Artist Profile for Antonia Napangardi Michaels < Back Antonia Napangardi Michaels Antonia Napangardi Michaels 1998 LANGUAGE: Warlpiri COMMUNITY: Yuendumu, NT ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS Antonia Napangardi Michaels was born on March 6, 1998, in Alice Springs Hospital, the nearest hospital to the remote Aboriginal community of Nyirripi, located approximately 420 km northwest of Alice Springs and about 130 km northwest of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory of Australia. READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE ANTONIA NAPANGARDI MICHAELS - LAPPI LAPPI JUKURRPA (LAPPI LAPPI DREAMING) SOLD AU$4,800.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Antonia Napangardi Michaels 1998 LANGUAGE: Warlpiri COMMUNITY: Yuendumu, NT Antonia Napangardi Michaels was born on March 6, 1998, in Alice Springs Hospital, the nearest hospital to the remote Aboriginal community of Nyirripi, located approximately 420 km northwest of Alice Springs and about 130 km northwest of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is deeply rooted in a family of prominent Warlpiri artists, being the daughter of Andrea Nungarrayi Wilson and Chris Japanangka Michaels, and the granddaughter of Alice Nampijinpa Henworth. Antonia attended St Mary's School in Broome, graduating in 2012. After completing her education, she returned to Nyirripi and took up a role at the Learning Centre run by the Batchelor Institute, an Indigenous Tertiary Education Program. Here, she assisted students with computer skills, contributing to her community's educational resources. She began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation—an Aboriginal-owned and governed art centre in Yuendumu and Nyirripi—at the young age of 12 in 2010 and resumed her artistic endeavors in 2014 at the age of 16. Antonia carries forward her family's artistic legacy, painting her grandmother’s Lappi Lappi Jukurrpa (Lappi Lappi Dreaming) and her father’s Janganpa Jukurrpa (Bush-tailed Possum Dreaming). These stories, richly imbued with the land's geography and its flora and fauna, have been passed down through generations. Antonia's artistic approach blends traditional iconography with a modern, individualistic style, utilizing an unrestricted palette and employing patterns in various contexts to express her cultural narratives. Married to Maxie Jampijinpa Pollard, Antonia is a mother to a son born in 2017. Beyond her professional life as an artist and educator, she enjoys hunting for bush tucker with her family and friends, maintaining a vibrant connection to her cultural heritage and the natural environment. ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

Artist Profile for Mick Tjapaltjarri Namarari < Back Mick Tjapaltjarri Namarari Mick Tjapaltjarri Namarari ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE MICK TJAPALTJARRI NAMARARI - TJUNGPA TJKURRPA - BUSH TUCKER Sold AU$0.00 MICK TJAPALTJARRI NAMARARI - MOUSE DREAMING Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Mick Tjapaltjarri Namarari During a career that spanned almost three decades Mick Namarari became a towering presence, whose variety of subjects and diversity of stylistic approaches kept him at the forefront of Western Desert painting. Geoff Bardon noted his ability as a painter from the earliest days of the movement when he  'could often unexpectedly be found late at night working away at his meticulous and marvellous paintings' (Johnson 2000: 191). Much later, he was to play a quiet but decisive role in instigating the Papunya Tula art movement’s increasing ethereal minimalism of the late 1980’s and 1990's and in doing so significantly fueled the international reputation of Australian Aboriginal art, thereby earning himself an ‘incomparable place’ in Australian art history. During his childhood, Namarari traveled with his parents to many of the key sites through Pintupi country until a tribal raiding party speared and killed his father and his mother threw herself into a fire in grief. After recovering his mother, Maiyenu, and her two children were cared for by other family members who set up camp at Putati Spring south west of Mount Leibig. Namarari later attended school in the mission at Hermannsburg. He worked in the cattle industry at Tempe Downs, near Areyonga, and at Haasts Bluff, where he married his first wife. During this time he would often ‘go bush’ for extended periods, taking just a spear and a womera to hunt for food. Older Pintupi men taught him the songs and ceremonies associated with his childhood journeying and, after initiation into manhood, he was given the responsibility for maintaining the knowledge and ceremony of many ancestral sites. Resettled at Papunya, and serving on the community council with Johnny Warangkula and Nosepeg Tjupurrula in its early tumultuous days, Namarari’s ability as a painter was noted by Geoff Bardon’s from the outset of the modern desert art movement. Driven to paint, regardless of the materials at hand, his early paintings were closely tied to narrative. Symbolic designs were painted, often on a rich, earthy background, with a sharpness of line that imbued them with a remarkable clarity. The key formal elements provided the basis for his later works as he constantly explored and expanded upon their aesthetic potential. He would unravel endless variations on one Dreaming story by focusing on different aspects of its telling.  His inventive array of techniques demonstrated a singular and personally felt perspective that always managed to take his audience by surprise. In 1978 he played the leading role in Bardon’s film Mick and The Moon. The film told of an Aboriginal man who believed he owned the moon, but had a duty to paint ceremonial pictures in order to make this belief become true. His moon paintings of this period have an omniscient perspective, revealing a cosmology where the human world and the landscape are continuous with each other rather than being defined against each other, as in the European tradition. He depicted landscape by 'invoking a whole cosmology, a religious morality and an ethics of social interaction' (Clark 2005: 62). This broader spiritual meaning shaped the way Namarari perceived relations between the human and non-human world. Visually this consciousness manifested itself in Namarari’s art, most especially in his non-figurative and non-iconographic paintings, exemplified by his Mouse Dreaming paintings, in their representation of space. The hypnotic minimalist fields of dots suggest the 'microscopic life of the desert' (Johnson 2000: 191), and the intimate placement of the artist within his subject, not apart from it. One of the few artists to stay on in Papunya after the Pintupi exodus of the early 1980’s he finally settled at Nyunmanu near Marnpi with his second wife Elizabeth Marks Nakamarra and their three children. However the need to support his young family through his burgeoning art practice saw Namarari move in to Kintore and travel more frequently to Alice Springs from the late 1980’s onward, by which time his paintings were increasingly sought after by galleries. Mick Namarari was credited as having played the decisive role in propelling Papunya Tula art away from the edifice of Tingari cartography towards the ethereal minimalism of the 1990’s. In 1989 he attended the opening of the exhibition Mythscapes at the National Gallery of Victoria and two years later his triumph in winning the 8th National Aboriginal Art Award in 1991 became an important milestone both personally, and for the Papunya Tula Artists company. His stature grew following solo exhibitions at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 1991 and 1992 and with Utopia Art Sydney in 1993 and 1994. These exhibitions demonstrated his capability for ongoing innovation and also proved the viewing audience’s appreciation for the distinct individuality of his signature style. By this time, Namarari had condensed his symbolism into a densely worked abstract code that reflected