Collections Held: Artbank, Sydney. Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra. The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth. The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A. Museum and Art Gallery of N.T.
Awards: 1985, First Prize, National Aboriginal Art Award, Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, Darwin.
Exhibitions:
1984, The First National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin 1984, Aboriginal Art, an Exhibition Presented by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra 1985, The Second National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin 1986, The Art of the First Australians, Kobe City Museum, Japan 1986, The Third National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin 1986, My Country, My Story, My Painting: Recent Paintings by Twelve Arnhem Land Artists, National Gallery of Australia exhibition at the Drili Hall Gallery. Canberra 1987, Art and Aboriginality, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, UK 1988, Dreamings, the art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York. 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art] 1989, Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia. Canberra 1990, Balance 1990: views, visions, influences, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. 1990, I’ete Australien a’ Montpellier, Musee Fabre Galiery, Montpellier, France. 1990, Spirit in Land, Bark Paintings from Arnhem Land, National Gallery of Victoria 1990, Keepers of the Secrets, Aboriginal Art from Arnhemland, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth 1991, Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia 1995, The Twelfth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
Selected Bibliography: Caruana, W.,1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (C) Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria. Johnson, V.,1987, Art and Aboriginality, exhib. cat., Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, UK. O’Ferrall, M. 1990, Keepers of the Secrets, Aboriginal Art from Arnhemland in the Collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. (C) Ryan, J.,1990, Spirit in Land, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Sutton, P. (ed.),1988, Dreamings: the Art of Aboriginal Australia, Viking, Ringwood, Victoria. (C) Wallace, D., Desmond, M., Caruana, W.,1991, Flash Pictures, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 1994, Kunwinjku Art from Injalak 1991-1992, The John W. Kluge Commission, Museum Arts International Pty. Ltd., North Adelaide. � Discovery Media, Documentation Pty Ltd, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Details: Djawida was born out in the bush on his father’s country at Dialbangurr. His family eventually moved into Oenpelli where his mother and father worked as buffalo skinners and salters. Djawida went to school in Oenpelli and grew up in the area. Sometimes the family visited their country and it was on those trips that Djawida became interested in painting. He first started to paint on rock, copying existing rock paintings, especially animals and the mimi spirits. He also left his hand and foot stencils on rock in lots of places.
Djawida taught himself to mix ochres and paint. He eventually moved onto painting barks and in the last few years, Archer’s paper. He also makes spears and didjuridus. He paints stories from his father’s country at Djalbangurr, his mother’s country at Kudjekbinj including nawurra story, and sometimes his grandmother’s country near Manmoyi.
We are also a signatory to the Indigenous Australian Art Commercial Code of Conduct, which was recently introduced to promote fair and transparent dealings within the Industry.
Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery is a founding member of the Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association, which was established to promote the ethical trade of indigenous art.
