Page 26 - Annual Review 2008
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REwARdS
'Albert Namatjira painted not so
much what he saw but what
he felt inside.'
Archie Roach
Gunybi Ganambarr was awarded the Xstrata
Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award 2008 for his
stunning contemporary interpretation of the tradition
of bark painting. Ganambarr, of the Ngaymil people
of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, was
awarded the $30 000 prize for his work
Burrut’tji at
Baraltja
2008. The ten finalists are collectively some
of the most exciting emerging Indigenous artists in
Australia.
Other short-listed artists featured in the exhibition
were: Milly Kelly (Jigalong/Newman, WA), Josie
Kunoth Petyarre and Dinni Kunoth Kemarre (Utopia,
NT), Beaver Lennon (Ceduna, SA), Loongkoonan
(Derby, WA), Patsy Marfura (Peppimenarti, NT),
Archie Moore (Brisbane, Qld), Glenn Pilkington
(Perth, WA), and Daniel Walbidi (Bidyadanga, WA).
This year’s award, announced by the Honourable
Anna Bligh,
MP
, Premier of Queensland, was
the third and final in a highly successful three-
year partnership between Xstrata Coal and the
Queensland Art Gallery. First presented in 2006,
the Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award
was Australia’s first award dedicated exclusively
to emerging Indigenous art. Previous winners were
Jonathan Jones, who won in 2006 with his large-
scale sculptural installation
Lumination fall wall
weave
2004/2006; and Genevieve Grieves, who
won in 2007 with
Picturing the old people
2006–07,
a five-channel video installation.
In addition to the prize money awarded to the
winning artists, Xstrata Coal has contributed
$150 000 over three years for the Gallery to
acquire contemporary Indigenous art works.
The Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award was a national
prize awarded by the Queensland Art Gallery and Xstrata Coal
2006–08.
XSTRATA COAl
EMERGING
INDIGENOUS
ART AWARD
11 July – 12 October 2008, GoMA
Winner of the Xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award, Gunybi Ganambarr, with his
work
Burrut’tji at Baraltja
2008, now part of the Queensland Art Gallery Collection.
Photograph: Natasha Harth
