New major works from Spinifex Arts Project
Salt Lake Country Spinifex (cropped image)
Salt Lake Country Spinifex (cropped image)
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Noli and Ian Rictor on the back of a troupee (cropped image)
in collaboration with
presents
New major works from Spinifex Arts Project
15 Mar | 04 Apr 2025
Spinifex Arts Project has always chosen their gallery partners carefully and with intention. Our relationship with ReDot Fine Art Gallery is no exception, who took on their first consignment of Spinifex work over 12 years ago.
Since then ReDot Fine Art Gallery has held some of the most significant exhibitions of Spinifex work.
Rawa Tjunguku continues this legacy showcasing the breadth of Spinifex storytelling, curated by ReDot Fine Art Gallery in close collaboration with the Spinifex Arts Project.
Olivia Sproull
Manager Spinifex Arts Project
Spinifex Arts Project has always chosen their gallery partners carefully and with intention. Our relationship with ReDot Fine Art Gallery is no exception, who took on their first consignment of Spinifex work over 12 years ago.
Since then ReDot Fine Art Gallery has held some of the most significant exhibitions of Spinifex work.
Rawa Tjunguku continues this legacy showcasing the breadth of Spinifex storytelling, curated by ReDot Fine Art Gallery in close collaboration with the Spinifex Arts Project.
Olivia Sproull
Manager Spinifex Arts Project
“When I'm painting, I'm thinking of my father… he was a powerful man… dangerous. Lake Baker is his country and mine. That place is the same, powerful and dangerous… I'm thinking people must feel that power when they are looking at my paintings.”
“When I'm painting, I'm thinking of my father… he was a powerful man… dangerous. Lake Baker is his country and mine. That place is the same, powerful and dangerous… I'm thinking people must feel that power when they are looking at my paintings.”
-Timo Hogan, 2025
Spinifex Landscape (cropped image)
Timo grew up with stories of life in the Spinifex Lands. His mother and family dug themselves into the sand dunes to try to avoid the smoke from the Maralinga atomic bomb. Before he was born she walked to a location close to Tjuntjuntjara and found a pile of tin meat left by the patrol officer. A white man came and picked all the people up in an old Landrover and drove them into Cundeelee Mission. Later his mother was driven from Cundeelee to the old hospital in Kalgoorlie for Timo’s birth in 1973.
... Read MoreAfter his birth his mother succumbed to the lure of alcohol in Kalgoorlie and struggled to look after a new baby properly. Timo’s father came and took him to Mt Margaret. He spent his formative years here with his father, Neville McCarthur and his stepmother Alkawari. They lived at Mt Margaret until the family moved to Warburton, closer to his father’s traditional lands. Alkawari did not speak Pitjantjatjara or Ngaanyatjarra as she was from a different Aboriginal tribe, but spoke in English to Timo and he is now fluent in all three languages.
Once back in country Timo’s father took him to all the culturally significant places. He wanted to introduce him to the country, to the spirit caretakers and teach him the law. “My father took me to Lake Baker, all around, rockhole and all. I know all these places but I can’t show them. Millmillpa (dangerously sacred). I’m taking over this country now, as my father is getting old. I’m the only son and people say we are like twins, my father and me. We look the same. I know how to use spears – he taught me everything.”
Timo went through Men’s Business initiation at Warburton. The group travelled down to Tjuntjuntjara on the business run. “My father’s really a Spinifex Man. His brothers are Hogan and Jamieson”.
After going through business Timo settled in Tjuntjuntjara and lived with his mother. His father visited regularly before he got too old to make the long journey. For a brief period in the 2000’s Timo lived at Kalka as his mother married a man from there. He did his first canvas, a painting of the Lake Baker with Ninuku Artists in 2004. After a long break of nearly 10 years he has started painting again. Painting his country, the vast salt lake, the place he now has cultural obligations to look after. A place of power and danger.
“I’ve rediscovered my love for painting. I do painting all the time now. I’m painting my country Lake Baker”
In 2021 Timo’s work ‘Lake Baker’ was the overall winner in prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art Awards. His works are highly sought after and hang in major public institutions and art museums as well as substantial private collections.
