Tharr yigin (Of mine, my story)

In July, Michael Reid Sydney will present the latest solo exhibition by senior Ngan’gikurrungurr artist, cultural leader and master weaver Regina Pilawuk Wilson. Titled Tharr yigin – meaning Of mine, my story in Marri Dan language – Wilson’s new series of vibrant, rhythmic and monumentally scaled paintings has arrived at our Eora/Sydney gallery and can be previewed by request and experienced in person by private appointment in the weeks leading up to her show’s official opening on Thursday, 9 July.

A seminal figure in the story of Australian First Nations art, Wilson co-founded the Peppimenarti Community in 1973, establishing a permanent settlement for Ngan’gikurrungurr people in the Daly River region of the Northern Territory, where she continues to practise while serving as Cultural Director of Durrmu Arts and inspiring an ascendant generation of artists. Since her defining triumph in the 2003 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Wilson has garnered numerous accolades. Most recently, she was named a finalist in the 2025 Sir John Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and this year’s Bayside Painting Prize, where her shortlisted work is currently on view.

A significant new chapter in her storied career, Tharr yigin (Of mine, my story) follows the recent acquisitions of Wilson’s paintings for the Australian Parliament House Art Collection in Canberra and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. These two prestigious accessions extend her longstanding presence in the permanent collections of important public and private institutions globally, including the British Museum, LACMA in Los Angeles and almost every major public gallery across Australia, including the National Gallery. The entry of her work into the Peabody Essex collection stemmed from her celebrated showing in Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin’s 2025 survey exhibition in Washington, D.C., for which the artist travelled with her family to the US capital and was received by then-Ambassador to the United States, the Honourable Dr Kevin Rudd AC.

“My grandfather, before European contact, used to make fish traps to put in the rivers and billabongs to catch fish, turtles and prawns,” says Wilson, reflecting on the generations-spanning weaving tradition that is the genesis for her wupun (sun mat) and syaw (fish net) paintings. “My sister said for me to put the design on 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 with the Western world, wakai.”

With her colour-soaked compositions on vast planes of Belgian linen, Wilson channels her mastery of this time-honoured weaving tradition into paint. Alive with rhythmic movement that unspools from a central axis in intricate, finely ribboning strokes, her works refer to the wupun (sun mats) traditionally woven with yerrgi (pandanus) and merrepen (sand palm) by the women of Peppimenarti. Wilson’s new solo exhibition is her first in more than 12 months and features some of her most ambitiously scaled paintings to date, revealing her mastery of colour with a previously unseen palette of warm and vivid pinks and oranges.

A major accomplishment in the career of one of the country’s greatest living artists, Tharr yigin will be accompanied by a companion exhibition at Michael Reid Northern Beaches that further speaks to her extraordinary legacy through a collection of paintings and fibre works from a new generation of artists at Durrmu Arts.

To request a preview, book a private viewing appointment or enquire about acquisitions, please email hughholm@michaelreid.com.au