Press and Editorial
Gunybi Ganambarr - incised + shaped barks, ceremonial poles & sculpture
8 October 2009Bill Gregory
» View Gunybi Ganambarr - incised + shaped barks, ceremonial poles & sculpture exhibition
GUNYBI GANAMBARR (born 1973) is probably the most exciting young artist of his generation to come out of NE Arnhemland. He is the son-in law of the great Djambawa Marawili and has absorbed and understood the elder mans art well and then taken it off into his own creative realm. Will Stubbs, one of the directors of Buku-Larrngay Mulka, the famous arts centre in Yirrkala, counted, in his brilliant catalogue essay, no less than nine innovations that Gunybi has either championed or been directly responsible for in the last five years.
The artist has an extraordinary sleight of hand and coupled with a deep commitment to and knowledge of Aboriginal law and stories has come up with some extraordinary work. The most noticeable innovations are the incising or carving and the shaping of the barks. The ?raark? or cross-hatching is not only painted but also actually carved into the surface of the work.
John McDonald, writer and critic at the Sydney Morning Herald, also writing in catalogue essay is equally impressed as Stubbs with the innovations and the imagination of the artist. He writes; ?Before Gunybi, no artist seemed to have asked theses questions. Certainly nobody has asked so many questions, or arrived at so many startling answers.? McDonald goes on to say that; ?if one could ever dare speak of a golden age of the medium it is not in some mythological past, it is today and tomorrow.?
GUNYBI GANAMBARR is proving himself to be one of THE artists to watch from any genre in this country ? not just Aboriginal art. A number of pieces from this show are already on reserve to major institutions and his past work has already been widely collected despite his relatively young age of thirty-six. Do not miss this opportunity to view what I am sure will prove itself to be a landmark event in visual art in this country ? the first solo show of GUNYBI GANAMBARR.
» View Gunybi Ganambarr - incised + shaped barks, ceremonial poles & sculpture exhibition
GUNYBI GANAMBARR (born 1973) is probably the most exciting young artist of his generation to come out of NE Arnhemland. He is the son-in law of the great Djambawa Marawili and has absorbed and understood the elder mans art well and then taken it off into his own creative realm. Will Stubbs, one of the directors of Buku-Larrngay Mulka, the famous arts centre in Yirrkala, counted, in his brilliant catalogue essay, no less than nine innovations that Gunybi has either championed or been directly responsible for in the last five years.
The artist has an extraordinary sleight of hand and coupled with a deep commitment to and knowledge of Aboriginal law and stories has come up with some extraordinary work. The most noticeable innovations are the incising or carving and the shaping of the barks. The ?raark? or cross-hatching is not only painted but also actually carved into the surface of the work.
John McDonald, writer and critic at the Sydney Morning Herald, also writing in catalogue essay is equally impressed as Stubbs with the innovations and the imagination of the artist. He writes; ?Before Gunybi, no artist seemed to have asked theses questions. Certainly nobody has asked so many questions, or arrived at so many startling answers.? McDonald goes on to say that; ?if one could ever dare speak of a golden age of the medium it is not in some mythological past, it is today and tomorrow.?
GUNYBI GANAMBARR is proving himself to be one of THE artists to watch from any genre in this country ? not just Aboriginal art. A number of pieces from this show are already on reserve to major institutions and his past work has already been widely collected despite his relatively young age of thirty-six. Do not miss this opportunity to view what I am sure will prove itself to be a landmark event in visual art in this country ? the first solo show of GUNYBI GANAMBARR.