Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
email alcheringa
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<< back to artist listing
 Janice Murray
Tiwi Language Group
Milikapiti, Melville Island,
Tiwi Artist Janice Murray comes from Tinganuy country on Melville Island, the larger of the two Tiwi islands, situated off the coast north of Darwin.
Although she is one of the youngest of the practising Tiwi artists, her work has already been exhibited widely all over Australia since 1995.
Her painting depicts the body designs used in the Pukamani ceremony, the traditional Tiwi burial ceremony which is one of the cornerstones of the Tiwi peoples traditional beliefs.
Her art is also closely linked to stories of Purrukuparli, the Tiwi mythological ancestor and is characterised by geometric structures of lines and dots, every line and marking having an important meaning. These geometric patterns, common to most Tiwi art, often depict sites of stories of mythological significance involving ancestors who were changed into animals or birds. Each Tiwi artist has their own individual interpretation of the designs.
In 1996 she was commissioned to make etchings for the Crown Casino in Melbourne and the Australian Print Workshop.
Subjects and Themes
Flying Fox, Turtle, Body design
Collections
Fremantle City Council Collection, Western Australia
EXHIBITIONS
Group Exhibitions
1995 Jilamara Kapi Yurruka Manimpurrua (Designs on Long canvas and Pukamani Poles), Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne.
1995 National Aboriginal Art Award, NTMG, NT
1996 Tiwi People from Melville Island, Anima Gallery Adelaide
1996 Masterpieces from Milikapiti, Savode Gallery, Brisbane
1996 Etchings & Lino Blocks from Melville Island, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
1996 Journey of the Birds, Raintree Gallery, Darwin
1997 Ochre and Ink, Savode Gallery, Brisbane
1997 Old Designs, Framed Gallery, Darwin
1997 Betty Rymer Gallery, The School of Art Institute of Chicago First Persons Plural
1997 Old Tiwi, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1997 Mob of Women, Australian Art Print Workshop, Melbourne
1997 Small Designs - Jewellery and Paintings, Savode Gallery, Brisbane
1998 The Old and the New, Gallery Gondawana, Alice Springs, NT
Bibliography
Art of the Tiwi from the Collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1994
Narrative and Decoration in Tiwi painting: Tiwi representations of the Purukuparli Story, Art Bulletin of Victoria 33 39-47, 1993
The Body Tiwi, Aboriginal Art from Melville and Bathurst Islands, exhib.cat., The University Gallery, University of Tasmania, Launceston
Bennett J; 1992, Ngingawula Jilamara Kapi Purunguparri (Our paintings on bark), 'Gallery Monthly' Magazine of the National Gallery of Victoria, September
Medium
Ochres on paper, canvas and bark and printmaking and jewellery design
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