Deme Ngayi Kinyi

Deme ngagurr apirri nimbi kunikuni yedityerrmusye werrme wurity wadi kanbi yawul. Wani pek ngugnuni syaw palamundi adawayiir wuyse warrgadi walipan. Awapurrpurrk ngagurr kana ngarimbirr fi me tyat deme ngangi nginin deme apirri nimbi. Awa mabud filmi yedi asa purrpurrk werrme wurity.

Our hands long ago; old people used to make painting, bark painting, fish net, clapping sticks, headbands, dillybags; we teach our younger generations what our old people taught us. Many hands we join as one community.

– Regina Pilawuk Wilson

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 Aboriginal 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. Her relevance and the power of her work only continue to grow; influence that is affirmed by the artist’s participation in two major art museum exhibitions in the next 12 months.

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 Kinyi was Regina Pilawuk Wilson’s largest solo exhibition with Michael Reid Sydney, and is the first to exhibit on our Chippendale gallery premises.