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  • Rosella Namok - Artist Profile - Cooee Art Leven

    Artist Profile for Rosella Namok < Back Rosella Namok Rosella Namok 1979 ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE ROSELLA NAMOK - WET SEASON GO OVER SOLD AU$12,000.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - OLD GALS YARNING INTO THE NIGHT SOLD AU$8,000.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - WATER HOLE…WER WATCHEE SOLD AU$6,000.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - RED CEDAR SOLD AU$4,500.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - STINGING RAIN... WER ANKGUM SOLD AU$3,000.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - GATHERING STORM IV SOLD AU$2,400.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - GATHERING STORM I SOLD AU$2,400.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - SAND MARKS SOLD AU$1,800.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - DIFFERENT TIDES Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - EVERYONE DANCE Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - STINGING RAIN Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - STINGING RAIN... WET ROCKY POINT Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - STINGING RAIN...WET SEASON Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - STINGING RAIN.... DARK NIGHT SOLD AU$12,000.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - EARLY MORNING RAIN SOLD AU$6,000.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - LAGOON OUT AT PIN PIN SOLD AU$6,000.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - COUPLES SOLD AU$3,200.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - FULL MOON SOLD AU$3,000.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - SUNSET RAIN V SOLD AU$2,400.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - GATHERING STORM II SOLD AU$2,400.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - THE FAMILY Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - NEW VILLAGE Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - UNCHII... BURN GRASS SEASON Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - SUGAR BAG... DRY SEASON Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - FISHING WEATHER Sold AU$0.00 ROSELLA NAMOK - MORNING SHOWER RAIN... YO FALL DOWN Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Rosella Namok 1979 Rosella Namok describes herself as a ‘modern artist’. Her painting engages traditional themes but she explores them in her own distinctive style, bearing the markers of a modern sensibility. The ‘culture and stories’ of which Namok paints revolve loosely around several narratives. They are stories of her social and physical or natural environment featuring events such as hunting and fishing expeditions, weather patterns of rain and wind, or the stories of Kapay and Kuyan, the two opposing moieties that govern marriage relations in Namok’s Ungkum community. These tribal moieties were brought together into one community under the governance of the Christian missions that were established in the Lockhart River area in 1920. Also apparent in Namok’s work are themes relating to traditional knowledge of country including kinship relations as well as tribal law in relation to the both the individual and their community. In fact, it was her wish to explore and establish her correct lineage, her ‘right place’ within the whole, that initially sparked much of the imagery that takes shape throughout the entire scope of Namok’s art. She emerged as a member of the Lockhart River ‘Art Gang’ that burst onto the contemporary art scene in the late 1990’s. Its formation following upon a successful program developed to encourage education and employment in an area that is quite remote from the larger cities of Queensland’s far north. The initiative brought the community together in its concern to provide vocational and enterprising opportunities for their young people. Well managed funds, regular art excursions and a succession of visiting artist’s (including Guy Warren, Garry Shead, Adam Rish and cartoonist Michael Leunig) propelled some members of the popular art classes into the league of professional practise, with Namok emerging as a leading figure. Printmaking, under the guidance of Fran and Geoff Barker, played a significant role in Namok’s artistic development, the consequences of which can still be seen in her layered approach to the use of colour. An element of the unexpected intrudes as different layers have subtle effects on each other, refining inherent oppositions. A fundamental theme in Namok’s work is ‘Difference’, which she explores through deceptively simple motifs. The everyday titles of her paintings tether the abstracted imagery to the figurative ‘real world’, with all of its tensions and disharmonies. This is best illustrated in works like Main Street 2005 , in which a series of concentric rectangles, optical and irregular, create a composition of shifting spaces, which generates an uneasy disconcerting atmosphere. Namok is painting the grid of her streets viewed from an aerial perspective, imitating a traditional Indigenous technique, (conventional in the acrylic dot paintings of the Western Desert). Her move into the abstract however, allows her to evoke the intrigues and disfunctionality within a largely closed community; the kind of stories we might witness if we were to x-ray the suburb from above. In this, and other similar works, Namok depicts the literal grid of streets and simultaneously evokes a grid of emotions and relationships thereby intuitively bridging the figurative/abstract, traditional/modern diametric. In such a way her symbols can represent both figurative and abstract forms without having to demarcate between the two. Her paintings resolve at the point of experience. They are expressions of a way of life in Lockhart River where ancestral heritage is part of everyday life, and tradition finds form in the modern. Namok talks about the value of just ‘yarning’, telling stories as a way of communicating life experience (Neales 2002: 12). Yarning has the power to evoke Dreaming narratives or may be about the events of ongoing life that hold some meaning to Namok herself or her community. In a series of paintings concerning the ‘old girls’, Namok pulls strong lines across nebulous drifts of colour. Her technique mirrors the way the women draw their fingers through the sand while passing on stories. Like all of Namok