December 3, 2026 – January 23, 2027
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website/content may contain images and names of deceased persons.
ArtX Contemporary is proud to present Across Time and Terrain a group exhibition exploring the enduring relationships between Indigenous Australian artists and the natural world. The exhibition brings together works by renowned masters of earlier generations, such as Kudditji Kngwarreye, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, and Mitjili Napurrula and notable contemporary artists including Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarreye, Djirrirra Wunuŋmurra and Kurun Warun. Together, the collection explores the diversity of artistic expression inspired by Australia’s landscapes and waterways.
From the expansive deserts of Central Australia to the rivers and coastal environments of the continent’s north, this collection of artworks explores ways the natural world shapes Indigenous Australian artistic practice. Some works are created with earth ochres, natural pigments drawn directly from the land, while others use vivid color, intricate patterns, and symbolic forms to evoke landscapes, waterways, and the plants and animals that inhabit them.
Among the exhibition’s highlights are two My Country paintings by the late Kudditji Kngwarreye, whose distinctive fields of bold color capture his connection to the Central Australian landscape through a deeply personal form of abstraction. Gija artist Shirley Purdie’s Shirley’s Country Near Norton Bore takes a different approach, using natural earth ochres to depict a landscape connected to her heritage, bringing the materials of the land directly into her painting.
The exhibition also features intricate designs etched into repurposed metal road signs by Yolŋu artists Djirrirra Wunuŋmurra and Wanapati Yunupingu. Wunuŋmurra’s Buyku (Fishtrap) works reference traditional fishing practices and fish-trap construction, while Yunupingu’s Wankurra (Bandicoot) draws on ancestral stories of the Gumatj clan. Animals play important roles in many Aboriginal Australian cultural traditions, often appearing as ancestral beings whose stories connect people to the land and natural world.
Spanning both geographical distance and decades of artistic expression, Across Time and Terrain reflects the diversity and vitality of Aboriginal Australian art. From natural earth pigments to reclaimed metal, the exhibition showcases how artists continue to express their relationships with land, water, and the cultural traditions that connect them.
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