Michael Reid Sydney welcomes the latest body of work by Kuninjku artist Owen Yalandja, the winner of the Telstra Bark Painting Award at the 2023 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

This exhibition pools a series of Yalandja’s carved Mimih figures alongside his intricate paintings on bark for a dazzling dive through the stories of the Ancestral female freshwater spirit, the yawkyawk. As a senior member of the Dangkorlo clan, Yalandja is a custodian of the sacred billabong where the mermaid-like yawkyawk spirits reside near his outstation, Barrihdjowkkeng.

“Yawkyawk is my Dreaming,” says Yalandja, who works at Maningrida Arts & Culture on Kunibídji country in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. “I love making these sculptures and I have invented a way to represent the fish scales on her body.”

Meticulously rendered, cascading water droplets play out alongside these shimmering scale effects, which Yalandja represents with the upsidedown v-chevron he developed while also applying the dotting style taught to him by his father, renowned artist Crusoe Kuningbal.

To register interest in Owen Yalandja, please email tobymeagher@michaelreid.com.au

Our winter exhibition program is anchored by an expansive exhibition of new paintings by Emily Cullinan and Vicki Yatjiki Cullinan – mother and daughter artists, both of whom work from Iwantja Arts in the rocky desert country of Indulkana Community on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytatjara Lands. Emily Cullinan and Vicki Yatjiki Cullinan are among the leading voices in one of the most dynamic, innovative and celebrated movements in contemporary First Nations painting.

One of the most senior women in her community, Emily Cullinan has been an integral part of the Iwantja art scene for many years and recently experienced a major breakthrough in her practice. Her vibrant paintings are inspired by memories of travelling vast distances on foot across APY Lands with her family.

Nganampa Ngura (Our Country) will have added resonance by placing Emily Cullinan’s work in dialogue with that of her daughter, Hadley’s Art Prize and Ravenswood Art Prize winner Vicki Yatjiki Cullinan, whose sublime perspectives of Indulkana Country are conjured via sweeps of deep red crested by rhythmic striations of purple.

All paintings from Nganampa Ngura (Our Country) by Emily Cullinan and Vicki Yatjiki Cullinan and be explored and acquired below. To discuss works from the exhibition with a gallery representative, please email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

Ever since Regina Pilawuk Wilson’s golden yellow Syaw (fishnet) won the General Painting Award at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2003, her elegantly structured paintings have quietly but unequivocally fixed her name on the contemporary art map.

Regina Pilawuk Wilson is now Australia’s most senior contemporary female First Nations artist, and is one at the height of her creative powers. Wilson is the matriarch of her community and is a softly spoken, major force in the Australian art world today.

Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin is honoured to work with Regina Wilson and her Community, which has for two decades produced significant and bright creative outcomes.

Deme ngayi ngebenderridu tyabuty ngayi nimbi apirri nimbi demewurity yedi syaw, danifityatit dirrperderr e kuderri e Elifala kana Kagu dininganmadi waniwirrfimeleli Kagu wukume nyinda wadi leli. Ngenikeh ngayi mengindi yemewurity kana ngan caliku dide, deme tyabuty nayin nimbi deme wurity yedi apirri nimbi. Ngayi kana ngarimpek ngaganim tyabuty ngayi nimbi syaw demewurity yedi, nyinimbi deme nyinin ngarifityat pupunyi kana, deme ngayi ngarifityat syaw, pupunyi ngeremwurity ngaganim. Deme ngayi napa deti. Ngangi tyamen napa minde ngangi awa yeyi wirrim.

My grandfather, before European contact, used to make lots of fish traps to put in the rivers and billabongs to catch fish, turtle and prawns. My sister said for me to put the design onto the canvas so I can tell the story about what our grandfather used to do and the syaw and pupunyi, now the story is owned by me through painting and weaving. To share the story to the western world, wakai.

-Regina Pilawuk Wilson, 2024

For assistance with an acquisition please contact tobymeagher@michaelreid.com.au