paintings, this series resonates with her sense of pragmatism, reflected in the subjects she chooses to paint as well as in the vigour and inventiveness with which she conveys them to the canvass. Each panel is different, just as different characters emerge within the group of yarning women, but a tonal and formal coherence holds the series together. Namok’s ‘rain paintings’ have been the most commercially successful strand of her work. In these, shifting scapes of water and land reflect the volatile nature of the tropical weather. During the wet season, sheets of drenching rain and annual floods close the roads for up to five months. The mood and activities of the community significantly alter. In her more recent works, Namok concentrates on a style of painting that involves building up layers of paint, wet on wet, over and over. Then, using a rubber thong or palette knife, she strips the layers back to reveal the shifting colours beneath. These works can be enigmatic or direct depending on serendipitous happenstance. It has been said that they evoke the feeling and effect of peering through a veiled window or doorway. Since her first solo exhibition in 1999 at Sydney’s Hogarth Gallery, Namok has risen to prominence to become almost a celebrity figure; for at twenty-three she was, anecdotally at least, the highest grossing Australian artist of her age. Over the last decade she has exhibited around the world, She continues to work consistently from her home in Lockhart River, and from a studio in Cairns, where she now owns a home. Having smiled beatifically from the front cover of At Collector magazine and been included at such a tender age in its 50 Most Collectable artists, she has assumed a cult-like status with regular sell out shows at her galleries in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Rosella Namok rose to sudden artistic prominence at 23 years of age. In 2001 and 2002 she was listed in Art Collectors 50 most collectable artists. She was cast, in the contemporary Indigenous art scene, as a celebrity figure and this, along with professional representation and sound mentoring, resulted in an exponential rise in the market value of her work. It is extraordinary to think that this young artist has already had at least 30 solo exhibitions since 1999 at galleries of the quality of Hogarth and Coo-ee Galleries in Sydney, Andrew Baker and Fireworks Galleries in Brisbane, Vivien Andreson and Niagara Galleries in Melbourne as well as October Gallery in London. In addition, her works have been shown in Paris, Washington, Georgia, Berlin, Austria and Slovenia. In 2000 she won the Lin Onus Youth Award at the fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Awards and in 2004 the High Court Centenary Art Award. The list of quality galleries that have held her solo exhibitions is only just as impressive as the number of important Australian and International collections that have acquired her work. Such was the hype around her persona and her art that Sydney Morning Herald art critic John McDonald, in commenting on the nature of buyers investing in her early work in 2005, noted that its entry into the market came at a time somewhat after the original boom period of investment in the contemporary Aboriginal art of Arnhem Land and the Western Desert. He described the collectors of Namok’s early work as heralding a ‘second wave’. of interest in Aboriginal art. He wrote: ‘I suspect that Namok’s work is being bought primarily as an investment, and only secondly by genuine fans. All those small buyers who never secured a Rover [Thomas] or an Emily [Kame Kngwarreye] when they were affordable are determined not to miss out this time around’ (McDonald, 2005, 28). There is definitely a grain of truth in this. Her paintings first appeared on the secondary market in 2003 and at what is still a very early stage in her career, no less than 111 works have already been offered for sale in the secondary market. While the buoyant secondary market was dominated by private investors during the mid 2000s, there is, in equal part, a discernible league of genuine aesthetic appreciators to be found at her gallery openings, who continue to support her finest works, and paintings owned by these collectors are unlikely to appear at auction for quite some time. Her two highest records at auction fit neatly with the prices currently asked by her primary market galleries for equivalent works. It would be a foolhardy secondary market player indeed that ignored such an important emerging primary market performer at such a vital stage in the development of their career. Her record stands at the $31,070 paid for a 165 x 260 cm canvas titled Rain Dreaming , which sold at Christie's in August 2005 (Lot 157), while her next best result was the $28,800 paid for the five panel Old Girls.They Talk in the Sand.Yarn Far Before Time 2004 in Lawson~Menzies June 2005 auction (Lot 59). Namok is also known as a print artist however her works on paper have not fared well to date. Of the 10 prints offered only six have sold for a very disappointing $200 average price. Only one work in her top ten results has resold and this occupies both her ninth and 11th best result. Para House 2001 a canvas measuring 186 x 133 cm, originally sold at Lawson~Menzies in May 2006 for $13,200 (Lot 38) and resold in Decmeber 2008 for $12,000 (Lawson Menzies Lot 216). It was a good work but demonstrated clearly the need to hold on to Namoks works for some time in order to take a profit. As if further evidence is needed, in 2007 and 2008 only 11 of the 25 offered have found a buyer. And results have been deeply disappointing at auction since that time. Rosella Namock is a very interesting young Indigenous artist and collectors would be wise to keep a keep a cool but discerning eye on her progress over the coming years. Don’t be taken in by all the hype. She is a fine artist and is capable of beautiful enigmatic works that explore both the landscape of her country and the culture of its inhabitants. She has been positioned in the public eye as an example of a new wave of contemporary/traditional painters but her work defies simple categorisation. Her career was initially managed superbly and if, as we all hope, this continues, collectors should not be afraid to invest in her finest paintings. They will undoubtedly prove their worth both aesthetically and financially in the long term. 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 .

