Exhibition cost:                Free

Samantha Hobson’s (Lockhart River, FNQ) solo show Fracture will be featured in the mezzanine gallery at FireWorks. Eleven paintings express the development of new works alongside the artist’s existing and well-known bushfire and reef imagery.  Also exploring stories of ‘fire and water’ is Ronnie Tjampitinpa’s (Kintore, NT) exhibition on the ground floor, Special Edition, including six new large screen-prints. To complement the prints, new Wangarra Spirit bronze and aluminium sculptures by Serena Bonson (Maningrida, NT) will also be displayed.

For over 20 years Hobson has developed a dramatic expressionist style often using vivid and turbulent colours. Even though she avoids representational motifs, the compositions appear loaded with symbolism. Her new series, Flag Waves / Wave Busts are ‘fractured’, coastal seascapes almost bursting with the visual clamour of a land rights street march! (Image 1). Some works feature the distinctive red, yellow and black colours of the Aboriginal flag– itself the centre of current copyright issues (Image 2). In others, red, blue and shards of white are powerfully strewn across the canvas (Image 3). Theses choice of flag colours, the Australian Flag, or perhaps the Union Jack, when paired next to the Aboriginal colours might be understood as a comment on a culture clash within Australia’s colonial history?. Adding broader context to the exhibition are additional works from her bushfire and reef series bringing another sense of country into the gallery space.

Downstairs, Fireworks Gallery presents six new screen-print works originally created by Ronnie Tjampitjinpa in 2015 (Image 4) and printed by master printer Theo Trembley between 2018 and 2020. Tjampitjinpa began painting around 1974, in the early years of the Papunya Tula Artists movement, with his work focusing (largely) on the Men’s Business Tingari Cycle stories relating to the area near Lake Mackay W.A. The artist’s graphic confidence is fully explored via Tremblay’s amazing screen-print technique, with masterly editions printed in both colour and black on white. Tremblay is able to capture the deftness of Tjampitjinpa’s every brushstroke allowing the artist’s self-assurance to shine. The 3 Stories included in Special Edition are: Tingari; Bushfire/ Firebreak (Image 5); and Rain Story.

Also on display in the ground floor gallery are Wangarra Spirits, new bronze (Image 6) castings by Maningrida artist Serena Bonson. Bonson carves these figures out of stringy bark collected on her country. Wangarra are spirits that inhabit the An-mujolkuwa clan waterhole and are reborn as new members of the clan. The birth of a child is always announced in a dream, when the spirit of the new child makes itself known to the child’s father. In collaboration with FireWorks Gallery (since 2014) these spirit forms have been remodelled in plasticine, cast in bronze and aluminium with black patina then brushed back to reveal the (silver and gold) lustre of the metal. The timeless beauty of these sculptures is enhanced with possibilities of both indoor and outdoor placement.

FireWorks Gallery Director Michael Eather says, “The combination of these showings together is very exciting with three diverse Indigenous artists all exploring and developing their unique stories in exciting new ways, realising something completely bold and contemporary!”

Artwork prices range from: $1800 - $9900

View Samantha Hobson - Fractured Sea here 

View Ronnie Tjampitjinpa - Special Edition Screen Prints here