Image: D Lan Galleries, Melbourne
"Breaking Ground: Artists from the Desert Ranges," on view at D Lan Galleries until October 16, 2026, brings together paintings by nineteen senior artists from the seven art centres of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. The works, made largely between 2008 and 2015, come from a single private collection in Melbourne. Works by senior women and senior men are shown separately, in the gallery's Sydney and Melbourne spaces, which the gallery links to the distinct custodial relationships each holds to Tjukurpa, the Law that governs Country, kinship and identity.
The hang moves from west to east across the region, from Ninuku Arts through Tjungu Palya, Tjala Arts, Ernabella Arts, Kaltjiti Arts and Mimili Maku Arts to Iwantja Arts. According to the gallery, each centre is presented as a cultural and historical structure shaped by its artists rather than as a production studio. Artists on view include Harry Tjutjuna, Jimmy Donegan, Wingu Tingima, Nyankulya Watson, Nellie Stewart, Maringka Baker, Hector Burton, Mick Wikilyiri, Tiger Palpatja, Dickie Minyintiri, Robin Kankapankatja, Milatjari Pumani, Ngupulya Pumani, Tiger Yaltangki and Whiskey Tjukangku.
The exhibition is accompanied by a newly commissioned essay by Dr Diana James of the Australian National University, published by the gallery on September 22. James traces why acrylic painting reached the APY Lands later than other parts of the Western Desert. After the movement began at Papunya in 1971, Pitjantjatjara lawmen objected to sacred designs appearing in early paintings, and in 1977 they lodged a formal protest after seeing a sacred symbol revealed in a BBC film. The dispute was settled through negotiation, and artists came to rely on walka, a shared visual language of public designs that could be painted without revealing restricted knowledge.
James notes that Tjutjuna and Donegan were already painting on boards at Docker River and Blackstone in the early 1970s, and that two of those early works are now held by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. She describes a wave of activity after 2000: artists began painting at Irrunytju in 2001 and later founded Tjungu Palya at Nyapari, while Ninuku Arts at Kalka and Minymaku Arts, later Tjala Arts, at Amata both opened in 2004. In 2010 the exhibition "Tjukurpa Pulkatjara," organised by Ananguku Arts, brought the region's acrylic painting to a wide audience.
For James, the paintings carry the sung stories of Country, and their meaning reveals itself only to viewers who look slowly and attend to each artist's place and people.