  • Carol Puruntatameri - Artist Profile - Cooee Art Leven

    Artist Profile for Carol Puruntatameri < Back Carol Puruntatameri Carol Puruntatameri 1959 - REGION | Yapalika (Melville Island, NT) LANGUAGE | Tiwi ART CENTRE | Munupi Arts & Crafts ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS Carol Puruntatameri was born in 1959 on Wurrumiyanga (Bathurst Island) and later moved to Pirlangimpi on Melville Island, her father’s country, where she developed a profound connection to Tiwi cultural traditions. Growing up within a family deeply engaged in ceremony and art, Puruntatameri’s early exposure to Tiwi painting was shaped by her uncle, the respected artist Justine Puruntatameri, who actively taught her and other family members at the Munupi Art Centre. She was also influenced by her father’s work painting Pukumani poles and his participation in Kulama ceremonies, including the traditional body painting he performed with a mirror. READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPAL SOLD AU$19,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$19,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPAL (DIPTYCH) Sold AU$18,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$7,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$6,500.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPAL SOLD AU$4,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI SOLD AU$4,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI SOLD AU$3,500.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI SOLD AU$3,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$2,200.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI AND PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$0.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$19,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI SOLD AU$18,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$7,500.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$7,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI SOLD AU$5,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI SOLD AU$4,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI SOLD AU$3,500.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$3,500.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$3,000.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI PURRUKUPAL Sold AU$1,800.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Carol Puruntatameri 1959 - REGION | Yapalika (Melville Island, NT) LANGUAGE | Tiwi ART CENTRE | Munupi Arts & Crafts Carol Puruntatameri was born in 1959 on Wurrumiyanga (Bathurst Island) and later moved to Pirlangimpi on Melville Island, her father’s country, where she developed a profound connection to Tiwi cultural traditions. Growing up within a family deeply engaged in ceremony and art, Puruntatameri’s early exposure to Tiwi painting was shaped by her uncle, the respected artist Justine Puruntatameri, who actively taught her and other family members at the Munupi Art Centre. She was also influenced by her father’s work painting Pukumani poles and his participation in Kulama ceremonies, including the traditional body painting he performed with a mirror. Puruntatameri vividly recalls her childhood experiences of cultural rituals, noting: “Our fathers told all us girls: ‘Go down and cut sticks from mangroves to use in the ceremony.’ The sticks were put in a circle around the middle circle and the men go out and collect the Kulama (bush yam). We were all there, all my family, when our fathers were doing Kulama ceremony.” These formative experiences deeply inform her artistic practice, which reflects the ceremonial life, ancestral stories, and cultural heritage of the Tiwi people. Her painting practice began through observing and copying her father’s work. Her paintings often tell stories, combining intricate geometric designs rendered with natural ochres on bark, embodying the spiritual and cultural narratives of Tiwi ceremony. She advocates for the preservation of cultural treasures such as clap sticks and Tokoinga—ceremonial balls made from beeswax and feathers—expressing a vision to establish a museum at Munupi Art Centre to educate future generations and preserve Tiwi heritage. Since joining Munupi Arts in 2010, Puruntatameri has become a leading contemporary Tiwi bark painter. Her contributions were recognised in 2024 when she was selected as a finalist in the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), cementing her position as a vital voice within Indigenous Australian art. ARTIST CV Selected Collections: Art Gallery of South Australia , Adelaide, SA Richmond Football Club, Melbourne (Maurice Rioli Room) Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2025 Purunguparri, Laundry Gallery, Darwin NT Selected Group Exhibitons: 2025Melbourne Art Fair 2025- Alison Puruntatameri & Carol Puruntatameri Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne Vic 2024Ngini Ngawula Pikaryingini (Our Stories), Hilton Double Tree; Darwin; NT 2024Yoi, SAATCHI Gallery; UK 2024Rising Stars, Outstation Gallery; Darwin; NT 2024Across the Water Exhibition Artitja Fine Art; Fremantle; WA 2024Yoi GJM London; UK 2024Game, Set, Match. Cooee Art Leven ; Redfern NSW 2023Rotary Club Victor Harbor Art Show 2024, Victor Harbor Sa 5211 2023Ngarukuruwala Kapi Murrukupuni (we sing to the land), Cooee Art Leven; Redfern; NSW 2022Art of Tiwi Artists of Munupi- Tarnanthi Festival 2023 Exhibition Aiarts gallery; Belair ; SA 2022NGININGUWULA KURRUJIPUNI Our Own Tiwi Ochre Colours Darwin Hilton Double Tree, august 2022LINE IN PARRALLEL Artitja Fine Art Gallery; South Fremantle; WA 2022Tiwi Creation. Cooee Art Leven Redfern, NSW 2021Rotary Club Victor Harbor Art Show 2022 Victor Harbor SA 5211 2021Earth Magic Tineriba Art Gallery, Hahndorf, SA 2021 2021Earth Magic AIARTS, Belair, SA 2021 2021Tiwi Papers; Tarnanthi Festival 2021; Art Gallery of South Australia 2021YIRRINKIRRIPWOJA JILAMARA Darwin Hilton Double Tree, august 2021 2020Tiwi Islands to Arnhemland Munupi Maningrinda Artitja Fine Art Gallery; South Fremantle; WA 2019Pupini Jilamara Nginingwula (our Beautiful paintings). Hilton Double Tree Hilton, August 2019 2017Earth Matters. Form: The Goods Shed; Claremont: WA; 6010; 29 September 17 to 27 February 2017Yrringinkirri Pwoja Hilton Double Tree Hilton, August 2017 2016Point of difference;Desent to sea. Artitja fine Art at Engine Room.Perth.WA 2016Ngawila Jilamara Exhibition. Hilton Double Tree, Darwin Nt 2016Spirutual Materialism. Illena Tounta Art Centre, Athens , Greece 2014WE ARE TIWI, Munupi Artists from Melville Island. Artitja Fina Art, Fremantle, WA 2013‘Nga-wuja arungwapi We are going forward’. Tiwi Art Network Annual Exhibition, Darwin, NT 2011‘Munupi Artists of Melville Island’. Artitja Fine Art, Fremantle, W.A 2011‘Nginingawila Kurrujipini (Our Colour)’ Tiwi Art Network, Darwin, NT Bibliography: 2016Spiritual Materialism; Dimitios Antonitsis; Illeana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre, Athens, Greece Awards: 2024Finalist, Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award 2024Victor Harbor Art Show 24 - indigenous Art Award; (Icon Cancer Centre) 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 .

  • Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri - Art Leven

    TjapaltjarriTim L Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri 1934 - 1984 Djabaldjari, Timmy Leurah, Timmy Madgera Before settling with his wife Daisy and their six children at Papunya in the early 1950’s, Tim Leura was born c. 1934 and grew up and worked around Napperby and nearby cattle stations that had taken over his traditional tribal lands north-west of Alice Springs. Working for white people gave him a command of English as well as some familiarity with European ways, but tribal traditions were also maintained in this area and Leura was steeped in ancient lore. Along with his younger ‘brother’, Clifford Possum, he was acclaimed for his wooden carvings of snakes and goannas prior joining in the early artistic endeavours at Papunya. Despite his initial reservations, Leura approached Bardon and became one of the four founding members of the Western Desert art movement. He was reportedly ‘someone you sensed had thought a lot, and deeply' (Wolseley 2000: 377) and once he made a wholehearted commitment became invaluable to Bardon as friend, assistant, and interpreter. Bardon wrote of him as ‘a most gentle and endearing man…he was my dearest and closest friend in the Western Desert' (2004: 89). Through the trials and tribulations of the art movement’s exuberant though fragile beginnings, Leura enabled the necessary dialogue to develop between Bardon and ‘the painting men’ and then later with interested outsiders. He was noted as having enlisted Clifford Possum, also a renowned wood carver, to the painting group. As the group grew, the men would often burst out in laughter at Bardon’s efforts to understand their explanations of paintings or his attempts to discuss visual aspects of their work, sometimes 'through relays of translations'. Yet Bardon recalls, Leura could always come up with a story that was comprehensible and acceptable to all. In the process of acting as interpreter between artists and Bardon, Tim Leura also began developing his own distinctive painting style. It showed a willingness to engage with a cross-cultural sensibility to a greater degree than any other of his contemporaries. His desire to straddle the cultural divide, which impelled him to become a leading figure in Aboriginal art, was also the source of a deep melancholy, often discernable in his painting. Sitting in his own corner of the painting room with his board across his knees, Leura initially followed the ordered and symmetrical style that typified his Anmatyerre Arrernte tribal group and which proved appealing to buyers. He was drawn to subdued tones, mixing colours, dotting on to wet grounds, and blending outlines so that shapes would often run into each other. With great subtlety, he would include stylised animal, plant or skeletal human figures without disturbing his partiality for balance and clarity of design. Bardon strove to curb the group’s raw enthusiasm enough to slow their working procedures down and allow technical proficiency and stylistic innovations to develop. In Leura’s case this was to yield a creative departure from strict topographical and totemic mapping towards more painterly experimentation. He developed a remarkable elegance of tracery and filigree effects that eddied beneath and between the surface dotting, thereby creating a depth of suggested, though camouflaged, meaning. The style he developed was in keeping with the move to secularise the sacred Dreaming stories so that non-tribal outsiders could view them. In his quietly authoritative manner Tim Leura maintained a considered discretion in imparting traditional knowledge. He anguished over the loss and the humiliation his people had suffered and recognized that the eternal stories of his Dreaming must be kept alive and passed on to the new generations. Promoting awareness of his ancient cultural heritage seemed the best remedy for its threatened dissolution. Following the establishment of the Aboriginal Arts Board by the newly elected Labour government in 1972, Leura participated in a successful delegation to Sydney to secure funds for the emerging Papunya Tula enterprise. While today Clifford Possum is the better known of the two ‘brothers’ Tim Leura is recognised as having been Possum’s spiritual mentor and instrumental in the development of Possum’s talent and technique. In the mid 70’s they collaborated on a series of monumental paintings incorporating several Dreaming stories in a map-like configuration. These works are regarded as being among the most significant in Aboriginal art. One of these, an 8.2 metre work on canvas, Warlugulong 1976 was exhibited in the 1981 Australian Perspecta and is in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW. Another collaborative work, Napperby Spirit Dreaming, was the principal painting in the landmark Asia Society, Dreamings exhibition (1988-1989) and is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. In this magnificent seven-metre masterpiece produced in 1980, Clifford Possum and Tim Leura depart from a group tribal vision tethered to country and tradition, and reveal a subjective gathering of their own life history. Contained areas or ‘windows’ depict