Charles Darwin University Art Collection and Art Gallery
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 Tutini (2011) in natural ochres on ironwood (H3.5m) by Ngaruwanajirri artists Barry Kantilla, Ken Wayne Kantilla, Graham Tipungwuti & Bruce Tipuamantumirri, installed in the Chancellery Garden, Building Orange 12 |
Exhibitions
The CDU Art Collection has held annual exhibitions in The Nan Giese Gallery, Building Orange 10, since its opening in 1989.
The Nan Giese Gallery (formerly the CDU Gallery) is managed by the School of Creative Arts and Humanities. The staging of the Art Collection's exhibitions in this venue acknowledges its historical and contemporary associations with the Art School.
In 1996, the CDU Art Collection's first major touring exhibition, entitled Printabout, was organised by ArtbackNETS NT (now ArtbackNT Arts Touring). It displayed 34 lithographs, etchings and linocut prints by Indigenous artists who had worked with the Art School's printmaking staff at the NTU Print Workshop between 1993 and 1996. Printabout toured regionally and nationally to 76 venues. Curated by Dr Ian McLean, a retrospective exhibition of the University Art Collection - Art and Place - was held in 1999.
Special exhibitions of a selection of CDU Art Collection works have also been mounted in conjunction with University events, conferences and openings. About 25 percent of the Art Collection's holdings are currently on display throughout CDU's Casuarina and Palmerston campuses.
The CDU Art Collection is primarily exhibited in its new dedicated exhibition space CDU Art Gallery located in the Chancellery building, Orange 12.1.02, Casuarina campus.
CDU Art Collection Annual Exhibitions (since 2006):
Exhibition |
Brochures |
Précis |
Find out more |
| 2011 | |||
Ngaruwanajirri: helping one another 10 August - 21 October 2011
Entrance to the CDU Art Gallery, Chancellery, Building Orange 12 |
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Ngaruwanajirri: helping one another featured 199 works by 17 Tiwi artists who work as a co-operative at The Keeping House at Wurrumiyanga (Nguiu) on Bathurst Island. Established in 1994, Ngaruwanajirri Inc represents a core group of 14 artists and 12 freelance carvers. The exhibition included a range of paintings in ochre on paper and canvas/linen, watercolour and acrylic paintings, ironwood carvings, sculptures, hand-crafted objects and batik silks. This was Ngaruwanajirri Inc’s first major retrospective exhibition and marked the launch of a special suite of 48 monotypes/monoprints, created with collaborating printer Marilyn Gibson in 2010. |
Web Galleries currently under construction
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The Nature of Things: featuring work by Carole Wilson 14 April - 24 June 2011
Entrance to the CDU Art Gallery, Chancellery, Building Orange 12 |
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The Nature of Things looked closely at the natural and cultural environment of Northern Australia, featuring as its centrepiece a selected survey of 24 works (2006-2010) by former CDU Lecturer in Studio Practice and Postgraduate Coordinator (Visual Art), Dr Carole Wilson. The exhibition included stencilled and hand-cut map-based collage and patterned Axminster carpet installations, most never exhibited before in the Northern Territory, as well as the Mrs Darwin’s Garden series, inspired by her two-year residency in the Top End. In response to Wilson's art, a range of more than 100 works in various media (predominantly paper), drawn from the University’s permanent collection, by North Australian Indigenous, non-Indigenous and Southeast Asian artists, was exhibited. They captured ideas and experiences of nature, gardens, landscape and the botanical wonders of our region.
