Yawkyawk

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