the microscopic life of the desert amid its shimmering contours and ephemeral shifting light. Dazzling surfaces, often composed of subtle currents of yellow and white fingertip stipple, suggested an emerging form, an invisible ancestor palpably present within the meticulously applied paint. While Namarari remained loyal to Papunya Tula artists he painted a number of major works outside of the company during the mid to late 1990’s most importantly several masterpieces for independent dealer Steve Nibbs, that found their way in to important galleries and collections. During his later years, Namarari helped transmit to a new generation of rising artists, the knowledge and techniques that play a crucial role in the regeneration of Aboriginal culture to this day. He increasingly returned to his outstation at Nyunmanu, close to his original homelands. It had been his 'yearning for return to country' (Kean 2000), that had always informed his work. It was that loss of contact with country that had imparted such a raw power and poignancy to those early Papunya paintings, prompting Bardon to act so courageously in the face of bureaucratic opposition. Namarari lived to see the fruition of that yearning, enabling his Pintupi clansmen to return to their country, supported by art sales and favourable changes in government policies. The exodus was documented in the film Benny and the Dreamers 1993, in which Namarari describes his first encounter with Europeans. Within the framework of that vital tethering to country, Namarari’s career moved through many phases, due in part to his custodianship of many totemic sites, but also largely to his unique and ingenious approach. He was a quiet character, Bardon later recalled, and 'of the briefest conversation' (Bardon, 2004). He much preferred to remain at home with his wife and many adopted children rather than travel the circuit of openings and awards. In his last works, narrative and abstraction had found their perfect synthesis. He was acknowledged as an ever-evolving master, whose consistency and brilliance was confirmed by the presence of his work in galleries and collections in Australia and around the world. Mick Namarari was the first recipient of Aboriginal Australia’s highest cultural accolade, the Australia Council’s Red Ochre Award, presented to him in 1994. ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Works by this artist in the market fall in to three distinct historical periods. His early 1970s boards, while drawing attention from ethnophiles, have achieved reasonable results but have failed to shine alongside works by his more illustrious contemporaries of that period. Only two of these appear in his top ten results despite a number of highly accomplished pieces, including his magnificent Untitled 1972 painting offered for sale at Sotheby’s in July 2003 selling for only $38,100 (Lot 107). Namarari appears to have painted very few works between 1973 and the mid 1980s having left the Papunya community and settled further west in a move that preceded the Pintupi exodus in the late 1970s and his own move to Walungurru. His paintings of the mid 1980s are generally looser than his early boards, though they failed to abandon structure completely. On occasion, works from this period feature figurative elements, as in his untitled 1987 work sold at Christie's in 2005 for just $21,510 (Lot 207). The image of a large snake entering a cave site appears clumsy in comparison to his later works. The same is true for other more formal works of the period, including Whirlwind Dreaming 1986, sold at Sotheby’s in 1998 (Lot 51). During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Namarari returned to a style reminiscent of his early work, painting a large number of works in a more linear style with sites depicted as concentric and radiating lines. Despite the quality of these often powerful and well constructed images, they have proved to be unsuccessful in the market, a majority either failing to sell or only barely reaching their low estimates. Measuring 183 x 153 cm and selling for $63,000 (at an estimate of $30,000-50,000 in Sotheby's June 2000 sale (Lot 117)), Tjakaalpa at Putjana 1991 was one of the most successful of these works. Since 2005, only three records have entered his top ten results. His record was set in 2013, when an untitled work created in 1994 depicting rain at Nyunmanu sold for $219,600. It was featured in Bonham's lavish sale of the Laverty collection at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The previous record, Tjunpinpa (Small Mouse Dreaming) (sold at Sotheby’s for $210,000), had stood for a decade. Until they abandoned Aboriginal art salesin Australia in 2013, Sotheby’s was most strongly identified with Namarari’s paintings, having sold 125 works for a total of more than $2 million. His best years at auction were shortly after his death in 1998; between 1999-2000 forty paintings sold for a total of $843,660 at a clearance rate of 71%. In fact, between 1994 and 2000 Namarari’s clearance rate was 79% while it dropped to just 45% between 2001 and 2010.  Not a single work in his top 20 results was painted between 1973 and 1990. In 2016, although of the 16 works on offer only 4 sold, he reached good numbers with one work selling for $64,328 and another for $55,751. In 2017, however, not a single work of the seven on offer ended up selling. Since 2000, by far his most popular paintings have been those created toward the end of his life. This phenomenon seems to have been sparked by the sale of a major black and white work originally commissioned by Steve Nibbs of Yapa Art in Alice Springs in 1998. The painting, exhibited in ‘The White Show’ at William Mora Gallery in 1998, was offered for sale at Deutscher Menzies in 2000. With an estimate of $35,000-50,000, it was knocked down for just $28,200 including buyer’s premium. Offered for sale just one year later at Sotheby’s with an estimate of $50,000-70,000 it sold for $110,500. The highest prices achieved for Namarari works since then have all been for similar works, featuring ethereal fields of dots. The best of these paintings work on a number of visual and aesthetic levels and will continue to attract high prices. Yet his linear works created from 1985 to 1995 are highly accomplished and currently vastly underrated. A lot of these are very good paintings, and would seem to represent a fantastic opportunity for collectors and investors, given Namarari’s status as one of the greatest and most significant of all Aboriginal desert painters. Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

Artist Profile for Nanyuma Napangati < Back Nanyuma Napangati Nanyuma Napangati ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE NANYUMA NAPANGATI - UNTITLED SOLD AU$4,400.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Nanyuma Napangati ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

Artist Profile for Chantelle Nampijinpa Robertson < Back Chantelle Nampijinpa Robertson Chantelle Nampijinpa Robertson ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE CHANTELLE NAMPIJINPA ROBERTSON - NGAPA JUKURRPA (WATER DREAMING) - PUYURRU SOLD AU$1,600.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Chantelle Nampijinpa Robertson ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

