November 2023
To celebrate the acquisition of Billy Bain’s artwork ‘Blak men can’t surf,’ Artbank has invited Darug artist Billy Bain to curate their Sydney Window. Bain’s arts practice challenges ideas around social, political and cultural representations of Australian identity. His work often references Australian surf culture, using humour to question the stereotypes that much of this nationalistic iconography is built on. With a practice that spans ceramic sculpture, oil painting, etchings and installations, Bain creates new narratives that discuss a contemporary idea of what it means to be a young Indigenous person in Australia today. Join the artist at Artbank in Sydney together with senior curator Oliver Watts on Thursday November 30 to celebrate. Further details here
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Billy Bain has been awarded the 2023 FBi SMAC Award winner for Artist Of The Year. A contemporary indigenous artist working in both 2D and 3D, Bain’s practice is informed by personal experiences of conflicted cultural duality as a Darug man, presenting us an opportunity to decolonise spaces and question representations of so-called Australianness. Further details here
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Congratulations to Kate Stevens who has been awarded the 2023 Portia Geach Memorial Award, for her painting titled ‘The Whistleblower’, a portrait of David McBride who is facing trial this month over the alleged leak of documents to the ABC that formed the basis of its “Afghan Files” investigation about potential war crimes by Australian soldiers.
From the Sydney Morning Herald: Stevens, who also won the richest annual portrait prize for women in 2011, said that “The timing is brilliant. With David’s trial date set for November, the first Australian facing prison time in relation to war crimes [potentially] committed by Australia’s Special Forces in Afghanistan, is the whistleblower brave enough to speak out. Australia needs to do more to protect our whistleblowers so that uncomfortable truths continue to be revealed and the powerful are held to account. David is being prosecuted, and we should all care about what he did and thank him,” Stevens said in accepting the award.
Read the full Sydney Morning Herald article here
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Blackartprojects will be showcasing Betty Campbell at the upcoming 2024 Melbourne Art Fair. Betty Campbell has lived her entire life in Mimili, South Australia. She grew up on Everard Park station, where her father mustered cattle, and spent her days out bush with her sisters. They would often walk out to Paralpi/Victory Well, the location depicted in this work. ‘Ngayuku canvas minymaku inma kanyini,’ says Campbell, detailing that her work holds women’s story and inma (song and dance). A lot of this story is secret, only to be known by initiated women; however, there are some storylines that can be celebrated by all. Campbell paints the kulpi tjuṯa (many caves), tjukurla tjuṯa (many rock holes) and karu tjuṯa (many riverbeds) that spread across Paralpi. As a senior cultural leader of Mimili, she recognises the importance of taking young people to Paralpi to camp and dance inma, to learn and keep tjukurpa kunpu (strong).
Image: Betty Campbell on Country, courtesy of the artist and Mimili Maku Arts.
October 2023
Congratulations to Robert Fielding who has been announced as one of the finalists of the 2023 Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize at the Bendigo Art Gallery. The exhibition will be on display from 25 November 2023 until 18 February 2024. Further details here
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Robert Fielding delivered a keynote address at the official public launch of Tarnanthi Festival at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
‘Our future was never yes or no, it is not black or white, this way or that way.
This year has demanded every bit of energy and spirit our communities have, and still we bring you this exhibition [Tarnanthi]. Still we keep our communities together, still we look to the future, still we rise...
This journey is never over. We don’t go home saying: Oh well, we tried. We don’t go home to our families and give up. We can’t.
We keep walking the routes carved out by our Elders. We keep pushing for a better future. Malatja-malatjaku. [For those who come after.]
And we do it together – with you… We are all in this together, and we shall continue to rise – together.
Now, let’s celebrate the rising of Tarnanthi. Palya [Good].'
- Robert Fielding, keynote address Tarnanthi Opening, 2023
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Congratulations to Bettie Campbell who has been announced as one of the finalists of the 2023 Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize at the Bendigo Art Gallery. The exhibition will be on display from 25 November 2023 until 18 February 2024. Further details here
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Congratulations to Amala Groom, who was announced the recipient of the Moonee Valley Mayoral Award for her artwork 'Found'. The exhibition runs to 19 November, 2023 at the Incinerator Gallery, Aberfeldie, Naarm / Melbourne. Further details here
Image: Robert Field, Tarnanthi opening address, courtesy of Art Gallery of South Australia. Photo: MIchael Jalaru Torres
July 2023
Wiradyuri conceptual arts and cultural practitioner Amala Groom will present her durational work RED TAPE, where Groom corporeally negotiates the bureaucracy of the imposition of third-dimensional reality on her spiritual and physical bodies by singing a song in Wiradyuri, wrapping herself in 44 rolls of red electrical tape and then jumping through a hoop.
