McCulloch & McCulloch, Red Rock Art and Salt Contemporary Art present Lloyd Kwilla Jumuwarnti (Many Waterholes) [31.05.2010]
McCulloch & McCulloch, Red Rock Art and Salt Contemporary Art present Lloyd Kwilla: Jumuwarnti (Many Waterholes)
Opening drinks with the artist: Saturday 12 June 5.30 pm
In conversation: Lloyd Kwilla and Kununurra’s Red Rock Art director Kevin Kelly in conversation with Susan McCulloch Sunday 13 June 3.30 pm (Free event)
Exhibition concludes June 30 2010
Thirty-year-old Wangkajunga artist Lloyd Kwilla will travel from his East Kimberley home near the Kimberley hub town of Fitzroy Crossing to attend the opening of his first solo exhibition in Victoria at Queenscliff’s Salt Contemporary on the upcoming Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
Some of the greatest artists of the Aboriginal art movement have come from the varied and dramatic Kimberley region. All have used the ground ochres and pigments from its rich earth to provide a vibrant tapestry of palettes and texture for their signature art.
Lloyd Kwilla is both heir to this tradition and one of the region’s most notable rising stars.
Since this young artist started painting in 2003 with his father – leading painter, medicine man and former stockman Billy Thomas – his work has received hugely favourable response. Three successful solo exhibitions have included a sell-out exhibition in Darwin at the same time as the NATSIAA 2007 and in 2008 a fabulously successful showing in London at Rebecca Hossack Gallery that resulted in a sell-out show and almost 20 commissioned works.
Lloyd Kwilla’s works share the sensual richness of Thomas’s thickly applied ochres, yet possess his own highly distinctive style. Many works are characterised by a strong rhythmic quality, rarely seen in the medium of ochre in which swirls of browns, charcoals, blacks and greys meander, in gently curved lines like a river cutting through sandy soil, linking to waterhole sites.
Having spent his whole life in this country, Kwilla knows both its grandeur and intricacies intimately and portrays these with increasing surety.
Now, for this, his first solo exhibition in Victoria, Kwilla has created an entirely new and fresh body of work under the theme jumuwarnti (many waterholes). Each of these 12 works offers an entirely fresh perspective on this classic theme. They comprise works of impressive scale and intricate mapping as well as those of breathtaking minimalism, reminiscent of the spatial qualities of master Kimberley artists Freddie Timms and Paddy Bedford. In each, Kwilla retains both his own distinctive iconography and subtle crafting of distinctive natural pigments.
Accompanying this major solo show is a select showing of new works by master Kimberley artist Freddie Timms.
SALT CONTEMPORARY ART
33-35 Hesse Street Queenscliff Victoria 3225
Phone: (03) 5258 3988 Email: info@saltcontemporaryart.com
