Streets of Papunya

Overview

This ambitious exhibition at UNSW Galleries will showcase the rising stars of the Papunya Tjupi Arts Centre. Focusing on a group of women artists from the Western Desert, Streets of Papunya presents a history of the Papunya art movement — often seen as the generating force of contemporary of Aboriginal art.

Curated by eminent scholar Vivien Johnson, the show aims to get Sydney up to speed on a painting renaissance that has been unfolding in Central Australia. Using short films and documentary footage to fill in socio-political context, the exhibition travels from the final paintings of Albert Namatjira produced during the 1950s, through dire poverty and the rampant spread of disease during the 1960s and '70s, to arrive at a 21st-century resurgence of Papunya paintings.

Streets of Papunya will be shown in associated with Johnson’s book launch of the same name. Both the historical journey and artistic evolution of this movement invokes the deep power of community and ancestral connections in Central Australia.