Rover Thomas | FireWorks Gallery

Artist Tabs

Selected works

Bio & CV

Born: c. 1926 Gunawaggi, Great Sandy Desert WA – died 1998
Language: Kukatja, Wangkajunga
Country: Walmatjarri, Kukaja
Region: Warmun, Turkey Creek WA

The Gidja style of Rover’s adopted country from the 1960s (Warmun, Turkey Creek) has a figurative orientation influenced by regional rock art and ceremonial body paint designs. He drew on both Western Desert and East Kimberley styles, creating a highly individual synthesis that has been rare in the work of bush artists. Rover was awarded the John McCaughey Prize for the best painting Blancher country, displayed in 1990 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. The following year he represented Australia at the Venice Biennale. Rover was the subject of the important solo exhibition Roads Cross: The Paintings of Rover Thomas, held at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in 1994. His work is held in private, corporate and public collections nationally and internationally.

Story/Statement

Despite occasionally including figurative elements and topographical profiles in his paintings, Rover’s work is more familiarly characterised by an aerial perspective common to with Central and Western desert art. His most contemplative and somber works draw the viewer in to spacious planes of painterly applied and textured ochre. White or black dots serve only to create emphasis or to draw the eye along pathways of time and movement, following the forms of the land in which important events are encoded. In many of his works the predominant use of black conveys a startling, strangely emotional, intensity. Warm and earthy ochres, and a palpable sense of spirituality, invite the viewer on the one hand, to consider the unfolding of important events, while at the same time, purposefully sustain us in an ancient and timeless landscape.

ROVER THOMAS

Born: c.1926 Gunawaggi Great Sandy Desert WA – died: 1998

Language: Kukatja Wangkajunga

Country: Walmatjarri Kukaja

Region: Warmun Turkey Creek WA

EXHIBITIONS—SOLO

2004 Rover Thomas: I Want to Paint Art Gallery of NSW Sydney

2003 Rover Thomas: I Want to Paint The Ian Potter Centre National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne

2002 The Paintings of Rover Thomas Utopia Art Sydney

1994 Roads Cross: The Paintings of Rover Thomas National Gallery of Australia Canberra

1994 Rover Thomas Utopia Art Sydney Stanmore

EXHIBITIONS—GROUP

2014 LEGENDS: Aboriginal Master Works FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2013 Landscape Utopia Art Sydney

2010 East Kimberley Painting Revisited Michael Reid Gallery Sydney

2009 Abstraction Utopia Art Sydney

2008 Unearthed: Stories Written in the Land Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery Sydney

2008 From the Air FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2006-2007 Gifted: Contemporary Aboriginal Art – The Mollie Gowing

2006 – 2007 Acquisition Fund Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

2004 North by North-West: Contemporary Indigenous Art from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane

2004 EXPLAINED: A closer look at Aboriginal Art Aboriginal Art Museum Utrecht The Netherlands

2000 From Appropriation to Appreciation: Indigenous influences and images in Australian Visual Art Flinders University Art Museum Adelaide

2000 Images of the Land Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

1999 Myer Gatner Collection USA

1997 Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Paintings Songlines Aboriginal Art Gallery Amsterdam San Francisco

1997 Imaging the Land National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne

1996Figures in the Land National gallery of Victoria Melbourne

1996 Abstraction: Signs Marks Symbols National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne

1996 This is my country this is me Seattle Art Museum Seattle

1996 Contemporary Australian Abstraction Niagara Galleries Melbourne

1996 Flagging the Republic Sherman galleries New England regional Gallery

1996 Nangara: The Australian Aboriginal Art exhibition-Ebes Collection Sichting Sint-Jan B Brugges Belgium

1995 Rover Thomas - Well 33 Revisited William Mora Galleries Melbourne

1995 Painting up the Country: Aboriginal art from the Kimberley WA Coo-ee Aboriginal art Sydney

1995 The Festival of Darwin Art exhibition: Kimberley Printmakers

1995 Offset and Intaglio Fremantle Arts Centre Fremantle

1995 Made in the Kimberleys Moores Building Fremantle

1995 Northwest and Kimberley Artists Durack Gallery Kimberley Fine Art Broome

1995 Latest Landscapes Utopia Art Sydney

1995 Stories: Eine Reise zu den Grossen Dingen - Elf Kunstler der australischen

1995 Aborigines Werke aus der sammlung Holmes a Court Perth Sprengel Museum Hannover

1995 Museum fur Volkerkunde zu leipzig Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin Ludwig Forum fur internationale Kunstt Achen