Read LessTimo Hogan
Simon Hogan was born circa 1930 in mid-western Spinifex between Paltju and Lingka. Simon’s exact age is unknown as dates of birth were estimated by the A.E.M. missionaries when the Spinifex people, on arrival at Cundeelee, were “sorted” into family groups, given English names and approximate dates of birth. During childhood two fathers, one born at Warakunu and the other at Munki raised Simon. Simon’s mother’s country is around Tjulya. The Spinifex people were a relatively discreet southern Pitjantjatjara tribal group with ties to the north and east that lived a fully traditional hunter-gatherer life until the late 1950’s to early 1960s when most people either walked in to Ooldea and Cundeelee or were taken by AEM missionaries to Cundeelee Mission.
... Read MoreAs a late teenager or nyiingka living in seclusion from Aboriginal society prior to initiation into manhood, Simon and an older brother made an epic journey from the Spinifex lands to a Christian Mission at Mt. Margaret. He traveled there via the frontier mining towns of Laverton and Leonora. The older brother chose to stay at Mt. Margaret and Simon returned to the Great Victoria Desert and initiation into manhood.
Some time after initiation Simon traveled across the Serpentine Lakes into South Australia to find a wife. He married Inyika and they had two of their seven children in country before going to Cundeelee Mission around 1960. A second wife, Ngantiri, also traveled in with Simon’s family group. From 1995 Simon Hogan was a prominent member of a group of senior traditional owners from Spinifex country who lobbied the WA State Government for Native Title.
Although Simon spoke no English he was a confident, initiated Pitjantjatjara man who spoke to senior government officials regarding ownership of country and culture. Exclusive Native Title rights were granted to Simon Hogan and the Spinifex people in 2000 of over 55 000 sq kms of the Great Victoria Desert in WA. In 1997 the Spinifex people began painting with acrylic paints on canvas, painting traditional stories using this contemporary medium. Simon again took a leading working with intense concentration and focus to translate Tjukurpa (stories or mythologies) into public artworks. The Spinifex people also produced collaborative works two of which, men’s and women’s, were used in the preamble to the successful Spinifex Native Title claim.
Simon is an effusive individual who introduces himself as “Mr. Hogan” and will happily recount his many exhibition travels throughout Australia and the world. For over a decade he carried a photo of himself and Gough Whitlam in his wallet until the photo eventually disintegrated. The photo was taken during the 1998 Pila Nguru Native Title touring exhibition.
The Whitlams were invited to open the exhibition in Canberra. In 2009 Simon traveled to Linz, Austria to be an Artist in Residence during the 2009, Linz Cultural Capital of Europe Exposition. He is a tireless ambassador for Spinifex custom and culture. In 2015 well into his 80’s he travelled to London representing the Spinifex people at an exhibition at the British Museum, where he met with HRH Prince Charles.
Over the years Simon Hogan’s enthusiasm and focus for painting on linen has not diminished. His status as a painter in his own community and on a national and international level has steadily increased over these years making him one of the most sought after Spinifex artists. His works feature in many public and private collections.
Read Less"you (whitefellas) don't know this story, you don't know… When I'm painting I'm showing that story… my stories. Good country that story, good country."
"you (whitefellas) don't know this story, you don't know… When I'm painting I'm showing that story… my stories. Good country that story, good country."
-Patju Presley, 2025
Spinifex Landscape (cropped image)
Patju Presley was born in the 1940s at Itaratjara, an important site between the community settlement of Watarru and Kalayapiti in the Great Victoria Desert. He is a senior Pitjantjatjara Law man with great knowledge of the geography of the Western Desert and the associated Tjukurpa. His intimate knowledge of the country is directly related to survival in this beautiful but sometimes harsh environment learned from the generations of his ancestors.
... Read MoreConnections between the Land, the provider of food, water and shelter and the Tjukurpa a spiritual understanding of the world are finely interwoven in his paintings, creating works of an elegant abstraction. Each work is related to a specific site and ancestral beings and is strongly based on his experience and perception of the Law and the Land. When he was a young child he lived a traditional lifestyle walking along Tjukurpa tracks that linked sacred sites and water sources.