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Dr Sean Bellairs, CDU Senior Lecturer Botany & Restoration Ecology delivering his paper 'Seeds: Beauty and Botany' at the Exhibition Public Program, held in the CDU Art Gallery, 16 April 2011 |
| 2010 | |||
In Print: Charles Darwin University Art Collection 4 November 2010 - 25 February 2011
Marina Strocchi, Brancusi Palm 2007, etching |
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Drawn from CDU’s permanent collection of art, In Print highlighted the power and beauty of graphic art by Indigenous, non-Indigenous and Southeast Asian artists working in, or inspired by Northern Australia. The exhibition comprised 167 works – including lithographs, etchings, drypoints and screenprints – by artists who have worked under the auspices of CDU’s various printmaking workshops, studios and enterprises from 1993 to the present. It acknowledged the contribution of CDU-educated and employed print workshop managers, collaborators and editioning printers to the history of prints and printmaking in the region. Venturing across the Far North’s cities and townships, to some of its most remote communities, the exhibition drew together a 17-year history of CDU’s principal visual art and printmaking entities: the University Art Collection, the Art School (NTU Print Workshop, 1993-96; Northern Editions Printmaking Workshop, 1997-2002) and today’s Northern Editions printmaking studio. In Print traced on paper – through colour, line and form – the evolution of the medium as a uniquely North Australian phenomenon. |
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Not Dead Yet: Therese Ritchie and Chips Mackinolty – a retrospective exhibition 11 August to 30 September 2010
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The CDU Art Collection and Art Gallery launched a landmark retrospective exhibition for the Northern Territory on Wednesday 11 August: a survey show of 160 art works by Darwin-based artists Therese Ritchie and Chips Mackinolty. Curated by CDU Art Collection and Art Gallery Curator Anita Angel, Not Dead Yet featured a comprehensive range of screenprints, posters, drawings, photographs, digital collage works and limited edition fine art prints and paintings, dating from 1969 (Mackinolty) and 1988 (Ritchie), through to the present day. Not Dead Yet catalogues (special edition, 72-pages, full-colour & designed by the artists) are now available for purchase ($44 each) through the CDU Bookshop: http://www.cdu.edu.au/bookshop/
Therese Ritchie, Not Dead Yet 2010, digital photograph - exhibition invitation |
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Nyini parlingari purrupakuluwunyi, amintiya kiyi nyingani awarra Jilamara (Looking back, looking forward in our Art) 22 April to 30 June 2010
Cyril James Kerinauia, Jurrukukuni [Bobook owl] 2007, natural ochres on ironwood |
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The launch of the CDU Art Gallery coincided with the opening of this exhibition, danced opened by Tiwi Design artists Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, Maria Josette Orsto, Romolo Tipiloura and Gordon Pupangumirri. |
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| 2009 | |||
| Prelude | The Art Collection’s first exhibition in the CDU Art Gallery, entitled Prelude, marked the official opening of the Chancellery building on November 9, 2009. Prelude comprised 63 works drawn from the CDU Art Collection’s permanent holdings. |
Online gallery currently under construction |
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Gifted II - recent aquisitions |
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The second in a series of exhibitions that focussed on the 'art of benefaction', acknowledging the important role that individual donors, the CDU Foundation and University printmakers have played in enriching the CDU Art Collection's holdings in recent years. |
Online gallery currently under construction |
| 2008 | |||
The Other Thing: a survey show |
Drawn from the permanent collection and featuring a broad range of new acquisitions by purchase and donation, The Other Thing was an exhibition conceived as a series of aesthetic journeys through the many worlds of art within the CDU Art Collection. |
Online gallery currently under construction |
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| 2007 | |||
Gifted: Recent donations of limited edition prints by 49 contemporary Australian artists |
The first in a series of exhibitions that acknowledged the art of philanthropic benefaction: the gifting of two series of limited edition prints by contemporary Australian non-Indigenous artists to the CDU Art Collection by Franck Gohier.
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| 2006 | |||
Our Home: Charles Darwin University Art Collection - recent acquisitions |
An exhibition of 73 works in the CDU Art Collection by 51 artists, for whom northern Australia is home for their art. |
Online gallery currently under construction |
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The CDU Art Collection is a partner organisation of the Collections Australia Network (CAN), Australian cultural heritage collections online.
