Introduction to the Exhibition

Director, The Lockhart River Aboriginal Community Arts & Cultural Centre
Sue Ryan

It is with great pleasure I introduce the work of the Lockhart River
Art Gang to Italy for the first time. This year marks the tenth
anniversary of the establishment of the Lockhart River Aboriginal
Arts and Cultural Centre at Lockhart River, Far North Queensland,
Australia.

The Art Centre was set up to support and promote aboriginal
culture. It is a place where community people come to be creative
and share ideas and knowledge. It is a mix of young and old who
support each other in their arts and craft practice. Initially the
artists who came out of the Art Centre were all young people, still
in their teens. Those artists went on to gain incredible national and
international reputations at an early age. Most are still under the
age of thirty. These artists became widely known as the 'Art Gang'.

The Art Gang went on to become an Australian phenomenon
because it was the first time in history that a young contemporary
art movement was born out of an Aboriginal Art Centre. In other
Indigenous Art Centre's across Australia it was always the old people
who began painting. This was not the case at Lockhart River,
although the old people, particularly the women always contributed
considerably by giving young people inspiration for their painting
by sharing their knowledge, culture and stories.

These paintings speak about the land and the artist's connection to
that land. The vibrant colours used reflect the diverse, tropical
landscape where they live. After a ten year period we are starting to
see a shift appear at the Art Centre. The Art Gang continue to
exhibit with considerable success and some have left the community
to start new lives.

Recently the older women have started to paint. All of those stories
they told the young artists have started to spill onto the canvas.
From their first strokes we were excited by their natural ability,
contemporary feel and the unique spatial quality they expressed.
When the elder's were painting we noticed other younger people
became interested and started to paint also. There seems to be new
era evolving for the Art Centre. Is there a new art movement
forming?

We invite you all to come and experience an insight into another
world, another culture, both contemporary and ancient, young and
old. We hope you can share a little of Lockhart River with us and
celebrate our 10th anniversary. We give thanks to the people of
Spoleto and to the Comune for giving us this opportunity to
exhibit in the beautiful city of Spoleto, at the Museum of Modern
Art. We hope you enjoy the unique work of the talented young Art
Gang and our emerging elders.