Across the vast and rugged expanses of Australia’s Central Desert, Aboriginal Peoples have long recorded their journeys with ritual songs. Over sandhills, along rock formations and salty lakes, in caves and on weathered sandstone mesas, women stop to take stock of their surroundings, to remember the land of their forebears, to honor their heritage. They are the dancers, singers and orators doing the critical work for their survival. Examining the earth’s floor all the way up to the galaxies, they assess their geographics, their water sources, what is edible, medicinal and forbidden of local plants and animals. Reveling in daylight travel and night constellations, their rhythm, their melodies are informed by a belief system that has coursed through time.

Painters have been essential in Aboriginal clans as they capture these ceremonies of song and movement by plotting symbols, landmarks and colors in meticulous mappings of past, present and future. The renderings are called “Dreamings,” and the lines, dots, circles, U-shapes, concentrics and rectangles depict age-old treks and current topography.

Our focus has been on Australia’s Central Desert, and this year we showcase the founders of Papunya’s modernist movements and some of their direct disciples. Giants among them are Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, two of the first Aboriginal artists to put acrylic on canvas and two Chairmans of the Papunya Tula Artists.  Possum’s strikingly detailed Dreamings enlivened generations to come. Tolson’s mesmerizing mix of color and form transcends the Central Desert with an unmistakably mid-century feel.

They mentored (and in some instances, parented) leading painters featured on our walls, We are proud to feature ​ Bambatu Campbell Napangardi’s woven ​paint, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi’s vivid perspective, Julie Nangala’s sinuous waterflow, Betty Mbitjana’s bold body design, William Sandy’s​ desert wildlife tracks; Nellie Marks Nakamarra’s​ balance of ​earth’s richest tones, and Timmy Payungka Tjapangati’s maze-like reductionist work.