Co-curated by Samantha Watson-Wood and Katie Winten, Performance Contemporary presents a diverse program of experimental and ephemeral performance works by some of Sydney’s most exciting contemporary artists at the Sydney Contemporary. Artists in the 2023 program use the body as a medium to explore key social, cultural and political ideas. Sydney Contemporary runs 9-12 September at Carriageworks, New South Wales. Further details here
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Amala Groom has been announced a finalist in the 2023 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. The acquisitive prize celebrates and explores the full potential of the small sculpture format, and remains a cherished program of the Woollahra Municipal Council. The exhibition of finalists will run 27 September to 5 November at the Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Sydney. Further details here
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Amala Groom has been announced a finalist in the Incinerator Art Award 2023, a nationally recognised exhibition dedicated to the theme of Art for Social Change. The exhibition will run from 6 October - 19 November at the Incinerator Gallery, Aberfeldie, Victoria. Further details here
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Billy Bain has been announced a 2023-2025 Artist in Residence at Parramatta Artists’ Studios in Rydalmere, New South Wales. Further details here
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Tristan Chant has been announced a finalist in the 2023 Waverley Art Prize in Bondi, Sydney. Established in 1986 and open to painting, drawing, print and mixed media from emerging and mid-career artists, the finalist exhibition will be held at Bondi Pavilion from June 30 to August 13. Further details here
Image: Amala Groom, Red Tape, 2016, durational performance, approx 15 min Documentation: Sam Whiteside and Leslie Liu
June 2023
In Changing Tides, airing on ABC for Compass this Sunday 2 July, surfer, artist and Dharug man Billy Bain takes us on an immersive road trip along Australia’s iconic eastern coastline to capture the shifting conversation on our nation’s path. Heading north we face the truths of our frontier injustices, while witnessing Saltwater Peoples reclaiming culture, community, and Country. Further details here
Available for viewing on ABC’s iview here
Image: Surfer, artist and Dharug man Billy Bain grew up on Garigal country where the Pacific Ocean meets the Hawkesbury River and says he's always felt a deep connection to the ocean. (ABC Matt Davis)
May 2023
We are delighted to announce the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s acquisition of Robert Fielding’s work Nganampa Manta (Our Country) from his recent exhibition Nganampa Tjukurpa. This is the first of Fielding’s work to enter the collection, and will be installed in the rehang of the gallery’s permanent collection later in 2023. Visit the Art Gallery of Ballarat here
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Tristan Chant has been announced a finalist in the 2023 Nilumbik Prize for Contemporary Art, awarded every two years to emerging and established artists working in any medium across Australia. The exhibition runs to 11 June at the Barn Gallery, Montsalvat, Victoria. Further details here
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Guest curated by David Hagger, Iwara (Pitjantjatjara for ‘tracks’) is a survey exhibition spanning a decade of Robert Fielding’s practice, currently on show at Wyndham Art Gallery. It extracts works from his oeuvre that illustrate the breadth of his capacity as creator and narrator, giving light to the reason he has exhibited widely in state, national and international galleries and institutions. The exhibition runs to 30 July, with a curator floor talk being held on Saturday 22 July from 2:00-4:00pm. A video walk through of the exhibition can be found here
Image: Robert Fielding, Nganampa Manta (Our Country), installation view, May 2023. Photo courtesy of David Hagger.
April 2023
Congratulations to Billy Bain, announced a finalist in both the Sulman and Wynne Prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Bain’s practice unpacks and challenges presumptions of Australian Identity, subverting and humouring Australia’s colonial iconographies and narratives. This is the first time Bain has entered the prizes. Further details here and here
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Robbie Rowlands’ Responding is a permanent public artwork for the Great Victorian Rail Trail Art Installation Project. The $1.2M project, funded by the State Government’s Regional Tourism Investment Fund, is a joint project between Mitchell, Murrindindi and Mansfield Shire Councils that aims to increase trail usage by attracting visitors to the region and providing local economic benefit. It features seven large artworks and a series of smaller works along the length of the 134km rail trail.
Responding consists of a 39m mobile phone tower that gracefully arches over the rail trail. In their usual display, phone towers sit at heights well above the landscape or our built environments. Here, the tower appears animated, falling close to the ground as if bowing to meet us. In this way, the technological function of transmission – of receiving and responding to signals – becomes a personal interaction between the viewer, the artwork and the landscape. With its slender taper and gentle curve, the tower appears more organic than industrial, like a stalk of field grass with its long, thin signal panels mimicking seed pods fraying at their tips.
Further details and video footage here
Image: Robbie Rowlands, Responding, April 2023. Photo courtesy of Nigel Karikari.
