Fiona Omeenyo | FireWorks Gallery

Artist Tabs

Selected works

FW16380 Travelling Together	FW16386 Lockhart River Sunset	FW16656 Watching us
FW16920 Afternoon Together	FW17327 Snapper Fishing at Dusk	FW17690 Connection
FW18398 Mother & Child AP2	FW18531 Standing on Ngach II (homeland)	FW18594 Watching over
FW18677 Fishing day	FW18801 Night Fishing at Double Stone	FW19067 Gathering Giddy Giddy Beads
FW19668 Through the lands they search	FW20162 Colours of the East Coast	FW20164 One Country... One family

Pages

Bio & CV

FIONA OMEENYO
Born: 1981 Lockhart River QLD
Region: Eastern Cape York Peninsula
Language: Umpila
Lives & works: Cairns, QLD

Born in the remote community of Lockhart River on the Eastern Cape York Peninsula, Fiona Omeenyo was taught the traditional ways of the area including fishing and gathering food, activities she still enjoys passing down to her children and grandchildren. Fiona was also a founding member of the Lockhart River ‘Art Gang’ established in the 1990s.

Fiona is best known for her figurative arrangements symbolic of ancestral spirits and nurturing family stories. Fiona has exhibited nationally and internationally and travelled to the USA and UK with her exhibitions. In 2016 she began a series of new sculptural commissions of her work for both private and public locations in Brisbane.

Story/Statement

My country Pathacy (Chester River near Coen) that’s where my Grandmother is from. My figures are about family and country. I do my painting to carry my culture on and so my children will know our stories.

With an intuitive confidence for colour and composition and a desire to reveal an implicit Indigenous narrative, Fiona explores the essential notions of family and connectedness in her paintings. Beginning as a teenager as part of the famed Lockhart River Art Gang, Fiona is comfortable painting both small and larger scale works developing her distinctive technique over many years. The artist often builds rich textures of blended colours, scraping through the layers revealing her recognisable imagery and figures and coastal landscape forms. Whilst these may be reminiscent of some Quinkan rock art iconography (of Laura near Cooktown, FNQ) Fiona explains that her figures are a personal interpretation of togetherness - her own family and spirit.

Accordingly the artists’ themes constantly revolve around bloodline, kinship and connectivity. A continuous relationship with past and present is expressed through the artist’s sense of line and space (both positive and negative). The figures are at once families involved in day-to-day activities such as fishing and hunting or exploring the human condition.

Courtesy of the artist and FireWorks Gallery 2021.

CONNECTING

Fiona often incorporates linear arrangements denoting connection. With this imagery the artist speaks about the importance of connecting people to country as well as to spiritual worlds.

FAMILY

Fiona has a large family with five children, several grandchildren and extended families spreading through North Queensland. Much of her work is informed by the joys but also the challenges of family responsibility, listening to and teaching one another.

LANDSCAPE & COUNTRY

Lockhart River sits on the coast adjacent to Iron Range National Park where the lush tropical rainforest meets the remote white sandbeach country. Lockhart River is well known for its distinctive coastal rock formations including Double Stone and Spirit Rock. Here, numerous creation stories have been passed down through the community as to the history and spiritual forces that are said to inhabit the region.

FISHING & HUNTING

Going out in the boat, hunting for fish, turtle and dugong, or gathering oysters and mussels and other shellfish near the mangroves is a much loved activity for the artist when camping with families at Lockhart River. These images reveal ongoing survival stories as well as depicting fond memories of growing up in the community and love of the oceanic lifestyle.

ANCESTOR SPIRITS

For the artist, ancestor spirits exist simultaneously with the present-day generation and are represented in both a real and supernatural manner. Fiona’s compositions often show spirit-like figures entering the picture plane from all perspectives - from above, the sides and below. Ancestors can be seen as both elders and teachers, watching over and guiding the family, and informing the next generations.

SCULPTURE & PUBLIC ART

In 2017 Fiona was commissioned by International Educational Services for a 3 meter public artwork Family located in their Spring Hill campus. The artist worked with a professional team of architects, engineers and project managers to successfully translate her distinctive painted imagery into elegant 3D forms.

FIONA OMEENYO CV

Born: 1981 Lockhart River, QLD

Region: Eastern Cape York Peninsula (Lockhart River)

Language: Umpila

Lives and works: Cairns, QLD

EXHIBITIONS—SOLO (SELECTED)

2023 Double Trouble FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2019 Ancestor Spirits at Double Stone FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2016 Malu (Deep Water) FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2008 Mepla Sandbeach People Andrew Baker Art Dealer Brisbane
2007 Mepla One (We are one) Emerge Art Space Perth
2007 New Life Niagara Galleries Melbourne
2007 Fiona Omeenyo Hogarth Galleries Sydney
2006 Big Step Andrew Baker Art Dealer Brisbane
2005 Mepla Go Long Way Andrew Baker Art Dealer Brisbane
2005 Mepla Ngaachi Long Way (Our Home is Far Away) Hogarth Galleries Sydney
2004 Journey On Andrew Baker Art Dealer Brisbane
2004 Niagara Galleries Melbourne
2003 Wunnem Me For Andrew Baker Art Dealer Brisbane
2002 Future Perfect Niagara Galleries Melbourne
2002 Kukiya Hogarth Galleries Sydney
2001 Ngaachi Pathaco (My Home) Hogarth Galleries Sydney
2001 From Here to There Short Street Gallery Broome Western Australia
2001 My Story: Miiku, Parrot Sisters and Kuchuutu Andrew Baker Art Dealer Brisbane

