Tandanya marks 30 years with a return to Utopia for exhibition
30 years after its first exhibition, Tandanya has returned to the Utopia region of the NT where multiple generations of women from the same family continue to pass on their artistic tradition.
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Tandanya will mark 30 years of operation when it reopens this weekend with an exhibition which includes artists who were also part of its very first show.
Atnwengerrp – Our Apmere, Our Place features four generations of women artists from a small community in the Utopia region, 270km northeast of Alice Springs.
Emily Pwerle, now 97, and three other artists from the new show were also part of Tandanya’s opening exhibition Utopia – A Picture Story, which featured batik works on silk from the Robert Holmes a Court collection.
Pwerle’s niece Barbara Weir, 80, was among the first Aboriginal artists to win acclaim in Europe and said recognition of Aboriginal art had come a long way in 30 years, particularly within Australia.
“I started painting in ’88 … my work really went off in Europe and America. My first work that I sold was overseas,” Mrs Weir said.
Her granddaughter Jade Torres, 27, set up Pwerle Gallery to represent the artists in 2015, inspired by her father, respected Utopia art dealer Fred Torres.
“I watched him establish the family – he was there from the first moment they started painting and really took them global,” she said.
“The women in my life have been very influential.”
Ms Torres said it was “super critical for Tandanya to be around, and to continue to represent artists”.
“As an Aboriginal culture, as individuals, as artists, as organisations, we are really proud to see how much of an impact they have had on many, many communities,” she said.
Tandanya chief executive Dennis Stokes said its first 30 years of operation had been about “self-determination”.
“It still remains as the only national Aboriginal cultural institute in Australia,” he said. “Nobody is going to tell our stories better than we can.”
The Atnwengerrp exhibition is at Tandanya from October 3 to December 21.