For many years Alcheringa Gallery has been associated with wood sculpture from the master carvers of the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea. With this small collection of historically important and rare limited edition prints, created by four early contemporary artists from various parts of PNG, we are introducing an aspect of art creation that began in the mid-seventies. Three of these four artists were raised in villages, and they give us unique insight into life there through this new medium. David Lasisi interprets his view of the world through a mind and eyes that have been influenced by the encroaching western world, as a result of his education at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Mathias Kauage is PNG's best known artist. In 1998, he was honoured with an O.B.E. by Queen Elizabeth for his contributions to contemporary Papua New Guinean art. A painting he presented to the Queen now hangs in Buckingham Palace.

Born in Miugu Village in the highlands of Simbu Province, Kauage migrated to Port Moresby in 1968 and found work as a maintenance worker. He probably would have remained in that position had he not happened to attend the opening of Timothy Akis's first exhibition at the University. Kauage was so impressed that he approached Australian artist Georgina Beier with a few simple drawings and told her he wanted to become an artist. Although she was uncertain about his talents, Beier nevertheless was impressed by his perseverance and encouraged him to keep working until his lively witty style developed its full exuberance.

Admitted to the National Arts School in 1972, Kauage began exhibiting regularly and his lively drawings of modern technology and life in town made his work popular with expatriates and the new PNG elite. As Kauage's success and fame grew, he received many government commissions as well as many invitations to exhibit his work in Europe, Africa, and Australia. His best known works include figures he designed for the mosaic façade of the new PNG Parliament House as well as a series of images he made of the death of Highland leader Iambakey Okuk, which now hang in the National Gallery of Australia. However, Kauage's colorful imagery has also been selected for book covers, stamps, and covers of magazines, including the July edition of Australia's Art Monthly. Mathias Kauage died in May, 2003 at the age of sixty-six, but the vibrant legacy of his art continues in the work of his adopted son Apa Hugo and his brother-in-law John Siune.

Timothy Akis (known as Akis) has the distinction of being Papua New Guinea's first exhibiting artist. He was born about 1944 in Tsembaga village in the remote Simbai valley of Madang Province. As a young man, while working as an interpreter for visiting anthropologist Georgeda Buchbinder, he began to identify local plants and animals by making small drawings. Impressed by this creativity, Buchbinder brought Akis to Port Moresby and introduced him to Australian artist Georgina Beier. She invited him to work in her studio and encouraged him to create images drawn from his imagination. Akis delighted in letting his hand flow spontaneously, and he quickly developed a lively repertoire of cassowaries, lizards, and other creatures inspired by the wild life of his mountain home. Six weeks later, he held his first exhibition at the University of Papua New Guinea.

From 1969 until his premature death in 1984, Akis exhibited his work regularly at the National Arts School and it was also shown abroad in the USA, Great Britain, the Philippines, and Switzerland. Akis's earliest images are lively black and white drawings and limited print editions were made of this work. However, as his work developed, he also became interested in color and began to tell "stories" about his increasingly elaborate imagery.

Akis's work has continued to be exhibited posthumously. In 1989, drawings from the Hugh Stevenson collection toured the Pacific in the Exhibition "Luk Luk Gen"; in 2001, his work was included in an exhibition of prints by leading indigenous artists from Australia and the South Pacific entitled "Islands in the Sun" at the National Gallery of Australia; and in 1990 several original drawings and prints were included in the exhibition "Mak Bilong Ol" shown at the University of Nijmegen and other venues in The Netherlands.

Jakupa Ako (known as Jakupa) is also the recipient of an O.B.E, awarded in 1981. Born about 1942 in the Bena Bena region of the Eastern Highlands, his career as an artist began when he worked as a janitor in the newly opened Teachers' College at Goroko when he began to paint alongside enrolled students. Because his work showed great imagination, Tom Craig, the head of Expressive Arts, offered him a scholarship to Creative Arts Center (later renamed the National Arts School) when Craig became its first director in 1972.

Like Kauage, Jakupa is a lively chronicler of village and town life. His images are based on stories of local village myths or the life he sees around him. His love of color, coupled with his use of lively organic shapes, has created a strong rhythmic quality to his work that recalls the repetitive beat of traditional Highland dance. During his extended stay at the National Arts School as permanent artist-in-residence, Jakupa regularly exhibited his paintings and was also commissioned to do work for the government or private businesses. He has also exhibited in Australia and other Pacific venues. His best known work includes images on the façade of the Parliament House, murals at the Boroko market, and paintings that hang in the Prime Minister's and Speaker's offices. Several of his paintings are also included in Hugh Stevenson collection, which toured the Pacific in the exhibition Luk Luk Gen in 1990. His work has also been the subject of two commercial films made by the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies in 1974 and the Australian Film maker James Gerrand in 1977. Jakupa died suddently from malaria in 1997 while visiting Meganau, his home village. This is particularly ironic because, at the time of his death, the PNG government were using two of latest paintings to educate PNG people about malaria prevention. Jakupa's legacy as an artist is carried on by his son Pax Jakupa, who was awarded a Commonwealth Arts and Crafts Scholarship to the Oceania School of Arts in Figi in 2002.

David Lasisi's career as an artist has been distinguished but brief. He comes from Lossu Island in the Province of New Ireland - an area renowned for traditional Malaggan funerary art - and was among the first group of students with secondary education to study at the National Arts School. He enrolled in 1975 - the year of PNG Independence from Australia and, while at the school, was active in seeking to develop a style that resonated to his traditional roots but also to his new persona as a modern PNG artist.

The importance of identity was exemplified in Lasisi's 1978 solo exhibition, entitled "Searching". Deliberately ambiguous, his screen print images included resonances from his New Ireland artistic heritage, as well as techniques taken from a Western artistic heritage. In addition to his painting and print making, Lasisi also worked on a number of design projects run by the National Arts School's production workshop. These included designing the façade of the new PNG National Bank in Port Moresby, the painted façade of the new National Museum at Waigani, and murals for the Governor's residence and the Univesity of Technology at Lae. After graduating in 1978, the artist returned to New Ireland where he worked to establish a cultural center in New Ireland. He briefly studied in the USA as a Fulbright scholar and then entered politics. Although he no longer works as an artist because "if you follow two interests at one time, one will go down", he continues his strong support for PNG art. In 2001, images from "Searching" were included in an exhibition of prints by leading indigenous artists from Australia and the South Pacific entitled "Islands in the Sun" that were shown at the National PNG Museum and the National Gallery of Australia.