Artist Profile for Trevor Nickolls < Back Trevor Nickolls Trevor Nickolls 1949 - 2012 ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE TREVOR NICKOLLS - SERPENT SOLD AU$3,000.00 TREVOR NICKOLLS - UNTITLED LANDSCAPE Sold AU$0.00 TREVOR NICKOLLS - ULURU Sold AU$0.00 TREVOR NICKOLLS - FULL MOON Sold AU$0.00 TREVOR NICKOLLS - UNTITLED SOLD AU$2,200.00 TREVOR NICKOLLS - METAMORPHOSIS Sold AU$0.00 TREVOR NICKOLLS - FLOOD Sold AU$0.00 TREVOR NICKOLLS - SPIRIT '98 Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Trevor Nickolls 1949 - 2012 Brought up in the suburbs of Adelaide, Trevor Nickolls began drawing and painting from the age of eight years old. These early explorations would later become the basis for his livelihood as an art teacher, though he never aspired for the material attributes that so often accompany a middle-class lifestyle. However, grounding in the theory of Western art put Nickolls in a unique position when, towards the end of his post-graduate degree, he encountered traditional Aboriginal art for the first time. During the late seventies the intellectual climate, strongly influenced by post-modernism, was expanding boundaries throughout the contemporary art world and in this climate the concept of ‘aboriginality’ took hold, mirroring Nickolls’ own exploration of his Aboriginal heritage. ‘Self-consciously operating within the ongoing narrative of Western art, Nickolls drew upon both ancient and modern iconography as he strove to articulate the uneasy fault-line that underpinned both an identity and a society built upon the disavowal of its sacred past' (O’Ferral1989). Nickolls, though, might feel ill at ease with this explicitly political interpretation of his work for he feels 'I simply cannot make such direct, literal political statements in my paintings' (Beier 1985: 14) Nickolls has described his meeting with Papunya artist Dinny Nolan in 1979 as a turning point in his life. He was, at this time, completing post-graduate studies at the Victorian College of the Arts and Nolan, working temporarily in Melbourne, generously shared his tribal wisdom and artistic knowledge. The Papunya artists had won international acclaim for their successful adaptation of tribal art into a modern context, while still keeping its secret, ritual meanings intact. With both artists coming from opposite directions, Nickolls felt that it could be possible to synthesise an art style from elements of both cultures. The dotting technique of Desert art and the deliberate addition of rarrk cross hatching enriched Nickolls’ love of dense and complex textures, and new images enlivened his iconographic language. He found that ancient techniques were actually very modern and scientific, commenting 'everything is moving… you can look at things in a molecular way,' he commented (cited in Liz Thompson 1989). His appointment as an education officer the following year allowed Nickolls to travel, meeting artists and elders throughout Arnhem Land and seeing traditional rock paintings in situ. His understanding of the Aboriginal relationship to the land was no longer only an intellectual one; 'I was right in it', he says, 'it wraps itself around you, full of spirit, the space, the Dreaming, imagining how it was once' (Isaacs, 1989: 76). A new mood of relaxation and fulfilment permeated Nickoll’s work of this period. Cramped urban complexities gave way to an elemental landscape where figures, trees, animals and waterholes were held in a direct frontal foreground, confronting and engaging the viewer with a powerful sense of mythic relatedness. Tightly patterned dots radiated a vibrant life force, harmonizing the background in a unique rendition of an Australianised Garden of Eden. He returned to the city sadly disillusioned with the conditions he saw in some Aboriginal settlements of the interior. Working in Sydney and Melbourne during the eighties was a time when Nickolls once again worked with the imagery of the uncomfortable duality that he felt internally, and perceived externally. The theme of ‘Encapsulation’ which had begun during his art school days in the 1960’s became increasingly important to Nickolls as he explored the alienation of the individual in an industrialized landscape as a counterpoint to the concept of ‘Harmony of Nature’. He coined the catchphrase ‘Dreamtime - Machinetime’ during this period to describe the divide between Aboriginal and Western cultures. In ‘Machinetime’ humankind is trapped by its own inventions; a cramped and hostile technological environment where isolated individuals, in cell-like apartments, plug into their television sets, trying to ward off a sense of loss and anxiety as they become increasingly estranged from each other and the earth. ‘Dreamtime’ introduces a relationship to nature that, in keeping with Aboriginal beliefs, is the source of spiritual sustenance and cultural continuity underpinning the necessary conditions for a life affirming and dignified human existence. Often tightly juxtaposed within one canvas, these two realities collide abruptly with contrasting areas of colour, texture and spatial composition. A recurring language of symbols twine around and into each other; a Rainbow Serpent slides into the shape of the dollar sign; as a bird wings its way towards a vibrant sun the agonized profile of an entrapped human reaches for the freedom of open space above the cacophony of high rise buildings; roofs become mouths lined with teeth avariciously swallowing smoke and people. The artist’s inventive social comment invariably carries a humorous, yet biting, edge. His imagery integrates a number of Western art conventions including surrealism, portraiture, comic book illustration and cartoon animation, with Aboriginal symbolism such as Desert dotting and Arnhem Land cross hatching, in a delicate balancing act between cultures aimed at uncovering and exposing universal truths. Additional themes in his work have included the ‘stolen generations’, the Republic, child exploitation, deaths in custody, the Maralinga bomb tests and corporate branding. Nickolls was cast into the limelight when chosen to represent Australia with thirty paintings in the 1990 Venice Biennale. His ability to inscribe his paintings with an experiential quality had always given them an autobiographical leaning, attracting attention for their unflinching honesty. His recurring self-portraits have charted the development and progressions of an eclectic and provocative style, reflecting the dilemmas of contemporary life as much as his own fears and longings. From the early to mid 2000’s, detail is pared to a minimum, colourful and busy textures fall away, leaving basic elements such as a boomerang or spear thrower in a sparse, semi-abstract field. These quieter, meditational works, with warm earth tones and traditional patterns often encompassing a solitary motif, seem to suggest that his turbulent and conflicting emotions have found some solace. In his most recent work complex multiplying layers reemerges as a testimony to an ongoing sensitivity to his breathing environment that never lies entirely at rest. Since first exhibiting his Dreamtime-Machinetime images in Canberra in 1978 Nickolls built an extensive exhibition record of more than 50 group and solo shows across Australia, in addition to several in Europe and the United States. In 2009 a solo survey of his works, Other Side Art , was put on by the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne and is set to tour nationally. In 2010 a solo exhibition, Self Portrait and other Spirits, opened at the Kintolai Gallery in Adelaide. In addition he is represented in all the major national collections and has collected a host of awards, prizes and commissions. Trevor Nickolls was a complex artist whose oeuvre becomes richer and more fascinating as one delves into it. He used an arsenal of iconographic origins, even comic book imagery, to provide fodder for the artist’s deep satirical edge as he ruminated on the absurdities of our modern reality. Though not particularly fond of being pigeon-holed as an ‘Aboriginal artist’, his Aboriginal heritage permeated his art imagery and content, enabling him, over a career that has spanned more than four decades, to become one of the most potent social and political commentators in the Australian visual arts. ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS While both Trevor Nickolls and Rover Thomas jointly represented Australia at the 1990 Venice Biennale, it is Thomas, Australia’s second most successful Indigenous artist, who is more widely recognized for this particular distinction. It seems ironic then, that the two highest prices paid for a work by Trevor Nickolls at auction were both for the same painting titled Roving in Thomas Town 1994 . This 152 x 212 cm canvas was the first of his paintings to be highlighted in an auction with a catalogue essay. It sold for $53,525 at Deutscher-Menzies in June 2000 and three years later, when it re-sold at Lawson-Menzies in July 2003 auction, its value dropped very slightly to $49,350. 