Warwick to host $1M art exhibit

Carly Rees | 9th February 2010

Award-winning: The late Emily Kngwarreye’s Kame Colour, 1995, is one of the exceptional pieces that will be on show.

WARWICK will host its inaugural million-dollar indigenous art exhibition next year.

The exhibition, produced by the Economic Development Unit of the Southern Downs Regional Council, will be held at the Warwick Regional Gallery in September 2011.

Acting Economic Development manager John Randall said this was the first time such an impressive exhibition would be held outside a capital city.

“This exhibition is only possible by the generosity of a local Warwick art collector who holds an extensive collection of contemporary indigenous art,” Mr Randall said.

“Works on display will include paintings by the late Emily Kngwarreye, the first indigenous artist to sell at auction a painting in excess of $1 million.”

Significant pieces from this collection will be shown, together with complementary works from Fireworks Gallery in Brisbane, including work by famous indigenous painters Joanne Currie Nalingu, Ian Waldron, Laurie Nilsen and the late Vincent Serico. These key pieces will sit alongside works by internationally acclaimed artists from the Northern Territory like Michael Nelson Jagamara, George Tjungurrayi, as well as the late Emily Kngwarreye.

Mr Randall said the SDRC was staging the exhibition to put Warwick on the map as an emerging art and culture hub, and to highlight the region as a destination for investment attraction.

“The who’s who of Australia’s investment and financial sectors also includes many of Australia’s leading indigenous art collectors, so this art exhibition will be used to attract these people to Warwick, not only to view the exhibition, but also to see first-hand the many investment and business opportunities in the region.”

For further information contact Mr Randall on 4661 7332.