Art, Aboriginal - Austrlaia's most famous and biggest collection -

The Art Gallery of Western Australia’s (AGWA) new exhibition space, Six Seasons Gallery (named after the Noongar weather patterns), is dedicated to the display and interpretation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art from the State Art Collection. There are nearly 3,000 Indigenous works of art from across Australia held at the Gallery, and each one of these works offers insights, small and large, into Indigenous art, life, culture and experience.

Opening on 29 July is the first display, ‘Outside: Matters of the heart in Indigenous art’, of paintings, photography, drawings, prints and sculpture that alert the audience to the history and experiences of being an outsider in white Australian society. Artists include Shane Pickett, Lance (Tjyllyungoo) Chadd, Danie Mellor, Brenda L. Croft, Lena Nyadbi and Lin Onus, who, together, bring the idea of ‘outside’ inside for all of us to see.

As part of the ‘Six Seasons’ project, the AGWA plans to digitise its Indigenous art collection. The first phase is underway with 150 key works available online by spring. The gallery will continually add to this online collection ensuring that AGWA’s significant collection of works can be viewed across the world.

AGWA Director, Stefano Carboni, said, “The AGWA has one of the strongest collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in Australia. As part of the Six Seasons initiative, a new Gallery space for the ongoing display of Aboriginal art will provide an important window from which we can share one of the world’s oldest living cultures.”