ArtX Contemporary is proud to present THIS LAND IS ME, an exhibition of contemporary paintings from the world’s oldest continuous culture. Featuring Janice Stanley (Ernabella Arts/APY Lands), Debbie Napaltjarri Brown (Nyirripi), Kurun Warun (Gunditjmara), and more, the exhibition explores the inseparable relationship between Australia’s Indigenous inhabitants and stunning natural landscapes, sharing their Country’s stories through this evolving art form.

An Indigenous Australian person’s culture and their art are intimately linked to their Country and to the stories passed down from one generation to another. It is their Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) which is not a metaphor – it really exists. The primary task of Aboriginal art – be it on modern canvas or executed traditionally (ground paintings, body paintings, petroglyphs) is to express ongoing myth and belief as part of ritual, in forms coming from the distant past.

Janice Stanley is the third generation of Stanley women to create artwork at Ernabella Arts. Her grandmother is a founding artist and traditional healer Tjariya Stanley and her aunts are senior artists Alison Milyika Carroll and Renita Stanley.

In her paintings, Stanley depicts the Pantu (salt-lake) near Attila (Mt. Connor), a landmark in the Seven Sisters story which is a significant tjurkurpa (dreaming) to Anangu Aboriginal people. This story has been passed down to her by her Aunt Renita Stanley. In this part of the story, the sisters are traveling south through the arid country creating landforms in their wake. The Salt Lake comes alive after rain. As the kapi (water) moves across the land it transforms the color and light on the land and Stanley is painting this change and movement.

Debbie Napaltjarri Brown is from Nyirripi in the Northern Territory, an Aboriginal community 400 kilometers northwest of Alice Springs. In 2012 she moved to Yuendumu, 160 kilometers east of Nyirripi with her husband and son. Debbie has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art center located in Yuendumu, since 2006. The sand hills of the central deserts of Australia, which run from east to west for hundreds of kilometers, are one of the predominant landform features in this region.

Brown's Grandmother, Margaret Napangardi Brown, also an artist with the art center, taught her to paint. Debbie would watch her grandmother and grandfather paint and listen to her Grandmother’s Tjukurrpa. In her paintings, Debbie paints her father’s Tjukurrpa, which relates directly to her land, its features, plants, and animals. These stories were passed down by her grandmother and her mother, and their parents before them, for millennia.

Kurun Warun is an Australian artist and musician who paints living culture & elements of Aboriginal stories. His name means ‘Hissing Swan’ and he is a member of the indigenous Guntijamara people, and a descendant of the Truganini family line of the Tasmanian indigenous queen.

Warun creates artworks that are expansive and capture the rhythms of the land and waterways where indigenous people have lived, cultivated, and hunted for thousands of years. Through his use of bold colors, graphic lines, and space we are led through an underlying story of sacred land and deep culture. Warun’s style is inspired by natural elements such as the dust from the earth, rivers and stones, the sea and its creatures. Mentored by his mother, his paintings tell stories of his childhood and of his own children. With an appreciation for his heritage, he feels tremendous joy in teaching his children and passing down this tradition. In addition to his unique style of painting, Warun is also well known for his talent as a didgeridoo musician. He expresses his culture through art and music and has won international acclaim and recognition in both these fields. His paintings are held in the collections of Cambridge University, UK; the Embassy of the Netherlands in Australia; and ABN AMRO Bank, among many others.