22 of Nickolls' works were sold by Sotheby’s throughout the 1990s and, not one was illustrated in the sales catalogues. This would account in large measure for their poor sale rate with 34, or 47% remaining unsold during that period. Sotheby’s first illustrated his work in 2001 and by 2004 showed his paintings across two pages illustrating four works, one of which had a long description plus the mention that he had been chosen for the Venice Biennale in 1990. This 91 x 76 cm canvas, Machinetime Head 1989 , sold for $13,200, the artist’s third highest recorded result at the time and nearly twice the sale price of the other three, even though all of these these were small. Though his sale rate is unimpressive at 56%, the majority of works that have failed to sell have been minor pieces, including pen and ink drawings, offered during the 1990s. Of the 23 works on paper that have been offered only six have sold for an average price of approximately $870. His paintings on canvas and board, however, have experienced a success rate of over 60 % and the prices achieved for Trevor Nickoll's works have been on the rise since his first major result in 2000. The appearance of Aboriginal art on the secondary market is still a quite recent phenomenon and, Hermannsburg paintings aside, sales records generally do not go back more than 20 years. The vast majority of work is ‘traditional’ or ethnographic and the audience for urban art is smaller, even if well informed. Trevor Nickoll’s work first appeared for sale at auction in 1990 and, by 1993, of ten offered only two had sold. Between 1994 and 2001 his statistics were turned on their head with 24 sold and only six unsold. Trevor Nickolls painted complex ideas within multi-layered imagery, expressive of the black/white dilemma and the machine age conflict with nature. Amongst them are works that are crudely rendered - tough subjects that can be too ‘in your face’ for the average collector. However, just as often, if not more so, the paintings are not only aesthetically pleasing but also unforgettable, perhaps because the image has captured the spirit of our times. The best works by this artist have yet to appear at auction. Having played a prime role in the development of urban Aboriginal art, he is extremely well represented in the literature and museum collections, therefore greater recognition is certain when his best works are offered for sale. The prices of works by this artist are still low enough for those with an eye for ‘tough subjects’ to invest in paintings that could easily, given current environmental and human concerns, become emblematic and increase in value markedly over the coming decade. Collectors should however carefully consider those images which verge on ‘new age kitsch’, or ones in which there is little interest beyond what appears to be a ‘dotted’ landscape. His major works in this genre may well become masterpieces but many of the smaller versions fail to excite. Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

KITTY SIMON AND THE LADIES OF LAJAMANU | PADDINGTON Location: Cooee Art Paddington From 06 March to 21 March 2020 KITTY SIMON AND THE LADIES OF LAJAMANU | PADDINGTON Artists: Kitty Napanangka Simon, Myra Herbert Nungurrayi, Lily Hargraves Nungurrayi & Lorna Fencer Napurrula From 06 March to 21 March 2020 KITTY SIMON AND THE LADIES OF LAJAMANU | PADDINGTON Artists: Kitty Napanangka Simon, Myra Herbert Nungurrayi, Lily Hargraves Nungurrayi & Lorna Fencer Napurrula From 06 March to 21 March 2020 Location: Cooee Art Paddington Kitty Simon is a dedicated artist with a distinctive, singular aesthetic. Painting in remote Aboriginal communities is part of a rich communal cultural life. The work of individual artists can never be considered in isolation. After an intimate association with the women artists of Lajamanu that is now more than 30 years old, we pay tribute to two of Lajamanu’s defining artistic forces and tribal elders, exhibiting their work alongside two of the women carrying and nurturing Warlpiri culture and community into the future. In this exhibition, Kitty Simon and the Ladies of Lajamanu, we will exhibit works by Kitty Simon Napanangka and Myra Herbert Nungurrayi, alongside a selection of works from the gallery archives by Lilly Hargraves Nungurrayi and Lorna Fencer Napurrula. Kitty Simon is a dedicated artist with a distinctive, singular aesthetic. Her paintings – at first denounced by senior men for straying too far from the traditional idiom – have excited discriminating curators and collectors since her first solo exhibition at Cooee Art in 2013, winning admirers both inside and outside her tight-knit Warlpiri community. This was to have been her third solo exhibition with Cooee, which has been her exclusive international agent since the beginning of her career – in partnership with the Warnayaka Art Centre, a haven for the artists in Lajamanu. Earlier this year, Cooee Art received the news that Kitty Napanangka Simon has been unable to complete the body of works required for her solo exhibition due to a health setback (requiring renal dialysis outside of her community) and continual ‘sorry business’. Lajamanu is about as isolated a township as you will find on the vast Australian continent: ten hours’ drive south of Darwin; eight hours north-west of Alice Springs; and eight hours south-east of Derby. About 1000 Warlpiri people were moved to this tiny, very isolated point in the north of the Warlpiri estate just after WWII. A number of extraordinary paintings were created here once the old men, deeply steeped in tradition, finally relented and recorded their ancient Warlpiri stories on canvas for the first time in the mid 1980s. Sublime, meditative, zen-like rain Dreamings by Abie Jangala; action paintings by Lorna Fencer, drawn from the epic battle between Yurmupa and Wapertali – the mythological Big and Little Bush Potato men; large ceremonial works full of life, colour and movement by Lilly Hargraves – these are just a taste of the free-wheeling Warlpiri aesthetic that has emerged here over the past 35 years. In Lajamanu, artistic expression is associated intimately with ceremonial life, celebrating birth, fertility, regeneration, and loss. Of these, loss is ever-present and especially poignant. Here, the ‘sorry camp’ can at times grow almost as big as the township itself. Especially in times when cultural custodians and revered elders pass away. The number of makeshift dwellings at the eastern-most border of the Lajamanu township continually swells and shrinks on the tides of misfortune. In the sorry camp, people live as they did for time immemorial: as desert nomads sleeping simply under the stars. The long nights are spent keening for those who have died. This is not a time or place to paint. Outside visitors are not welcome where the spirits run free. More than just personal loss, a culture and way of life is being mourned, a nomadic life of which outsiders are largely unaware. The success of an artist will often be felt throughout the whole community. Conversely, in these times of sorry business community will come together and bolster its struggling parts. In this exhibition, the women painters of Lajamanu, past and present, lift each other up. So we will wait a year for a solo exhibition by Kitty Napanangka Simon. And, for now, we give expression to the continuing legacy of Warlpiri culture that is easing the path through continual sorry business. VIEW CATALOGUE EX 197

Waterways Dual solo exhibitions for artists JoAnne Currie & Joshua Bonson 14 December - 13 January 2024 Exhibition Opening: 14 December 6-8pm First name Last name Email GET MORE INFORMATION Thanks for registering your interest we will be in touch soon!

