User:ArtHistorian Hank/sandbox

= Artist Name =

Ngarra (c.1920-2008) was an Aboriginal Australian artist of the Andinyin/Gija language groups. After commencing painting late in life, Ngarra became known for his works in natural pigments and acrylic paint on canvas and paper which depicted his homelands in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, along with events from the ancestral and colonial past. Among Aboriginal people in the central and east Kimberley he was revered for his deep knowledge of ceremonial practices which he learned from his grandparents Muelbyne and Larlgarlbyne while living nomadically in the remote Mornington Range.

Biography
Ngarra was born in 1920 on Glenroy Station in the west Kimberley. An orphan, he lived with his grandparents who had continued to live traditionally in the rugged Mornington Range.

Career
Ngarra started painting in 1994. His work was facilitated and documented by the anthropologist Kevin Shaw.

Ngarra's late paintings are defined by his use of vibrant color contrast, which he achieved by mixing Ara acrylic paints to create his own palette. Ngarra’s paintings contain many references to pre-colonial Aboriginal traditions. His works were exhibited at the Western Australian Museum in 2000, and some are held in the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of Western Australia and Museum Victoria.

Collections

 * Artbank
 * Art Gallery of Western Australia
 * Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia
 * Edith Cowan University
 * Museum Victoria
 * National Gallery of Victoria
 * Redland City Art Gallery
 * Western Australian Museum

Significant Exhibitions

 * 2000:    Ngarra, Images of His Country. Katta Djinoong Gallery, Western Australian Museum, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
 * 2000:    National Indigenous Heritage Award., Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
 * 2014:    The World is Not a Foreign Land. Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
 * 2015    No Boundaries: Aboriginal Australian Contemporary Abstract Painting. Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada, USA
 * 2015:    Tarnanthi. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.