Awards:
2007 Finalist, National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art Award
2008 Finalist, Highly Commended and Acquired National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art Award
2009 Highly Commended, West Australian Premier’s Art Awards
2009 Finalist, Togart Contemporary Art Award (acquired)
2009 Winner, Works on Paper category National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art Award
2010 Winner, Works on Bark category National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art Award
Exhibitions:
Individual Exhibitions
2011 – Creation Stories, Mossenson Galleries, Perth.
2010 – Glen Namundja – Man from Stone Country, Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne.
Group Exhibitions
1993, Editions Southbank, Melbourne, Vic
1994, The ninth National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the NT. 1994, Australian National heritage Commission ATSI Art Awards.
1994, Aboriginal and Trabal Art Gallery, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW
1995, Savode Gallery, Brisbane, Qld
1998, Meerzigt, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
1998, The Hague Unites the Nations, The hague, The Netherlands
2008, 26th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the NT.
2009, 25th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the NT.
2010, 27th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the NT.
Notes:
Glen Namundja hails from an important lineage of unique and talented artists. Glen’s earliest artistic influences came from his father, the great artist Peter Marralwanga. Peter had three wives and nine children, including the renowned artists Samuel Namundja, Ivan Namirrkki and Johnson Namundja. As young men, Glen and Samuel grew up on the outstation of Markolidjban, where they learnt to paint under the tutelage of their father. Marralwanga taught the young men the important creation stories of the Kunwinjku, and how to depict them in the exquisite cross-hatching or rarrk of the Mardayin ceremony. This shimmering rarrk has become a defining feature of both Samuel and Glen Namundja’s work.
Glen presently lives and works at Gunbalanya. Glen has remained a faithful practitioner of the narrative/figurative style synonymous with the region’s rock art heritage. In recent years, he has proven himself to be one of the finest innovators of this style, through works that demonstrate a complex synthesis of figurative and abstract elements. In 2007, Glen was highly commended in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. His works have been exhibited to acclaim throughout Australia, as well as in Italy and the Netherlands.
