Image: Bugai Whyoulter, Kartujarra people, Western Australia, born Pukayiyirna, Western Australia c.1939, Wantili (Warntili, Canning Stock Route Well 25), 2021, Kunawarritji, Western Australia, synthetic polymer paint on linen, 152.0 x 152.0 cm; Acquisition through Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, supported by BHP, 2023, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. © the artist, courtesy of Martumili Artists
'Too Deadly: Ten Years of Tarnanthi', the national touring exhibition organised by the Art Gallery of South Australia, arrives at Maitland Regional Art Gallery in New South Wales, where it is on view from 31 October 2026 to 14 February 2027. An opening event on Friday 30 October also marks a new exhibition by Mimili Maku Arts.
Tarnanthi is AGSA's festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, held in Adelaide every two years since 2015. Its name comes from the Kaurna language and means to come forth or appear. To mark the festival's first decade, the gallery has assembled more than thirty works first presented at Tarnanthi, many of them made specifically for it and many never before shown outside Adelaide. They include monumental paintings, installations and moving-image works.
The 31 participating artists come from communities across the country. Among them are Tony Albert, Vincent Namatjira, Judy Watson, Reko Rennie, Mavis Ngallametta, Mumu Mike Williams, John Prince Siddon, Marlene Rubuntja and Bugai Whyoulter, whose 2021 painting 'Wantili (Warntili, Canning Stock Route Well 25)', made at Kunawarritji in Western Australia, illustrates the exhibition on AGSA's website. AGSA director Jason Smith has described the tour as a way of sharing Tarnanthi's approach with audiences nationwide.
At Maitland, the opening also brings 'Tjilpi munu Pampaku Tjukurpa Kunpu Kanyintjaku: Holding the Tjukurpa of our senior men and women strong', presented by Mimili Maku Arts, an artist-led organisation in the Aṉangu community of Mimili on the APY Lands of South Australia. The exhibition includes works by the art centre's founding artists alongside recent works made at bush camps, and marks the public launch of Alpiri Kuwari, its Living Cultural Collection.
The tour began at Rockhampton Museum of Art in Queensland and continues to Ngununggula in Bowral, Caboolture Art Gallery, Geelong Gallery and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery in Western Australia, ending in December 2028. It is supported by BHP as principal partner and by the Australian Government's Visions of Australia program.