David Brown Jangala | Ngurra Ngayunku (My home) Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Redfern, Gadigal / Sydney 5 - 26 July 2025 David Brown Jangala | Ngurra Ngayunku (My home) David Brown Jangala 5 - 26 July 2025 David Brown Jangala | Ngurra Ngayunku (My home) David Brown Jangala 5 - 26 July 2025 Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Redfern, Gadigal / Sydney Art Leven, in conjunction with Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, is delighted to present Ngurra Ngayunku (My Home), the fourth solo exhibition by David Brown Jangala. This highly anticipated exhibition follows Jangala’s receipt of the 2024 Art Leven Award at the Paddington Art Prize and marks a significant moment in the artist’s rapidly rising career. David Brown Jangala’s work is a striking fusion of desert abstraction and observational realism—two languages inherited through a life lived between his father’s Country at Kiwirrkurra and his mother’s Country at Mulan in east Kimberley. His paintings reflect a deep sense of place, memory, and continuity, informed by ancestral stories passed down from his grandparents, as well as his own lived experiences of moving across Country. The exhibition title, Ngurra Ngayunku (My Home), speaks to this grounding—a recognition of the physical and spiritual landscapes that have shaped him. Jangala is part of a new generation of artists emerging from the Kimberley and Western Desert regions who honour traditional narratives while also innovating stylistically. In this new body of work, he continues to build on the dual styles he’s known for, depicting sites of personal and cultural significance with layered attention to detail, story, and form. As he explains, “I can do both styles, desert style and realism style.” This versatility gives his work a compelling dynamism that resonates with both collectors and curators alike. Presented in partnership with Waringarri Aboriginal Arts—one of Australia’s oldest and most respected Indigenous-owned art centres—Ngurra Ngayunku (My Home) celebrates Brown’s growing recognition as a vital voice in contemporary Aboriginal art. It is a proud return to Redfern, where his debut exhibition in 2022 first introduced audiences to the strength of his vision. DAVID BROWN - WALLA WALLA price AU$5,600.00 DAVID BROWN - MANTATI price AU$1,750.00 DAVID BROWN - UNTITLED price AU$1,300.00 DAVID BROWN - WIRRUL price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - WALLA WALLA price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - WALLA WALL price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - QUITE MORNING SUNRISE price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - UMARRI (YUMARI) price AU$480.00 DAVID BROWN - KUNAMARRA Sold AU$0.00 DAVID BROWN - WINTAKU price AU$1,750.00 DAVID BROWN - WIRRUL price AU$1,450.00 DAVID BROWN - UNTITLED price AU$1,300.00 DAVID BROWN - HISTORY OF MY HOMELAND price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - KARILWARRA price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - KUNAMARRA (HUNTING PLACE) price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - SWEET COUNTRY price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - UMARRI (YUMARI) Sold AU$0.00 DAVID BROWN - WALATU Sold AU$0.00 DAVID BROWN - WALLA WALLA price AU$1,750.00 DAVID BROWN - UNTITLED price AU$1,300.00 DAVID BROWN - UNTITLED price AU$1,300.00 DAVID BROWN - YUMARI price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - MY HOME SWEET HOME price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - WALLA WALLA price AU$1,100.00 DAVID BROWN - NGURRA NGAYUNKU (MY HOME) price AU$650.00 DAVID BROWN - WALATU Sold AU$0.00 ExDBrown

Artist Profile for Jan Billycan < Back Jan Billycan Jan Billycan 1930 - 2016 ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE JAN BILLYCAN - KIRRIWIRRI Sold AU$0.00 JAN BILLYCAN - KIRRIWIRRI Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Jan Billycan 1930 - 2016 Jan Billycan (aka Djan Nanundie)'s work depicts the country of her birthplace, Kirriwirri and other sites in Ilyarra country. This is a land of spreading mud flats, gleaming salt lakes and a life-giving network of freshwater springs with their source deep underground. It was the home of the Yulparija people, deep in the Great Sandy Desert, before drought and mining caused the environmental catastrophe that drove them to the coastal refuge of Bidyadanga south of Broome. That was a time of grief and exile that lay dormant in the memories of the survivors. The stirrings of an art movement had reawakened these memories, breathing new life into an ancient land and its story.??Emily Rohr of Broome’s Short Street Gallery brought art materials to the aged care home in after being alerted to the elderly residents' desire (or ‘need’ as Daniel Walbidi suggested to her) to paint. The profusion of colour and untutored vitality that erupted took the eventual results to southern cities before the year was out. Sell-out group and solo shows followed, with Judith Ryan featuring them at the NGV in the exhibition 'Colour Power' (2004). Among them, the distinctive works of Jan Billycan emerged as the expressions of a unique and startling talent. In 2011 she won the West Australian Indigenous Art Award at AGWA in Perth.??Jan was a respected Marpan, or medicine woman, and as such had the ability of x-ray vision. This capacity fed into her cell-like compositions that jangle and vibrate, similar to, as Emily Rohr says, a musical composition. It was a different manner of perception, and when applied to the geography of place and memory carried with it the emotion of lived experience. Jan’s discordant greens, oranges, greys and purples had generated much discussion. The desert and the coast became the site of a disrupted continuity, but the desert iconography remained unmistakable.??There is Jila (living water) in this country including Karrparti, Kawarr, Jurntiwa, and Wirrguj. Other places include Dodo, Kartal, Kiriwirri and Yukarri. When Jan was young she walked all around these places with her parents. Jan explained "In living water there is a quiet snake. Sometimes he rises up, but we sing him down sometimes he can travel and bring rain. Ilyarra is my country Ilyarra, where I grew up. Lots of tali (sand dunes) and jila in this country. This big dog country." Her grainy textures instilled her works with the weight or gravitas of ‘an imaginary repossession’ (Nicholas Rothwell). Jan mixed her colours on the canvas, tracing over networks of sketched underpainting. She built her layers toward a colour and density that pushed all our boundaries, psychological as well as physical.??Jan’s close working proximity to the other painters of the Yulparija group meant that singing and discussion were ever-present as they brought back to their lives, lost relatives, precious ancestors and beloved sacred sites. These artists re-drew the perimeters of Western Desert art, though their links were still apparent. The scarcity of water that drove the flight from their homeland reverberates in their paintings with an insistent call. It remains one of the most remote and rugged regions of the world and the homeland of a diverse and dynamic Indigenous culture. Such precious memories are held in these works, for future generations of Yulparija and for all of us to contemplate. Profile author: Sophie Baka Collections: Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands. Canning Stock Route Project Collection, National Museum of Australia, Canberra. Dr Ian Bernhardt Collection Dr Ian Constable Collection Harvey Wagner Collection, USA Laverty Collection Myer Collection National Gallery of Australia National Gallery of Victoria Newcastle Regional Art Gallery Sam Barry Collection William Mora Collection Individual Exhibitions: 2009 - Jan Billycan Solo, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne. 2008 - Kirriwirri, Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA. 2007 - Jan Billycan, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne; Kirriwirri, Short St Gallery at Mary Place, Sydney. Group Exhibitions: 2013 - 'The Bright The Bold and The Beautiful', Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW 2011 - Western Australian Indigenous Art Award – finalists, featuring Jan Billycan, Michael Cook, Timothy Cook, Angkaliya Curtis, Gunybi Ganambarr, Angelina George, Gary Lee, Danie Mellor, Patrick Mung Mung, Trevor Nickolls, Lena Nyadbi, Tiger Palpatja, Kuruwarriyingathi Bijarrb Paula Paul, Reko Gwaybilla Rennie, Nyilyari Tjapangati, Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. 