Utopia Art Sydney coming to Kangaroo Valley
As part of Visual Arts in the Valley 2022, perhaps the best-known Aboriginal art gallery in the nation, Utopia Art Sydney, will open a Satellite Gallery at The Hive KV, 170 Moss Vale Road, Kangaroo Valley, over the October long-weekend – Friday 30 September through Monday 3 October.
Entitled Always Was and Always Will Be, the show, selected by the renowned curator, Christopher Hodges, will feature indigenous and non-indigenous artists side by side on equal terms. As Hodges says in his introduction, “Looking at landscape in the 21st Century – the view has changed. While once western artists focused on the vista, indigenous artists have taught us to look deeper and to understand their perspective of what the land means to them… This exhibition gathers together a group of artists who all share a love of the land that inspires them.”
There is a very strong indigenous component for Papunya Tula Artists of the central western desert. Featured recently in a major retrospective at the SH Ervin Gallery in Sydney, Papunya Tula Artists have just celebrated their 50th anniversary. Included in this show are stunning pieces by Joseph Jurra Tjapaltjarri, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa and Bobby West Tjupurrula, all represented in the AGNSW Collection and widely sought after by collectors, together with a number of other established and emerging Papunya Tula Artists.
Others in the show include John R Walker who has just had a large painting reserved for the National Gallery of Australia. Angus Nivison recently completed a great show at the New England Regional Art Museum with a solo show at Utopia in October. David Aspden’s little works were just discovered in the Estate Archive. And the Art Gallery of South Australia has just taken delivery of a major sculpture by Kylie Stillman.
There will be a good range of high-quality work; a feast for the eyes and the imagination; something for everybody.
Gary Moore
Director – Visual Arts in the Valley 2022