Melbourne Art Fair 2026 | Gaypalani Wanambi

The first Melbourne Art Fair showing for celebrated Yolŋu artist Gaypalani Wanambi follows her historic triumph at the 2025 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), where she received the highest accolade bestowed by Australia’s most prestigious First Nations art prize for her multi-panelled work Burwu, blossom – a tessellating installation of reclaimed road signs dazzlingly reimagined with intricately etched depictions of the epic Ancestral journeys of Wuyal.

Wanambi’s presence at Australia’s longest-running art fair will see her match the monumentality of her earlier, prize-winning work with a new suite of composite etched-metal artworks realised on an equally breathtaking scale.

Working with Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre at Yirrkala in Northeast Arnhem Land, Wanambi is the leading female practitioner within the Found Movement – in which salvaged metal road signs recovered on Country are reimagined as raw material for extraordinary works of art – a practice that carries forward the legacy of her pioneering father, the renowned artist Mr Wanambi (1962–2022).

To request a preview catalogue and secure early acquisitions, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au