2011 - Summer Haze, JGM Galleries, London, UK 2011 - Pearls, Paint and Ilma, Aratong Galleries, Australian High Commission, Singapore 2011 - Yulparija 2011, Aboriginal and Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW 2011 - Green, Outstation Gallery, Darwin, NT 2011 - Bidyadanga Recent Paintings, Chapman Gallery, Canberra ACT 2010 - Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, WA 2010 - 27th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT 2010 - Yiwarra Kuju, Canning Stock Route exhibition, National Museum of Australia, Canberra ACT 2010 - Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Short St Gallery & William Mora Galleries present the Yulparija artists 2010 - White, Short St Gallery, Broome WA 2009 - Short on Size, Short St Gallery, Broome ,WA 2009 - Shalom Gamarada Aboringinal Art Exhibtion, University of NSW, Sydney 2009 - From Desert to Saltwater Country, Redot Gallery, Singapore 2008 - Olympic IOC Expo Centre, Canning Stock Route Project, Beijing, China 2008 - From the Desert to Saltwater, Booker, -Lowe Gallery, Houston, Texas 2008 - Bidyadanga Artists 2008, AP Bond Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA 2008 - Paintings from remote communities: Indigenous Australian art from the Laverty collection, Newcastle Regional Gallery, Newcastle, NSW. 2007 - National Indigenous Art Triennial 07, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 2007 - 24th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 2006 - Northern Journey, The Priory at Bingie, Bingie, NSW 2006 - Bidyadanga Painters - Jan Billycan & Weaver Jack, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne. 2005 - 22nd Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; The return of our land, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT; Mummy and daughter, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne; Bidyadanga 2005, Short St . Gallery, Broome WA 2004 - Divas of the Desert, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs; Desert to Saltwater, Short Street. Gallery, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney; Desert Ocean, Short Street Gallery, Kidogo Gallery, Fremantle, WA; Bidyadanga Artists, William Mora Gallery, Melbourne; Bidyadanga Artists, Raft Art Space, Darwin; Bidyadanga Art, Art House Gallery, Sydney. 2003 - Manjyiljara, Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA. Awards: 2011 - WA winner of Western Australian Indigenous Art Award, AGWA, Perth. 2010 - Most Outstanding Work, Hedland Art Awards Bibliography: The Age Newspaper, Yulparija show their colours, April 19 2004. The Australian Newspaper, West Coast's Late Bloomers, April 2004. The Australian Financial Review Magazine, Art Direction, June 2004. Painting Country - A West to East Journey, World Expo Aichi, Catalogue. July 2005. The Australian, Look Whose Been Framed Now, 17 March, 2006. ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS A detailed Market Analysis is currently being worked on. Should you like a completed Market Analysis for any artist, please let us know. Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

Artist Profile for Billy Joongarra Thomas < Back Billy Joongarra Thomas Billy Joongarra Thomas 1920 - 2012 ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE BILLY JOONGOORRA THOMAS - UNTITLED SOLD AU$16,000.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Billy Joongarra Thomas 1920 - 2012 Billy Joongarra Thomas (c.1920 – 2012) began painting for Waringarri Arts in Kununurra in 1995. He was already in his seventies and like his friend and fellow artist Rover Thomas had spent his youthful years droving cattle on the Canning Stock Route, deep in the remote desert regions of Western Australia. He knew his country intimately and never ceased his ceremonial immersion and involvement within it. Right up until his final years, he continued to spend long periods ‘out bush’ before coming in to Billiluna or Kununurra again to paint. He was revered as a senior lawman and healer, custodian of secret initiation rites and ceremonial songlines. By the time he died in his 90s, peacefully, in the aged care facility at Fitzroy Crossing, he had participated in major exhibitions that brought the Kimberley tradition and history to the world. His paintings are held in state and private collections worldwide, still commanding high prices as part of a treasured and important indigenous legacy. Born near Billiluna, the southern end of the Canning Stock Route, Billy inevitably became caught up in the repercussions of this huge well-sinking and cattle-moving project through the Great Sandy and Gibson deserts, which was nearing completion at his birth. The traditional nomadic lifestyle of his Wangkajunga people, like all the desert tribes of this vast inland area, was disrupted and their sensitive ecological balance with their ancient homelands destroyed forever. Alongside other young Aboriginal men, Billy began droving cattle through the northern regions and tapping into a great cultural interchange that in some respects was the only positive aspect of what became known as the ‘wild time’. As later histories have laid bare, brutal treatment from white settlers saw the widespread killing, dislocation and dispossession of the desert dwellers. During this time, their traditional network of ceremonial songlines and shared sacred sites became a source of social interchange and spiritual support, directly feeding into the evolution of today’s vital Kimberley art movement. From the mid 1980s, contemporary artworks from the Kimberley were shown in Australia’s state galleries to an appreciative public audience, and recognisable personal styles emerged. The decade ended with the first Aboriginal artists (Rover Thomas and urban artist Trevor Nickolls) to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale. Some time later, around 1995, Billy Thomas walked into Waringarri Arts to ask the manager, Kevin Kelly, for art materials and was soon rewarded with sell out shows himself. His unique, gritty ochres, with their palpable sense of earthy authenticity, employed traditional desert iconography to depict country through the lens of its ancestral associations. His cultural knowledge was formidable, but he would dot over and scrape back his mark making in order to ensure that secret, sacred aspects were veiled from general view. This gave a distinctive lightness to his work, reflected in his colour choices of