the Dreaming totems that sustained their life while a classic journey line runs through them, passing a skeletal spirit figure who waits and watches beside three resting spears. The sombre, dappled surface reflects the deeply felt memory of Leura’s birthplace, recreating qualities of the landscape: leaves, smoke and grass, sand and earth imprinted with tracks and footprints. Clifford Possum’s crisp traveling line and central row of circles, contrasts with Leura’s meandering mode of building atmosphere through the disolution of solid form. He evokes a sense of the numinous, appealing to an aesthetic sense that transcends the arrangements of earthly existence. Often read as a painting in which death is dramatically prefigured, Leura became ill not long after finishing it and wandered lost and disoriented for a time before sadly dying in hospital of a brain tumor, his prolific career and unique perspective prematurely cut short. This painting, hanging in the National Gallery of Victoria, is a testament to Tim Leura’s far-reaching vision open to both the world of eternal stories, and to their sometimes difficult grounding in the circumstances of an individual life. Tim Leura painted for just 12 years and passed away in 1984, still several years before the desert painting movement spread to communities beyond Papunya, and long before Aboriginal art gained wide acceptance nationally. His most successful works at auction were created at either the beginning or toward the end of his short career. Although his record price was for a work created just two years before his death, and this sold for more than twice his second highest result, early boards created between 1971 and 1972 occupy eight of his top ten prices at auction. Sotheby’s offered five of his earliest boards in 1998 and all sold for prices so far in excess of their high estimates that the average price paid for one of these in that year was a staggering $68,145. These paintings are of great ethnographic, historic, and aesthetic value and engender the most delicate beauty. This is true of all of Leura’s paintings when rendered in fine varied dotting and subtle hues. It is especially apparent in the almost sparkly early Men's Dreaming board, which at just 54 x 35 cm, created the artist's second highest record in Sotheby's June Auction 2011 (Lot 13). However those early boards with plain backgrounds, and mid 1970s works, have not been as desirable to collectors, and have failed to achieve such high prices. Tim Leura’s highest selling work, Kangaroo at Ritjulnya, painted in 1982 for Papunya Tula and measuring 152 x 181 cm, sold for twice its high estimate in Sotheby’s July 2006 sale (Lot 90). Aesthetically it is a most pleasing work and, even though it was a large canvas painted by a fragile man near the end of his life, he managed to complete a wonderfully intricate dotted background. However it is unlikely that there are any more than a few other 1980s works of this standard and size in private hands. Since 1998, the majority of Leura’s works that have come onto the market have been boards or canvases painted during the period between 1973 and 1979 and these have sold for an average price of around $30,000. The highest price for a sculpture or artefact was the $9,600 paid for a 71 cm long painted beanwood shield at Sotheby's in November 2007(Lot 102). Leura’s sales rate is high at 82% with the 20 unsold works out of the 112 offered generally failing due to reserves that have been too ambitious, or because they have represented his least desirable styles or periods. Sotheby’s have been by far the most prolific house offering Tim Leura’s works with a sales total of more than $1 million from the 58 works it has sold. Leura's highest grossing year was 1998 when all nine works offered found new homes for a total of $303,150. His next best year was 2007 when $270,346 was generated from the ten works sold of 13 offered. Not much of real quality appreared until 2011 when Sotheby's doubled the upper estimate of one work fetching $162,000 (Lot 13) despite the dampened market, and subsequently, when a sensational early board Untitled, Rainmaker Bird Ceremony, 1972 reappeared for sale for the first time since 2002. Originally sold by Sotheby's for $59,250, it achieved $109,250 in the Cooee Art MarketPlace in 2018, the ast time any of his works have been offered at public auction. Of the two other works that were offered in the same sale, a 1979 rendition of Love Story that sold for $35,750 in 2002 was passed in while the other sold at its mid estimate. It has been said that Tim Leura was, in Aboriginal eyes at least, a more important figure than Clifford Possum, who lived for another 18 years after his brother’s death and became one of the most prolific and successful Aboriginal artists of all time. While Leura’s output was relatively small, his best works are exquisitely rendered and highly collectable. Works by Leura have an extremely high success rate of 82% at auction. They are important paintings, and will over time, become more and more coveted, as was evidenced with his stellar sale in 2011. Their rarity will be matched by a corresponding increase in value. Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

