought A$78,000 against an estimate of A$40,000 - A$60,000.

Kathleen Petyarre (c.1930)

Kathleen has been claimed to be one of Utopia’s best loved painters, with a distinctive style that stands out for its simplicity, elegance and refined detail. Also employing a fine dotting technique, Kathleen paints her Mountain Devil Lizard and Bush Seed Dreaming. In 1996 Kathleen won the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award which catapulted her onto the established art market arena. Her auction record was set in 2005 at $47,800.

Jeannie Petyarre (c. 1957)

Jeannie Petyarre comes from a long line of artists and is the cousin of the famous artist, Gloria Petyarre. Jeannie is a highly talented artist who captures the spirit and soul of her culture.

In the early 1980s Jeannie was introduced to the art of Batik and took up painting on canvas in the 1990s when this art movement swept through Utopia. Utopia is some 300kms north-east of Alice Springs. The painting style from this area is commonly described as 'central desert' painting and is one of the most famous Australian Aboriginal painting groups in the world.

Jeannie has participated in a number of exhibitions across Australia and internationally and her work is included in museum and private collections.

Gloria Petyarre Medicine Leave Acrylic on linen 35in x 47in enquire	Kathleen Petyarre Bush Seed Dreaming Acrylic on Linen 35in x 47in enquire	Jeannie Petyarre Bush Medicine Dreaming Acrylic on Canvas 59in x 35in enquire

ABORIGINAL ART MARKET GAINS INTERNATIONAL MOMENTUM

In a recent article from the Australian Art Review, Matthew Smith notes that “Aboriginal women artists creating abstract works are beginning to attract attention in the USA, in spite of a lack of exhibition opportunities. Matthew specifically comments that artists such as Dorothy Napangardi and Gloria Petyarre from the Utopia region “… are breaking new ground and beginning to demand high prices for their works in America. Such female artists “…are rising to the top of the next generation of Aboriginal artists coming out of Australia (online article ‘Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Artists Dazzle’, October 2007)

The National Gallery of Australia this year also launched the opening of Australia’s inaugural National Indigenous Art Triennial on October 13, a further testament to the growth and importance of the Indigenous art market. This year’s theme, “Cultural Warriors demonstrates the incredible range of contemporary Indigenous art practice and is the largest survey show of Indigenous art at the Gallery in more than fifteen years.

On January 15, 2008 the contemporary Aboriginal art exhibition, Our Way, Contemporary Aboriginal Art, will open at the Kluge-Ruhe Museum Collection at the University of Virginia. The groundbreaking travelling exhibition includes works which confront and break down long-held stereotypes about Aboriginal culture. In a mark of its importance to the promotion of contemporary Indigenous art, the exhibition is supported by both the Queensland and Australian governments. aboriginal art collection will be hosting an exhibition of works from the Lockhart River Art Gang in 2008. Please email us for further information.

Web: http://www.aboriginalartcollection.com/
Email: info@aboriginalartcollection.com
Phone: (312) 573 2063
Cell: (312) 479 2576
Gallery: 226 W. Superior St, 3rd Floor, Chicago (Mon-Fri: 11am to 5pm, Sat: 11am to 6pm)

© Copyright 2007 Aboriginal Art Collection
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