1995 Stories Eine Reise zu den grossen Dingen touring Sprengel Museum Hannover

1995 Museum fur Volkerkunde Leipzig

1995 Haus der Kulteren der Welt Berlin

1995 Ludwig-Forum fur Internationale Kunst Aachen

1995 The Twelfth National Aboriginal Art Award Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Darwin

1995 Rover Thomas: An Artist from Turkey Creek Hogarth Galleries Sydney

1994 Power of the Land: Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art National Gallery of Victoria

1994Identities: Art from Australia Taipei Fine Arts Museum Taiwan Wollongong City Gallery

1994 Australian Heritage Commission National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition Old Parliament House Canberra

1994 This Land: A Celebration Utopia Art Sydney Stanmore

1994 Yiribana Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

1994 This land: A Celebration Utopia Art Utopia Art Sydney Stanmore

1994 Power of the Land: Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne

1994 Roads Cross: The Paintings of Rover Thomas National Gallery of Australia

1994 Rover Thomas New Paintings Utopia Art Sydney

1993 Trevor Nickolls and Paintings by Emily Kame Kngwarreye Ginger Riley Manduwalawala and Rover Thomas Hogarth Galleries Sydney

1993 The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Darwin

1993 Images of Power Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne

1993/4 ARATJARA: Art of the First Australians Touring exhibition, venues: Kunstammlung Nordrhein, Westfalen Dusseldorf , Hayward Gallery London and Louisiana Museum

Humlebaek Denmark

1992 Crossroads: Towards a New Reality Aboriginal Art from Australia National Museums of Modern Art Kyoto and Tokyo

1991Aboriginal Art and Spirituality High Court Canberra

1991 Flash Pictures National Gallery of Australia

1991 Walkabout in the Dreamtime Virginia Miller Gallery Miami Florida USA

1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990: From Australia Third Eye Centre Glasgow and touring United Kingdom

1990 Anatjari Tjampitjinpa Dini Campbell Tjampitjinpa and Rover Thomas John 1990 Weber Gallery New York USA

1990 The Seventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Darwin

1990Venice Biennale: Australian Representative with Trevor Nickolls

1990 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art Art Gallery of South Australia

1990 Balance 1990: views visions influences Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane

1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection 1990 Harvard University University of Minnesota Lake Oswego Center for the Arts USA

1990 L’ete Australian a Montpellier Musee Fabre France

1990 Innovations in Aboriginal Art Hogarth Galleries Sydney

1990 The Singing Earth Chapman Gallery Canberra

1990 Abstraction Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

1989 On the Edge: five contemporary Aboriginal artists AGWA Perth

1989 Turkey Creek: Recent Work Deutscher Gertrude Street Melbourne

1989 A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art Westpac Gallery Melbourne Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art]

1989 Masterpiece Fine Art Gallery Hobart

1989 l’ete Australien a’ Montpellier Musee Fabre Gallery Montpellier France

1988 ANCAAA and Boomalli Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative Sydney

1988 Art from the Kimberley Aboriginal Artists Gallery Sydney

1988 Innovative Aboriginal Art of Western Australia University of Western Australia Perth

1988 Recent Aboriginal Painting Art Gallery of South Australia Adelaide

1988 Creating Australia: 200 Years of Art 1788-1988 International Cultural Corporation of Australia Touring

1988 Australian Art Post-1960 Deutscher Gallery Brunswick

1987 Aboriginal Art from the Kimberley Goolarabooloo Gallery Broome

1987 Art of the East Kimberley Birrukmarri Gallery Perth

1987 Recent Aboriginal Art from Western Australia National Gallery of Australia Canberra

1986 The Third National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Darwin

COLLECTIONS

Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

Art Gallery of South Australia Adelaide

Art Gallery of Western Australia Perth

Artbank Sydney

Berndt Museum of Anthropology University of Western Australia

Edith Cowan University Art Collection

Flinders University Art Museum Adelaide

The Holmes a Court Collection Perth

The Kelton Foundation Santa Monica USA

Kluge-Ruhe Collection Virginia USA

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Darwin

Myer Gatner Collection USA

National Gallery of Australia Canberra

National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne

Oodgeroo Collection

Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane

Queensland University of Technology Collection

Parliament House Collection Canberra

Thomas Vroom Collection The Netherlands

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