Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
email alcheringa
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Hours of Operation
Monday - Saturday · 9:30am - 5:30pm
Sunday 12:00pm - 5:00pm
(or by appointment)
About Alcheringa
Alcheringa is an Aboriginal Australian word for the Dreamtime, the mythical time of creation, when the world and all living creatures were sung into existence. It is believed that singing and dancing maintain the state of the landscape, and that these invisible songlines hold the earth together.
For over twenty-five years Alcheringa Gallery has exhibited art by tribal artists.
The mandate of the gallery is to create a following for the work of individual aboriginal artists from three areas the Northwest Coast of Canada, Papua New Guinea, and Australia- in the fine art market in Canada and abroad. In particular we recognize and promote the work of master carvers still living a village lifestyle. Alcheringa reimburses artists at a level that allows them to maintain their position as artists within their communities, to live a traditional lifestyle (for those artists in the South Pacific), and to cover their medical expenses and school fees.
Gallery History
by Elaine Monds, Director
I was introduced to the art of Papua New Guinea through a collection I was fortunate to see in the mid-seventies. As a result of this encounter Alcheringa began to exhibit pieces accessed through collections until the fascination that I felt for the work led me to visit Papua New Guinea in 1984. There I fell in love not only with the art, but also with the people and culture from which it sprang. I have been on eight field trips, four of them with my colleague Hilda Tutton. Most of that time has been spent visiting artists on the Sepik River, but collections have also been made from New Ireland, New Britain, and Vanuatu.
As is the case of many indigenous cultures, this one is threatened by the breakdown of traditional ways of life, and as the ceremonial life disappears, so does the carving. It has been wonderful to watch as a market has developed for the finest work of the master carvers, so that in several villages there is some financial incentive for young men to stay to apprentice rather than venture forth to an uncertain future in the towns. Each major exhibition is accompanied by invitations and/or catalogues recognizing each artist and demonstrating the esteem in which she/he is held in the western world. These publications are circulated among the carvers and serve as an incentive to the young people in the village. All of Alcheringa's work is personally selected on site by gallery staff during expeditions to the area.
It was a natural progression in 1989 to begin to work with the art of our First Peoples. I was fortunate to meet many leading artists through a friend and mentor, Derek Simpkins, who had long acquaintance and profound knowledge of the art of the Northwest Coast. Alcheringa works with leading and emerging artists from the coastal nations. Over the past fifteen years the gallery has hosted major annual exhibitions of works, including solo shows featuring works by Tom Hunt, Tony Hunt Jr., and Tim Paul. Alcheringa has also established by means of annual exhibitions a tradition for miniature work that reflects a wide range of traditional forms, including carved mask pendants, bentwood boxes, baskets, and rattles.
Since 1989, contemporary Aboriginal Australian art has become an integral part of the gallery collection. In 1974, one of the major art movements of that century began in a small hamlet called Papunya in the Western Desert of Central Australia. Colonies of Aboriginal artists have grown in many areas. As well as works of mesmerizing beauty, their paintings have increased our understanding of an extraordinarily complex and previously misunderstood culture.
As a result of networking in North and Central Australia, Alcheringa Gallery has curated a number of exhibitions in other locations. Among them was Epama Epam, part of the cultural festival accompanying the Commonwealth Games in 1994. In this show, art from seven different areas of Australia appeared at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and six of the exhibiting artists attended. Alcheringa shows graphic works by over forty Aboriginal Australian artists, including artists from Mua Island in the Torres Strait.
Alcheringa Gallery has sponsored international travel and exchanges for artists from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Northwest Coast, and, recently, Mua Island in the Torres Straits. At a village level, Alcheringa has been involved with a medical project in Papua New Guinea that received matched funding from the Canadian International Development Association. A guest house was funded in Korogo Village in order to encourage the type of traveller who has sufficient interest in the culture to stay in the village and reimburse the villagers.
Increasingly we work with an ever-widening network of contemporary artists, from areas of the South Pacific- particularly from Papua New Guinea. The gallery is planning a major exhibition in 2005 which will include up to twenty of these artists, some of whom express their culture through two-dimensional work using acrylic paints, while others create wood sculptures often based in tradition but also reflecting life as it is lived today.
We are located at:
665 Fort Street
Victoria, British Columbia,
Canada V8W 1G6
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
EMAIL: Alcheringa@islandnet.com
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