December 2022
To all of the artists, collaborators, collectors, curators and institutions who have supported Blackartprojects throughout 2022, we thank you and wish you a safe and happy holiday season.
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Robert Fielding will present his new video project Milpatjunanyi as part of The National 4: Australian Art Now. The biennial survey of contemporary art showcases work being made across the country by artists of different generations and cultural backgrounds. The National is a partnership between four of Sydney’s leading cultural institutions, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Carriageworks and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia). The 2023 edition will be curated by Beatrice Gralton at the Art Gallery of NSW; Emily Rolfe at Campbelltown Arts Centre; Freja Carmichael and Aarna Fitzgerald Hanley at Carriageworks; and Jane Devery at the MCA Australia. Further details here
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Amala Groom and Robert Fielding have been selected to take part in the inaugural Bunurong Fieldwork Residency at McClelland. The residency program aims to develop the artists’ skills and capacity in public art, and to deliver major creative outcomes. Groom and Fielding will stay at McClelland’s studio cottage over a period of six to twelve weeks during 2023, developing detailed concept proposals for a permanent site-specific public artwork. Panel judge Tina Baum said the residency is an important two-fold opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists to not only engage with the local Mayone-bulluk clan in Bunurong Country but also to develop their skills and understanding of public arts. Further details here
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Amala Groom has been announced a recipient of the Create NSW Visual Arts Commissioning Program for her work THE THE. The project will support the regional development and production with multiple domestic presentations of THE THE, a new moving image work in Groom's Raised by Wolves series for future presentation at Sydney Contemporary, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and Cementa Contemporary Arts Festival.
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Amala Groom has been announced a finalist of the inaugural Mudgee Arts Precinct Portrait Prize for 2022. Further details here
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Amala Groom has been announced a recipient of the 2023 Platform LAB residency. Platform LAB champions the creative development process of artists across diverse disciplines and at all stages of career. This tailored residency program supports participating artists to experiment with new methodologies, undertake research, grow their professional practice and contribute to contemporary dialogues. Further details here
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Amala Groom has been announced a finalist of the Blacktown City Art Prize, a showcase of work from emerging and established artists from Blacktown, western Sydney and across Australia. The exhibition runs 10 January to 17 February 2023 at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre. Further details here
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Amala Groom and Tristan Chant have been announced finalists of the 2023 Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art (NPCA), awarded every two years. The 2023 NPCA exhibition will feature artworks from all the finalists and will be held at the Barn Gallery, Montsalvat from 21 April to 11 June 2023. Further details here
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Tristan Chant has been included in the final exhibition of the year by Res Artis in Glasshouse Street, Collingwood, Victoria. The exhibition celebrates the collection of benefactors Michael Schwarz and David Clouston and closes 23 December.
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Blackartprojects returns in 2023 with projects by David Booth, Ellie Chalmers-Robinson, Tristan Chant, Robert Fielding, Amala Groom, Nicholas Ives, Robbie Rowlands and Beth Thornber.
Image: Amala Groom at Parramatta Artists Studios Rydalmere, 2022 Photo credit: Jacquie Manning
November 2022
Robert Fielding has been included in the 2022 Bangkok Art Biennale, CHAOS : CALM, as part of the Ngura Pulka project, supported by the APY Collective. Over the past three years, senior artists have worked together to create paintings that celebrate their Country and the powerful Tjukurpa that lies within. The biennale runs 22 October 2022 - 23 February 2023. Further details here
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Mia Boe has been included in the second edition of the ground-breaking exhibition Melbourne Now, presented at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from March 2023. Bold in scope and scale, the exhibition highlights the extraordinary work of more than 200 Victorian-based artists, designers, studios and firms whose practices are shaping the cultural landscape of Melbourne and Victoria. Further details here
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David Booth’s Harri High Pants returns as the lead artwork for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for 2023 program. The smiling icon reached a global audience across banners, posters, signage, festival guides and all digital platforms for the 2022 program. Further details here
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Robert Fielding’s recently acquired photographic series Mayatjara are current on show at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia on Ngunnawal country in Canberra.
