Pilbara’s top Aboriginal artists to be celebrated in ‘landmark’ exhibition at AGWA

More than 70 Aboriginal artists from the Pilbara will have their work showcased at The Art Gallery of Western Australia in March 2022. The exhibition, titled Tracks We Share: Contemporary Art of the Pilbara, will feature more than 200 artworks by the region’s best Aboriginal artists. Tracks We Share is a collaboration between Western Australian non-profit arts and cultural organisation FORM, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, several Aboriginal art centres in the Pilbara and independent artists Katie West, Curtis Taylor, and Jill Churnside. Port Hedland’s Spinifex Hill Studio is one of the Aboriginal art centres involved in the exhibition and studio co-ordinator Kimberley McKie said the exhibition was about passing on culture. “It’s about the importance of what our art means to us, to show where we come from and to show our younger generation where we come from and what we do and the right way to do things to keep that culture going, to pass that culture on,” she said. The title of the exhibition was devised by a group of the exhibiting artists and references the many language groups and diverse country of the Pilbara, while acknowledging the physical, cultural and artistic tracks that connect them all. Artists from Cheeditha Art Group in Roebourne such as Wendy Warrie will also be featured in the exhibition “Country means a lot. That’s where you get the stories from really,” Ms Warrie said. FORM chief executive Tabitha McMullan said the organisation was privileged to spend the past 15 years collaborating with the artists and art centres of the Pilbara. “We know first-hand what a truly world-class creative community resides here,” she said. “It (Tracks We Share) presents a long-overdue showcase of the extraordinary artistic diversity of the Pilbara region, and we are beyond excited to share it with new audiences.” The exhibition is one of the final stages in a multi-year project which has documented the context and development of the art-making practices that are a key way the Pilbara’s Aboriginal communities share, sustain and celebrate culture. The project maps the breadth of the region’s diverse creative practices and honours the unique space the Pilbara’s Aboriginal artists have carved out among contemporary Australian art.