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)

2024 Evidence of Scale IV FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2024 Yellow Meadow FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2023 Morbid Curiosities FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2023 Lineage Despard Gallery, Hobart
2022 In Review FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2022 Which Way? Despard Gallery, Hobart
2021 Shorelines FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2021 Which Way? FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2021 Lockhart River Artists Despard Gallery, Hobart
2020 Twelve Artists FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2020 Twelve Ways FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2020 Figuratively Speaking FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2020 Lockhart Art Gang - Sharing Our Stories, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Figuratively Speaking FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2019 Montalto Sculpture Prize VIC
2019 Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize Tattersall's Club Brisbane
2019 Overcoming Adversity, ARtMob, Hobart, TAS
2019 Lunar Legacy, ArtMob, Hobart, TAS
2019 Lockhart Legends, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 International Women's Day, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Stories from my heart - Which Way, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2019 The Colourists - Kate Owen Gallery, Rozelle
2019 On the Coast - The Art of Fiona Omeenyo & Rosella Namok, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2018 Fiona Omeenyo & Rosella Namok, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2018 Small Mercies FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2018 Welcome TWO (Thompson Street) FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2017 Sand, Salt & Spirit Coo-ee Art Gallery Sydney
2017 Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize Tattersall's Club Brisbane
2017 60 X√30 FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2017 A Sweep Continues FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2017 Downlands Art Exhibition Toowoomba
2016 She Walks the Line Part 2 FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2016 Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize Tattersall's Club Brisbane
2014 QLD Gals FireWorks Gallery Brisbane
2014 Melbourne Art Fair Royal Exhibition Building Melbourne
2012 Reunion: New paintings by Samantha Hobson, Rosella Namok and Fiona Omeenyo Vivien Anderson Caulfield North VIC
2007 Our Way: Contemporary Art from Queensland’s Lockhart River University of Queensland Art Museum Brisbane and Charles Wang Center Stony Brook University New York USA
2007 Looking Forward, Looking Black Kick Arts Cairns
2006 Uncharted Territory October Gallery London England
2006 Histoires de Terre et Mer: Peintures Aborigènes de Lockhart River Australie Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie du Morbihan Lorient France
2006 Lockhart River Art Gang Ewha Art Centre Seoul South Korea
2006 Art for Science Murdoch Research Institute Melbourne
2005 Aboriginal Art Show Booker-Lowe Gallery Houston Texas USA
2005 Group Show Framed Gallery Darwin
2005 Land of Diversity Hogarth Galleries Sydney
2004 Colour Power: Aboriginal art post 1984 National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne
2004 Out of Country Gallery 1601 Washington DC USA and The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art 2004 Collection of the University of Virginia Charlottesville Virginia USA
2004 Hitting On and Kicking Off Centre of Contemporary Arts/KickArts Cairns Queensland \
2004 QUT Art Museum Indigenous Art Collection: Works from the Oodgeroo Collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Queensland University of Technology Brisbane
2004 Big Country Gondwana Gallery Alice Springs NT
2003 Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane
2003 Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings from Lockhart River Columbus State University Columbus Georgia USA
2003 Kulam Kannga (Beginning): New works by the Lockhart River Art Gang The Kluge- Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia Charlottesville Virginia USA
2003 Beneath the Monsoon: Visions North of Capricorn Artspace Mackay Cairns Regional Gallery Perc Tucker Regional Gallery (Townsville)
2003 Water: Prints from Lockhart River and the Tiwi Islands Queensland University of Technology Art Museum Brisbane
2002 The Queensland/Berlin Indigenous Art Exhibition Ludwig Erhard Haus Berlin Germany
2001 Laura Award Winners Cairns Regional Gallery Queensland
2000 The Art of Place—Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Awards Old Parliament House Canberra
2000 In my eyes—Lockhart River Art Gang and Friends Cairns Regional Gallery
1999–2001 Message Stick touring exhibition by the Lockhart River Art Gang funded by Visions Australia

PUBLISHED MATERIAL (SELECTED)

2007 Bennie, Angela. The old people today are not sure about this abstraction thing, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18–19 August 2007

2007 Butler, Sally. Our Way: Contemporary Art from Lockhart River, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 2007

2006 Crawford, Ashley, Fiona Omeenyo: New Life, Niagara Publishing, Melbourne, 2006

2006 McCulloch, Alan; McCulloch, Susan; and McCulloch Childs, Emily. The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions/The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2006

2003 Helmrich, Michele, Unlocking Lockhart: Young artists are reinventing their culture—and commanding attention in the art world—with their fresh and contemporary painting, Outback, Issue 31, Oct/Nov 2003

2003 Martin-Chew, Louise. Tales of the far north: Rare Aboriginal works make a spirited exhibition, The Weekend Australian, 26–27 July 2003

2003 Brown, Phil, Life Blood: Lockhart River artist Fiona Omeenyo meditates on kinship and community in her latest sought-after works, Brisbane News, 18–24 June 2003

2003 Wilson, Gavin. Beneath the Monsoon: Visions North of Capricorn, Artspace Mackay, Queensland [ex. cat.]

2002 Strickland, Katarina. Cape of good hope, The Weekend Australian, 20–21 July 2002

COLLECTIONS

ATSIC Collection

Cairns Regional Gallery

Department of Native Title Services

International Education Services Brisbane

Mater Mothers’ Hospital

National Gallery of Australia

National Gallery of Victoria

Northern Territory University

Thomas Vroom Collection Netherlands