Aboriginal Art
in Australia
Aboriginal art is one of the world’s oldest living art traditions, spanning tens of thousands of years. The gallery has maintained a deep commitment to representing Aboriginal artists with scholarship and care since the late 1970s, placing significant works in major public and private collections throughout Australia and internationally.
Active since 1978
Boonwurrung Country
Art, Country and Culture
Aboriginal art is among the world’s oldest continuous artistic traditions, deeply connected to Country, Dreaming stories, and ceremonial life. It encompasses an extraordinary range of media, techniques and styles across hundreds of distinct language groups and communities, from the bark paintings of Arnhem Land to the acrylic canvases of the Western Desert, and the intricate fibre works of the Torres Strait Islands.
The map above identifies the principal regions and art centres from which the gallery sources work, together with the communities within each region. Each community has its own distinctive visual language, its own history of engagement with the broader art world, and its own protocols governing the making and distribution of art.
Arnhem Land & The Top End
Northern Australia is characterised by diverse topography, from forests, lagoons, rivers, mangroves, flood plains, rocky escarpments, coastline and islands. One of the most remarkable and substantial features is Arnhem Land, which is located in the Northern Territory bounded on the west by Kakadu National Park, the north by the Arafura Sea, the east by the Gulf of Carpentaria and in the south by the Roper River. It is a vast area covering nearly 100,000 square kilometres.
Desert Region
The centre of Australia is mostly desert landscape dominated in popular culture by Uluru (Ayers Rock). The desert region, which extends into Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, is varied, and punctuated by waterholes, lakes, areas of grasslands and mountainous regions, with Alice Springs as the geographical centre. By nature, much art of the desert was transient and ephemeral, created through iconographic markings in the sand and painted markings on the body for ceremonial purposes; the meanings of the often secret and sacred imagery is generally known only to those initiated.
The Kimberley
Covering West Australia’s ‘Top End’, the Kimberley region embraces an area over 400,000 square kilometres, taking in all the country north of the vast spaces of the Great Sandy and Tanami Deserts. Situated on the west coast is Broome, famed ‘Port of Pearls’; Derby, ‘Gateway to the Ranges’, which borders the eastern margin of King Sound. On the eastern margin of the Kimberley, from north to south are situated Wyndham, Kununurra, and Halls Creek, all a short distance from the Northern Territory border and the mighty Victoria River Basin.
Queensland & Torres Strait Islands
The region of Queensland is home to diverse Aboriginal communities and cultures that encompass hundreds of language groups. There are varied and dramatic environments, from the lush rainforest to low savannah, saltpans and mangrove deltas, with complex seasonal patterns. The colonial history of Queensland differs in many aspects to the rest of Australia, but it retains some of its most dire consequences: influenza, mining, pastorialism and ultimately, the death and displacement of Indigenous peoples. Despite this, many communities have retained their unique cultural and artistic traditions, including Lockhart River; 800 kilometres north of Cairns, and the Torres Strait Islands; between Cape York Peninsula and Papua New Guinea.
Enquire about Aboriginal Art
The gallery welcomes enquiries about specific artists, communities or works. We can advise on provenance, cultural context and placement, and are happy to assist both new and established collectors.