Timothy Cook will present ‘Kurluwukari’, a new exhibition bringing together bark and linen works, in New York from 10 September to 9 October 2026. The exhibition is organised by D Lan Galleries in collaboration with Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association, the Tiwi art centre where Cook began painting in the late 1990s.
The presentation will take place at 25 East 73rd Street in New York, also identified by the organisers as Lenapehoking. It is D Lan Galleries’ second solo presentation of Cook’s work, following a 2025 presentation at Melbourne Art Fair that introduced his new large-scale bark paintings.
‘Kurluwukari’ takes its title from the Tiwi word for “circle”, a recurring form in Cook’s practice. Across bark and linen, the artist uses circles, dots and lines that draw on jilamara, the ochre body-painting designs associated with Tiwi ceremony, as well as his sustained engagement with Kulama. The ceremony is associated with coming of age, the yam harvest and the seasonal cycle.
Cook is described by the gallery as one of the most established artists in contemporary Tiwi art. His work developed through Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association in the Milikapiti community on Melville Island, where the preparation of materials and the sharing of knowledge form part of the art centre’s wider cultural and communal environment.
The exhibition’s accompanying film grew from a visit to Jilamara in May 2026. It follows aspects of the processes behind Cook’s paintings, including the preparation of bark and ochre, and addresses the importance of seasonality and place to their making. The gallery describes Cook’s practice as highly individual while emphasising that its material and cultural foundations are connected to Country and community.
The exhibition catalogue includes an essay by Myles Russell-Cook, curator of ‘The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art’, a touring exhibition drawn from the National Gallery of Victoria collection. That exhibition is scheduled to open at Portland Art Museum in September and includes Cook’s 2012 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award-winning work.
‘Kurluwukari’ will be on view from 10 September through 9 October 2026 at 25 East 73rd Street, New York, United States.
