SYDNEY.- Yavuz Gallery, one of the leading contemporary art galleries in the Asia Pacific, today announced the premiere of a major debut exhibition Desert Songs by Western Aranda artist Vincent Namatjira OAM. Presented from 5-28 October 2023 at Yavuz Gallery in Surry Hills, Sydney, the exhibition coincides with a forthcoming monograph published by Thames and Hudson and major survey, Australia in colour, presented at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2023 and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, in 2024.

Founder and Director of Yavuz Gallery, Can Yavuz said: “Yavuz Gallery is tremendously proud to present Desert Songs, a seminal body of work by one of Australia’s most prominent artists. This exhibition tells the stories of his community and all that they have endured, celebrating icons of Aboriginal music and deploying his signature wit to bring other familiar faces onto his Country.”

Featuring thirteen new paintings, the exhibition tackles the rich themes and concepts of leadership, power and legacy. A show for these times, Desert Songs provides a platform for Namatjira to explore his own deeply personal histories through portraits of well-known figures that have shaped his life through art, music, and politics. Through these bold and unapologetically political paintings, Namatjira explores what it means to be Indigenous in Australia, or the world.

The Yavuz Gallery presentation includes celebrated works from Namatjira including Vincent and Vincent, Charles on Country and Desert Songs (Albert Namatjira).

A subversive portraitist, Namatjira uses wit and heart to interrogate the complex colonial narratives implicit in Australia’s relationship with the Empire from a contemporary Aboriginal perspective. Born in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, and now based in Indulkana on Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, South Australia, Namatjira is an acute observer of national and international politics.

“I started painting portraits because I’m interested in people and power, wealth and politics. For me, portraiture is a way of putting myself in someone else’s shoes as well as to share with the viewer what it might be like to be in my shoes. I use portraiture to look at my identity and my family history,” said artist Vincent Namatjira.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to utilise cheeky humour side-by-side with gut wrenchingly hard stories. Desert Songs is inspired by these stories.” said Vincent Namatjira.

“I don’t want to dismiss this element of what I refer to as ‘Guerrilla’ humour, which is a tactic used in Blackfella art to make Whitefella’s laugh at themselves. Let’s be honest, as Aboriginal men we have much more luck in interrogating White nuances through a joke than by pointing the finger. This is one of Vincent’s greatest attributes.” (p.171, Tony Albert on Vincent, from Vincent Namatjira by Vincent Namatjira, published by Thames & Hudson Australia, AUD$90.00, available 31 October 2023.)

“Painting after painting, he places himself in a history that has been brutal to his Western Aranda people.” (p.241, Ben Quilty on Vincent from Vincent Namatjira by Vincent Namatjira, published by Thames & Hudson Australia, AUD$90.00, available 31 October 2023).

Vincent Namatjira

Namatjira’s practice has gained significant recognition in Australia and overseas. In 2020, Namatjira was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in honour of his contribution to Indigenous visual arts. In the same year, he was the first Indigenous Australian artist to win the prestigious Archibald Prize. Namatjira was also the winner of the 2019 Ramsay Art Prize, Australia's most generous prize for artists under 40. In 2021, Namatjira was invited to produce the site-specific Circular Quay Foyer Wall Commission for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia. In 2022, Namatjira received a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship in recognition of outstanding talent and exceptional professional courage. Namatjira has been curated into major exhibitions internationally, including UN/LEARNING AUSTRALIA, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea (2022) and the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2018–19); Tarnanthi Festival, Art Gallery of South Australia (2017 & 2018); the TarraWarra Biennial, TarraWarra Museum of Art (2016); and Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation, the British Museum, London (2015). Namatjira’s work is held in significant collections including the British Museum, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Art Gallery of South Australia.

Yavuz Gallery will also present an artist talk featuring Vincent Namatjira in conversation with Executive Director of Artspace, Alexie Glass-Kantor, on Saturday, 7 October at 2pm.