much white and light grey, dusky pinks and yellow-brown ochres. Billy’s totem was the black snake . Its sinewy swirls thread through his own Dreamtime landscapes, connecting the underground waterholes that are the vital sites of replenishment and ceremony. Waarla is a huge mudflat in the Great Sandy Desert that becomes a vast lake after rain. It is a historic meeting place for diverse desert rites that Billy maintained and taught to young initiates. His connection to the land was inextricably woven into his art. Billy’s fluidity of drawing became more accentuated in his later works. Gestural brushstrokes carry sumptuous white across the daubed and layered surface - the earthy being supplanted by the atmospheric. Billy stopped painting in 2005 but not before tutoring his son, Lloyd Quilla. His seminal works are likley to provide foundational patterns for a future generation of artists. Author: Sophie Pierce Group Exhibitions: 2004 - Colour Power - Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria Federation Square, Melbourne; EXPLAINED, A closer look at Aboriginal art, Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands. 2002 - An Artists Survey, Balgo Hills, at Hogarth Galleries, Paddington. 2001 - Dixieme Biennale Internationale de la Gravure, - Arts d'Australie • Stephane Jacob / Sarcelles; Australie,Visages d’un continent, Arts d'Australie • Stephane Jacob / Galerie Visages de l'Art, Marly-le-Roi. 2000 - Arts d’Australie, Arts d'Australie • Stephane Jacob / Espace Mezzo - Avenue des Champs-Elysees, Paris; Accents Australiens, Arts d'Australie • Stephane Jacob / Espace Adamski Designs, Paris. 1999 - Australie – Art, Arts d'Australie • Stephane Jacob / J.L. Amsler - Bastille, Paris. 1998 - Le Temps du Rêve, Arts d'Australie • Stephane Jacob / Bibliothèque municipale, Le Perreux-sur-Marne; Propositions Australiennes, Arts d'Australie • Stephane Jacob / galerie Luc Queyrel, Paris. Bibliography: Ryan, Judith (editor), Colour Power - Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2004 (C). ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS While living at the small settlement of Billiluna, Billy Thomas began painting the odd acrylic work on canvas for Warlayirti Artists at Balgo Hills in the mid 1990s. Soon after, however, on a journey into Kununurra, he met Kevin Kelly, the manager of Warringarri Arts. From this time onward his preferred medium was earth pigment (natural ochre collected from the region). When Kevin Kelly left the 'official' art centre to establish his own Red Rock Arts in Kununurra Billy followed. His most important works and the exhibitions they featured in date from the beginning of their friendship. His works first appeared at public auction in1999 and since then over 100 paintings have been up for sale. However, these results are dominated by small early works that have depressed his average price and success rate. Prior to 2018, Kangaroo and Spear Dreaming, 2001 , had held his record since 2007. The painting measured just 90 x 120 cm, yet achieved $30,000 including buyer's premium against a presale estimate of $20,000-30,000, in Sotheby's, Important Aboriginal Art sale held in Melbourne during July that year. A much larger spectacular painting, Gunambalayi Travels of the Black Snake, 1998 , was expected to do far better when Mossgreen advertised the sale of the Ross & Rona Clarke Collection in Brisbane, in September 2012. Mossgreen had hoped to achieve at least $30,000 and possibly as much as $50,000. It just fell short of the previous record at $29,280, even though it was considerably larger at 150 x 180 cms. Though his best result was only $10,800, 2015 was a wonderful year for Thomas. Nine works were offered for sale and every single one sold. By the end of the year his average price stood at $6,799. Until 2018, 19 works have sold for more than this of which 12 had sold for more than $10,000, and of the 25 works offered for sale between 2013 and the end of 2017, all but 2 found a buyer, an indication that whenever one of his works comes up for sale it is hotly contested, especially if it demonstrates that spare earthy pale white aesthetic so prized by collectors. Sothebys included three excellent examples of Thomas's work in its London Aboriginal Art sale. Gunambalayi - Travels of the Black Snake set a new reord price for the artist at $39,877 and Kangaroo and Spear Dreaming sold for $33,231 establishing his second highest record to date. Another Untitled work sold for $28,800, his 5th highest price ever. Overall 71 works have sold of 115 offered since they first appreared at auction in 1999. A stronger indicator of their success however is his sales since 2014. No less than 24 sold of 27 offered during the last 3 years is the best indicator that the finest works by this artist are considered to be highly desirable and worthy of the finest collections. Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

Artist Profile for Stephen Brameld & Jay Staples < Back Stephen Brameld & Jay Staples Stephen Brameld & Jay Staples ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE top Anchor 1 PROFILE Stephen Brameld & Jay Staples ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

NEW ART – THE PRIMARY MARKET The primary sector of the art market is where newly created works are generally consigned by artists to a gallery or dealer who exhibits them. < Back HOW TO COLLECT ABORIGINAL ART — THE ART MARKET - NEW ART VS OLD ART Mar 21, 2021 NEW ART – THE PRIMARY MARKET The primary sector of the art market is where newly created works are generally consigned by artists to a gallery or dealer who exhibits them. NEW ART – THE PRIMARY MARKET The primary sector of the art market is where newly created works are generally consigned by artists to a gallery or dealer who exhibits them. The gallery acts as an agent, and is remunerated through a commission on sales. It generally bears the cost of the exhibition and sets the prices, taking into account the size and medium of the works and the reputation of the artist. As it is uncommon for artists to have a ‘sell out’ show, works are generally held in the stock room and are available for sale after the exhibition while the dealer continues to attract customers, arrange commissions, enter works in art prizes, create publicity, and publish material promoting the artist. Having this sort of association with the dealer allows the artist to concentrate on their art production and this specialisation is ideally of benefit to both parties. Not all artists generate enough income to compensate dealers for the costs of conducting exhibitions, but galleries generally cross subsidise less successful artists with income derived from those whose works underpin the gallery’s financial viability. Formal contracts are far more common amongst non-Indigenous artists and their dealers than has been the case with Aboriginal artists. Even community art centres have argued strongly against exclusive contracts with artists whose lack of literacy and numeracy skills place them at a disadvantage in negotiations unless an educated local language speaker is present to assist in the process. Nevertheless, those galleries that have become signatories to the newly introduced Art Industry Code of Conduct have agreed to use standard contracts when working directly with Indigenous artists in order to demonstrate transparency and equity in their dealings. Daisy Chains – Jacob Stengle182.0 x 152.0 cm Contracts are only useful if they describe the role and