Dob:		        	1963
Language:	        	Kunwinjku
Outstation/ Country: 	Gumarrirnbang
Region: 	        	Oenpelli,  Western Arnhem Land,  NT
Social Affiliations:	Dhuwa Moiety


Medium/ Form: 
Bark painting, ochres on bark, didgeridoos Works on arches paper.


Awards:		
1998, highly commended award, Australian Heritage Commission 
Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House Canberra 

          
Collections held:	
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth. 
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 
       
    
Exhibitions:	
1994 Indigenart, Perth.  
1995 Melbourne, Vic.
1996 Heritage Art Awards.
1997 October Gallery London UK
1998 Heritage Art Awards  (highly commended award)

      
Select Bibliography:
Museum Arts International P/L, North Adelaide.

1994, Kunwinjku Art from Injalak, 91- 92  The John W. Kluge Com.



Details

Garry is the son of Dudley Djorlom, a traditional bark painter who taught his son to paint
on rock and on bark. He had a very good schooling in his youth, and took his promised wife,
Doreen, when she was still in her early teens. He was born on 20.12.63. As the son of a 
ceremonial leader he learnt the traditional way of life, and is an excellent hunter and food
gatherer. He has appeared in several documentaries depicting both his talent as an artist, a
dancer, and a hunter in the old way, using four-pronged fishing spears, and digging sticks 
for yams.

Garry has achieved fame as a master painter on bark and on Arches Rives paper. He lives at a
remote outstation called Gumarrirnbang, in the Stone Country between Oenpelli and 
Ramingining. This homeland centre is owned by an old man called Timothy Nadjowh who was a 
great artist but is now too old to paint. He is worried that without sons to carry on 
recording the history and religion of his tribe the stories will be lost forever. He has 
therefore decided to gradually pass on his myths to Garry whom he considers to be a man of 
stature and worthy of keeping them safe.

Garry has painted "Dit the Moon Man", the first story Timothy has given to him, and it was 
entered in the 1998 National Indigenous Heritage Art Awards held in Canberra in April, this 
painting went on to receive a highly commended award. He has also had exhibitions in Perth 
and Melbourne.

In return for Timothy's trust in him Garry keeps the immediate surroundings spotlessly clean
and looks after the machinery associated with water reticulation and tractor work, as well as
maintaining the small airstrip so that the community is assured of medical assistance and 
supplies of food during the Wet Season when raging rivers cut transport by road.

In spite of all this activity Garry still concentrates on his painting in every spare moment,
rising at dawn and working until dark, although he often finds it impossible to meet all of 
the demands of collectors who appreciate his works depicting animals, birds, and the 
Ancestral Beings of the Dreamtime. It is only a matter of time before Garry becomes world 
famous. John Kluge, the wealthy collector who is building an art gallery purely for 
Australian Aboriginal works in Virginia, U.S.A., bought several of Garry's paintings which 
have been illustrated in the book entitled: "Kunwinjku Art, the John W. Kluge Commission".

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