  • Shirley Puruntatameri - Artist Profile - Cooee Art Leven

    Artist Profile for Shirley Puruntatameri < Back Shirley Puruntatameri Shirley Puruntatameri ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE SHIRLEY PURUNTATAMERI - PUPUNI JILAMARA SOLD AU$2,000.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Shirley Puruntatameri 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 .

  • Charlotte Sky - REGISTRAR & GALLERY ASSISTANT - Art Leven (formerly Cooee Art)

    REGISTRAR & GALLERY ASSISTANT < Back Charlotte Sky REGISTRAR & GALLERY ASSISTANT Charlotte is a Kamilaroi woman from Yuin Country, with a background in film and the arts she started with the gallery in 2024 is now the registrar and gallery assistant. charlotte@artleven.com +61 (02) 9300 9233

  • Yuyuya Nampitjin - Artist Profile - Cooee Art Leven

    Artist Profile for Yuyuya Nampitjin < Back Yuyuya Nampitjin Yuyuya Nampitjin ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE YUYUYA NAMPITJIN - ROCKHOLE AT UMARI Sold AU$2,200.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Yuyuya Nampitjin 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 .

  • Paddy Sims Tjapaltjarri - Art Leven

    TjapaltjarriPaddy Paddy Sims Tjapaltjarri Paddy Sims Tjapaltjarri 1916 - 2010 Paddy Tjapaltjarri Sims (1916-2010) was born south-west of Yuendumu prior to contact with Europeans. He began painting in the early 1980’s while passing on his knowledge to many of the young men at the Yuendumu school. There was concern among the Warlpiri elders at the time, that the young people were loosing touch with their cultural identity. In 1984, the school principle asked the senior men to paint ancestral designs on the school doors. In all, thirty doors were painted by Paddy Sims, Paddy Stewart, and three other countrymen. The five artists let loose with loud pinks, purples and blues in a confident gestural style, revolutionary and raw but also determinedly political. This ‘eruption of painting’ was characterized by large brushstrokes and a ‘messy’ finish, clearly distinguishing it from the earthy ochres and hard edge precision of Papunya works. After the doors were completed, thirteen huge collaborative canvases were painted by the men and brought south for the world to see. Their recognition and legitimization by the educational authorities at Yuendumu, helped to fuel the confident, flamboyant Warlpiri style that took the art world by surprise during the mid 1980’s. Over time Paddy Sims played a seminal role in refining this trademark style. By 1986, Warlukurlangu Artists had been established and Paddy became one of its principle male artists. He was selected by The Power Gallery, Sydney University, to travel to Paris with five other Warlpiri men from Yuendumu to create a ground painting installation at the exhibition 'Magiciens de la Terre' at the Centre Georges Pompidou. The trip took place in May 1989 and the painting was received with world-wide acclaim. Twelve years after their creation, having survived the harsh desert elements and school children’s graffiti, the ‘Yuendumu Doors’ were purchased by the South Australian Museum . They were taken away for a long period of restoration and subsequently toured nationally. In 2000 Paddy Sims and Paddy Stewart, the two principle participants, undertook to produce 30 etchings of the original Yuendumu Doors. Under the guidance of Basil Hall, Northern Editions Printmaker (Northern Territory University) they created a folio of prints that was received with great acclaim. It won the 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, for works on paper. From the moment he began painting Paddy Sims’ was revered as one of the greatest of all Warlpiri male artists. His paintings were included in numerous landmark exhibitions. Amongst them was Dreaming: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1988; The Continuing Tradition, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989; and Mythscapes: Aboriginal Art of the Desert, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1989. A Market Analysis will be available soon. Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

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