responsibilities of each party toward each other. Most agents, whether community based or independent, have been extremely reluctant to subject Indigenous artists to punitive clauses that could lead to litigation, given the constant need for money to support families living in remote communities. However, whether under contract to a dealer or not, successful artists, both black and white, are liable to receive offers to move to other galleries and the majority of dealer rivalry arises from often emotive accusations of ‘poaching’. Most galleries eventually jettison unsuccessful artists and these eventually drop out of the artist-gallery system, while the galleries take on a mix of new younger, and already established artists that they are able to win over from others. As eminent economist Dr. Jon Stanton has observed, The abiding characteristic of the primary market is the general level of excess demand; there are more paintings for sale than there are willing purchasers. There are more artists than the number that can be represented by galleries; galleries exhibit more paintings than anyone is willing to buy, and galleries operate at lower than normal profit levels.’[1] The final point here is worth considering. Commercial galleries generally operate on between 30 and 50% commission for primary market sales. This figure is considerably lower than for many products sold through retail stores, especially those that are vertically integrated. (That is they manufacture their own products, mark them up to wholesale and then mark them up again to retail. This is how they can offer up to 80% off sales at the end of each season.) Due to their low commission structure and an oversupply of art, there is a high turnover of artists and galleries. While established galleries seek ‘marquee’ artists who can ensure their financial viability and underpin their elite reputation, the vast majority of galleries and dealers struggle to win the hearts and pockets of collectors, who are drawn from a variety of walks of life. While they have an interest in visual art, most of these ‘collectors’ are not wealthy and will visit galleries many times to seek advice and develop their passion. Only very occasionally do they ever actually purchase an artwork. Those galleries that screen artists, and thereby reduce their client’s search and transaction costs, immeasurably aid collectors, in particular those who seek new and innovative works of art. Galleries differ and the styles of work and particular artists they show. They attract collectors who share their taste and value their aesthetic ‘eye’ and critical judgement, as well as their business acumen. Today, however, there is a new competitor on the scene that is challenging the conventional ‘brick and mortar’ gallery system: Online sales. Make no mistake. This can be a game changer, and an enormous boon to art buyers. But it is a trap for the unwary and foolhardy. The rules of engagement still apply, whether you buy directly off the wall of an art gallery or over the web. [1] Dr. Jon Stanford FSIA, Submission to the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Discussion of the Proposed Resale Royalty Arrangement’2004 OLD ART – THE SECONDARY MARKET Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming – Gloria Tamerre Petyarre300.0 x 200.0 cm An artwork, having been originally purchased in the primary market, may remain in a private or public collection for a year or a decade; It may even remain in a single family for generations.Having sold art for nearly 40 years, many of my clients were in their 30s, 40s and 50s when they first bought a work from me. As their life circumstances change and age catches up with them, they inevitably look to sell them in the secondary market. Their artwork may have been created by a highly collectable deceased or living artist, or one who has disappeared into obscurity. Whatever the case, they will look for a dealer, auction house, or online platform to help them find a new home for their pre-loved collectable.There are many dealers who specialise in the work of deceased or highly collectable artists, whose works are sourced from existing collections. Premature offerings in the secondary market can easily destroy a living artist’s primary market performance if seen to be unsuccessful, or the price paid falls below current market expectations. For this reason artists, galleries, and agents occasionally seek to manipulate secondary sales in order to ensure that works created by artists they represent are ‘supported’. They may even introduce an artist’s work themselves in order to establish a secondary market profile as part of a strategy to underpin, or even boost, their primary market standing. In Australia there are a number of successful secondary market dealers, many of whom make no bones about the fact that they purchase a significant proportion of their stock at auction. The former major dealer Dennis Savill, Phillip Bacon, Rob Gould, and a number of others who have been highly visible, as well as a large number of independent dealers and art consultants, place works into and purchase works from the major auction houses. A number of smaller auction houses purchase from the larger ones, as it is more cost effective to pay the buyers premium on the open market than employ a permanent team of art specialists to find the works for them. These smaller auction houses stage sales in regional areas beyond the reach and focus of the major players. In recent years most art auction houses have developed online facilities.It is now possible to bid online in real time as the auction is taking place halfway around the world. New online art auction platforms can operate exclusively online, function live as well as digitally, or aggregate and provide access to dozens of auctions with online bidding.In auctions it is commonly said that 80% of the value is in 20% of the works. Most auction houses make their money by charging both the buyer and the seller. They charge the buyer a premium, currently between 20% and 25% on top of their winning bid (the hammer price of artwork). Depending on the rarity and desirability of an artwork, auction houses are generally prepared to lower their seller’s (vendor’s) commission, which can vary from as much as 20% on works worth less than $5,000 to 5% on works worth more than $100,000. In the case of some extremely rare and highly desirable pieces, auction houses will even consign them at 0%. However, while the sellers commission is always a matter of negotiation, the 20-25% ‘buyer’s premium’ is inviolable! Auction houses would never sacrifice a penny of it, as it represents the greater part of their income.An Australian ‘Tier One’ auction house will offer between 80 and 250 individual works of art worth a total of anything from $500,000 to $10 million in one single evening. In an attempt to attract fashionable and well-heeled audiences, and to achieve between 70 and 90% clearance (success) rates, the major auction houses produce full colour catalogues with the highest production values. They have just one shot at selling, after months of hard work. However, when run professionally auctions are, without a doubt, the most successful way of selling quality art. In the words of the mercurial Rod Menzies, proprietor of Menzies Art Brands. ‘There’s nothing as successful in the world of sales as Going…Going… Gone!’ More on buying and selling through auctions later on. 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