Image: Robert Fielding © Meg Hansen and Mimili Maku Arts
October 2022
Robert Fielding has been announced a finalist in the 2022 Bowness Prize. His finalist work Manta miil-miilpa (sacred earth) has a complex and intertwined relationship with the spirit of the land. “My work responds to the natural elements to create an expressive underpainting of colour in a dance between myself and the country upon which I work”. The exhibition runs 29 September - 13 November, 2022 at Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne. Further details here
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Amala Groom has been announced a finalist in the 2022 Paddington Art Prize. Groom notes her work is “an intervention into McCubbin's staged 1886 work 'Lost', demonstrating the practice of self-sovereignty as a rally to the emblematic colonial 'picture of innocence' figure in 'perilous happenstance' to take a second glance at third space salvation.” The exhibition of national finalists runs 27 October - 6 November, 2022. Further details here
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Amala Groom has been announced a finalist in the 2022 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. The exhibition of runs 13 October - 20 November, 2022. Further details here
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Kate Stevens and Tristan Chant have been announced finalists of the 2022 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Stevens with a work painted from BBC News drone footage of Aleppo, Syria filmed in 2017 and Chant with a powerful and confronting screen print. The exhibition runs 29 October - 9 December, 2022 at Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney. Further details here
Image: Installation view, Bowness Photography Prize featuring artwork by Jesse Marlow, Petrina Hicks, Robert Fielding, Janet Laurence and David Stephenson, Monash Gallery of Art, 2022 Photo: Andrew Curtis
May 2022
We are pleased to announce that Mayatjara, Robert Fielding’s series of 24 photographs of Elders of the APY community has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. This is a significant moment for the artist, for the gallery, and for future generations. For their annual appeal, Karen Quinlan AM, Director of the NPG noted, “This year, the National Portrait Gallery invites you to contribute to the best of contemporary photographic portraiture. We are committed to the acquisition of works such as this compelling group of significant portraits by photographer Robert Fielding. The series captures Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Traditional Owners and custodians, respected and significant leaders, advocates and artists within the communities of the APY Lands. Their representation in the national portrait collection contributes to the Gallery’s aim of establishing itself as a space for promoting understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories and ongoing cultures and their centrality to our shared national culture and identity. We are delighted to have the opportunity to bring these works into the collection, and we look forward to presenting the entire series of 24 beautifully realised photographic portraits.” Further details here.
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Robert Fielding’s Miil-miilpa series is currently on display in the 2022 National Photography Prize at Murray Art Museum Albury. “This series of photographs has been created as a collaboration with manta, at one with country, in the landscape and informed by natural influence. Using a UV-sensitive chemical process I have exposed snapshots of the sacred land within its very sands. We all need to recognise: this land is sacred. Manta (earth) is sacred. It holds our ancestors, and will hold us one day. Manta miil-miilpa. These images mirror the living essence that is inside of us all.” The exhibition runs to 5 June 2022. Further details here.
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Robert Fielding’s Holden On (2021–22) is presented on a pontoon on Lake Burley Griffin for the duration of the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony at the National Gallery of Australia. The artificial lake was created in 1963 through the damming of the Molonglo River, which resulted in the flooding and destruction of an important ceremonial ground near the current National Museum of Australia. The strategic positioning of his artwork comments on the annexing of Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country to create Kamberri/Canberra, the seat of colonial political power in this country. For Fielding, the work speaks to the endurance and evolution of First Nations people. The exhibition runs to 31 July 2022. Further details here.
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Robert Fielding’s In your hands (2016) is now on display as part of Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection, an exhibition of work that spans historical eras and diverse media including painting, drawing, photography, decorative arts, fashion, video, sculpture, and design and explores queerness as an expression of sexuality and gender, a political movement, a sensibility, and as an attitude that defies fixed definition. The exhibition runs to 28 August. Further details here.
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David Booth celebrated the opening of his exhibition Set Adrift on Garden Bliss at St Heliers Gallery at the Abbotsford Convent this past weekend. Thank you to all those who joined us for the afternoon. The exhibition runs through to 19 June and the catalogue can be accessed via our website here.
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Mia Boe’s painting Friction with Nature (2022) has been acquired by Artbank. As part of their Salon Sessions in mid May, guests of Artbank Melbourne heard from Boe and Nabilah Nordin in conversation with Amelia Winata.
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Mia Boe is currently exhibiting in Making Place: 100 Views of Brisbane, a presentation of more than 100 historical and contemporary depictions of the Brisbane region from Museum of Brisbane Collection. The exhibition runs to 31 July at Museum of Brisbane. Further details here.
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Mia Boe is currently exhibiting in While You Were Sleeping Volume 2, a showcase of contemporary First Nations artists from multi-disciplinary backgrounds including street art, fine art, photography, illustration, digital, sculpture, film and more. The exhibition runs to 31 July at Ambush Gallery, Canberra. Further details here.
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Having presented his latest body of work Titans across two gallery spaces through April and May, Tristan Chant presented new tapestry and collage works in the group show WAREHOUSE from 19-21 May. Housed in an old warehouse adjacent to the Authority Creative studios the exhibition brought together four bodies of work by the artists which exemplify their love for materiality, process and experimentation. Documentation of Chant’s work can be found here.
Image: Robert Fielding, Western Arrernte and Yankunytjatjara peoples, Holden On, 2021-22, installation view, commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony, image courtesy and © the artist