Exhibition On View: September 9th – October 15th, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 9th, 2017, 6pm – 8pm
Marc Straus Gallery, New York in association with Mitchell Fine Art, Brisbane will host the second solo exhibition of Award winning Indigenous artist Margaret Loy Pula in New York opening early September.
Hailing from the remote community of Utopia in Central Australia, Pula continues a legacy that dates back millennia. Painting traditional stories handed down from her father she depicts homelands, bush foods and ceremonial designs using a patternation of intricate dot work.
An integral part of her culture, Pula’s primary subject matter is ‘Anatye”, the wild yam or bush potato. More than just a source of sustenance the yam holds a deep spiritual significance to the Anmatyerre people of Central Australia.
Pula has been exposed to art her entire life. Hers is a culture rich in symbolism and iconography. The Anmatyerre employ a visual and verbal record of ancient belief and custom rather than a written one. As such art is a part of everyday life from dance, ceremony and instruction to the uninitiated.
Margaret Loy Pula was this year’s winner of the prestigious Arthur Guy Memorial Prize at the Bendigo Art Gallery in Victoria with her work ‘Anatye’ being acquired into the Gallery’s collection.
For the 2017 Arthur Guy Memorial Prize, the judges, Dr David Hansen (Associate Professor of the Centre for Art History and Art Theory at the ANU School of Art and Design) and Hannah Matthews (Senior Curator at the Monash University Museum of Art) noted that, ‘with its demonstrable connection to country, the quietly mesmerizing (Pula’s) work could also be interpreted through the Western tradition of minimalist abstraction’.
In the last two years Pula has been in major exhibitions in New York, Brisbane, Singapore, Miami, New York and Mexico City. Her work is found in important public and private collections in Australia, Asia, the US and Europe.
Margaret is the winner of such notable prizes as the Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2011), Paddington Art Prize (2011), the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize (2012), the Muswellbrook Art Prize (2013), Redland Art Prize (2014) and the Grace Cossington Smith Art Prize (2014).
She has been a finalist in the Wynne Prize (2012), Sulman Prize (2013), Blake Prize (2013), Gold Coast Art Prize (2011), Fleurieu Art Prize (2013).
Margaret is represented by Mitchell Fine Art in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
Margaret will be travelling to New York with her representing gallery to attend the opening of her exhibition.
To view Margaret's works online please click here. To enquire on available works phone + 61 7 3254 2297 or email admin@mitchellfineartgallery.com
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Mitchell Fine Art is located at 86 Arthur St, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 10am - 5.30pm and Saturday 10am – 5pm.
Onsite customer parking is available.
