Paddy Fordham Wainburranga - Creation Ancestors Hunting
ADG: 6500
DescriptionCreation Ancestors Hunting, c.1980
45 x 120cm
Ochre (natural earth pigment) on Stringybark (eucalyptus tetradonta) mounted in a box frame.
Paddy has painted the Creation Ancestors Hunting story depicting men fishing to share food with their family. There is an abundance of large fish - barramundi, catfish and frogs under the dark water of Arnhem Land.
Paddy FORDHAM WAINBURRANGA - Biography
1941 - 2006
Social Group Dhuwa moiety, Gela subsection
Language Rembarrnga
Region Beswick, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory
From the 1980s Paddy produced a diversity of works including paintings and carvings of spirit figures and serpents. His use of mediums included bark, hollow log coffins, lithograph prints, painting in acrylic or ochre on canvas or linen. Varying circle and dot techniques feature strongly. Paddy’s unique style of working with plain backgrounds and crooked borders became a trade mark of his work, along with the depiction of Mimi Spirits (ancestral teachers). Paddy also painted dancing Mimi Spirits referring to them as good spirits and protectors of country. Paddy Fordham Wainburranga was a major contributor to the 1988 Aboriginal Memorial in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Exhibitions
1984 Aboriginal Art, 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
1987 The Fourth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1989 A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney; Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; The Sixth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1990 Spirit in Land, Bark Paintings from Arnhem Land, National Gallery of Victoria
Tagari Lia: My Family, Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 -from Australia, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK; Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Center for the Arts, United States of America
1991 Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia; Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1992 Tyerabarrbowaryaou, I shall never become a whiteman, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1992/3 New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal Australia, touring USA; The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1993 Australian Heritage Commission National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra
1993/4 ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek
1994 Tyerabarrbowaryaou 2, I shall never become a whiteman, 5th Havana Biennial, Cuba, & Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Malu Urul, National Maritime Museum, Sydney, Art of the Rainbow Snake, National Gallery of Melbourne
Awards
1989 Memorial Award for Mawalan's eldest son, [Best artwork in open media] 6th Telstra Art Award, Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1993 Telecom Australia Prize, 10th Telstra Art Award, Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
The Holmes Court Collection, Perth
Artbank, Sydney
Ranking - Most Important Aboriginal Artists
2011 Rank amongst Living Artists: 91