Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
email alcheringa
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 Jimmy Pike
Turkey Creek,Great Sandy Desert,Kimberley,
Aboriginal artist Jimmy Pike lived in a bush camp on the edge of the remote Great Sandy Desert of north Western Australia where he painted, producing art for which he has become so renowned. Born in 1940, in remote sandhill country, Jimmy was a member of the Walmajarri people, one of the last groups to leave the desert and settle on cattle stations in the Kimberley during the 1950’s.
He spent his childhood as a nomad moving with his family around the various waterholes that were the focal points of their arid country. This country, its ancient culture and symbols are the things that inspired Jimmy Pike’s work.
For many years Jimmy Pike supplemented his earnings by carving and selling artifacts. It wasn’t until 1981 that he was first introduced to Western style painting and discovered his talent for art. A few years later he set up his isolated camp in the desert where he painted until his death in 2002. He worked in the open, resting his paintings on a rough work table he made from old planks. He stored his art and other materials under a heavy canvas fly, where he also took refuge from the rare seasonal falls of rain.
Jimmy Pike’s paintings of the physical and spiritual quality of his traditional Walmajarri country have added a new dynamic to the central positions of landscape in Australian art. They give a new dimension to our understanding of connections of place and identity. The artist’s themes of the intricacies of desert landscape, the visual character of the changing seasons and the particulars of its Aboriginal spirituality have transformed this extremely isolated area of the northern part of Australia into a tangible experience and affords the viewer a rare encounter with its beauty and sacredness. Jimmy Pike is one of Australia’s most famous Aboriginal artists. He is represented in the collections of all the major Australian public galleries and museums.
Subjects and Themes
Men chained, rainbow serpent
Collections
Australian Museum, Sydney
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
Art Gallery of SA, Adelaide
Art Gallery of WA, Perth
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Surfers Paradise, Qld
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
BHP Collection
Christensen fund Collection
Oodgeroo Collection
Qld University of Technology Collection
EXHIBITIONS
Individual Exhibitions
1985 Aboriginal Artists Gallery, Melbourne
1986 Aboriginal Artists Gallery, Sydney
1986 Black Swan Gallery, Fremantle
1987 Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra
1987 Tynte Gallery, Adelaide
1987 Craft Centre Gallery, Sydney
1987 Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo
1988 Birukmarri Gallery, Fremantle
1988 Capricorn Gallery, Port Douglas
1988 Tynte Gallery, Adelaide
1988 Blaxland Gallery, Sydney and Melbourne
1991 Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
Group Exhibitions
1984 Her Majesty’s Theatre, Perth
1985 Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Praxis, Fremantle
1987 Print Council Gallery, Melbourne
1987 Recent Aboriginal Art of WA, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1987 The Fourt National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the NT, Darwin
1987 Galerie Exler, Frankfurt
1987 Art and Aboriginality, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, UK
1988 Addendum Gallery, Fremantle
1998 Australian Aboriginal Graphics from the Collection of the Flinders University Art Museum
1989 Prints by Seven Australian Aboriginal Artists, International Touring Exhibition through the Print Council and Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade
1998 Aboriginal Art, The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1990 i’ete Australien a’ Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gallery, Montpeliler, France
1990 Balance 1990: Views, Visions, Influences, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Centre for the Arts, USA
1990 Tagari Lia, My Family, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from Australia, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK
1991 Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia
1991 The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.V 1992 Working in the Round, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
1992 Crossroads - Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art from Australia, National Museums of Art, Koyoto and Tokyo.
1992 The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1992 Kimberley Creations, Broome, WA
1992/3 New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal Australia, Touring USA and Australia
1993 The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1993 Galerie im Vinyard, Berlin
1994 New Tracks, Old Land Touring USA
1994 Contemporary Visions, Melbourne
1994 Artmove Claremont
1995 Art Gallery of WA, Major Retrospective
1996 NATSI Art Award, NTMG, Darwin
1996 Friendship Gallery Hefei, People’s Republic of China
1997 Durack Gallery, Broome
1997 Fireworks Gallery Brisbane
1997 Framed Gallery Darwin
1998 Rebecca Hossack Gallery London
1999 National Gallery of China Beijing
1999 NATSI Art Award, NTMG. Darwin
2000 Japingka Gallery, Perth
Bibliography
Aboriginal Artists of Western Australia, (n.d) (folios of works and biographies), Aboriginal Education Resources Unit, Western Australia
Aboriginal Arts Management Association, 1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 - from Australia (presented by the Aboriginal Arts Committee, Australia Council and Third Eye Centre, Glasgow), exhib. cat., Redfern
1988, Jimmy Pike Graphics from the Christensen Fund Collection, exhib. cat., Christensen Fund, Perth (C)
Butler, R., 1986, From dreamtime to machine time, Imprint 21(3-4), 11 (C)
Caruana, W., 1987, Australian Aboriginal Art, a Souvenir Book of Aboriginal Art in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory (C)
Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London (C)
Crossman, S. and Barou, J-P. (eds), 1990, L’ete Australien a Montpellier: 100 Chefs d’Oevre de la Peinture Australienne, MuseeFabre, Montpellier, France. (C)
Cochrane, G., 1992, The Crafts Movement in Australia: a History, New South Wales University Press, Kensington, New South Wales (C)
Chanin, E., 1990, (ed.), Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Roseville, NSW, Australia
Davis, J., (ed.), 1990, Paperbark: A Collection of Black Australian Writings, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia
Hill, M., and McLeod, N.,1984, From the Ochres of Mungo, Aboriginal Art Today, Dorr McLeod Publishing, West Heidleberg, Victoria (C)
Isaacs, J., 1989, Aboriginality: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings and Prints, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland (C)
Johnson, V., 1987, Art and Aboriginality, exhib. cat., Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth
Langton, M., 1992-93, The two women looked back over their shoulders & lamented leaving their country: detached comment (recent urban) & symbolic narrative (traditional), Aboriginal Art in the Public Eye, Art Monthly Australia Supplement, 7-9 (C)
Lowe P.Pike J. Jilji Magabala Books 1990
Lowe P.Pike J. Yinti Magabala Books 1992
Lowe P.Pike J.Desert Dog Magabala Books 1997
Lowe P.Pike J.Jimmy & Pat Meet the Queen Magabala Books 1999
McCulloch, A., & McCulloch, S., 1994, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, St Leonards, New South Wales
Perkins H. Beyond the Year of Indigenous Peoples, in Art and Australia 1993 Vol. 31 No 1 p 98-101
Ryan, J., 1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, exhib, cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Wallace, D., Desmond, M., Caruana, W., 1991, Flash Pictures, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings Ltd., Perth
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