From the tjilpis (old men) he learnt the ways of life in the desert and Anangu social order, law, culture, Tjukurpa and ceremony. Patju first learnt about Christianity from Mr Wade, the missionary who came to the desert on camel preaching the Bible and giving out tea and damper. When the mission was established Patju spent some time there learning English to read and write hymns and Bible stories. Patju trained to be a preacher at the mission at Ernabella.
He is also a strong cultural man who practices traditional cultural business and inma (ceremonial singing and dancing), carves punu (ceremonial and utilitarian objects) and hunts malu (kangaroo), kalaya (emu), kipara (bush turkey) and rabbit.
In his paintings Patju refers to many of the Tjukurpa of the country of the Great Victoria Desert including the Wati Kipara (Bush Turkey), Wati Kutjara (Two Water-Snake Men), Kalaya (Emu), Wati Pira (Moon Man) and Minyma Kutjara (Two Sisters). His images are visual representations of the epic journeys and creation stories of the country. References to important landforms, rockholes and Tjukurpa tracks implicitly evoke the tjukuritja beings (of the dreaming), their interactions and activities. References to features in the country by desert artists are heavily loaded with complex symbolic meanings and interconnected layers of cultural references.
Read LessPatju Presley painting 24-444 (2024) (cropped image)
Lennard Walker is a senior Pitjantjatjara Law Man from the Great Victoria Desert in remote Western Australia. He was born around 1946 in the area of Tjukaltjara and Kuru Ala to the north of the community settlement of Tjuntjuntjara. As is custom in Aboriginal law he has strong cultural obligations and responsibilities for this country even though it is a strong Women's site of the Kungkarangkalpa Tjukurpa, known more widely as the Seven Sisters Dreaming. This is an epic songline which traverses much of the Western Desert.
... Read MoreIn the 1950's Lennard encountered Europeans for the first time and with his family spent some time living at Warburton Mission where he learnt to speak english. He later joined relatives at Cundeelee Mission and typically spent much time “out bush“ following ceremonial cycles and going through the many stages of Aboriginal law.
Lennard also paints the Wati Kutjara Tjukurpa of Pukara, a story depicting two snakes, a father and son who are travelling across country during ceremonial time. Along with the Kungkarangkalpa Tjukurpa the Wati Kutjara story is one of the most important and wide ranging stories in Spinifex country. Although much of the specific detail is dangerous and secret the general actions and directions of the father and son are well known and understood to have been essential to the formation and activation of much of the country.
Water is a precious resource and thus permanent waterholes have sacred associations. They are guarded by their creators, Wanampis, Dreaming Serpent Beings, who have magical abilities. These Dreaming Beings are powerful and often dangerous so Anangu must approach them with respect and perform certain ritual according to the Law.
Lennard has lived all of his life in the Great Victoria Desert although travels to Warburton and Patjar to spend time with family from the north. He has been painting with the Spinifex Arts Project since its inception in 1997 and is an invaluable member of the group.
Living most of the time in Tjuntjuntjara, Lennard is married to well-known artist Ngalpingka Simms. They live with their extended families.
Read LessThree Rictor Brothers, Mick, Noli and Ian at a traditional rockhole (cropped image)
Mick was born at Kulpinya situated south of the significant site of Miramiratjara in the Great Victoria Desert sometime around 1956. This puts him in close proximity to the British Atomic Testing at Emu Fields and Maralinga during the '50s and '60s. Mick and his immediate family were living a nomadic life in and around traditional Spinifex Country up until 1986 when the family was located by relatives searching the area and taken to a then small settlement of Yakadunya and later Coonana. Mick is the eldest sibling of four with his other three siblings Ian and Noli Rictor and Tjaruwa Woods already established artists.
... Read MoreHe started painting in 2016 and has a natural aesthetic with a painterly quality about his work. His works feature references to the Spinifex Country, the vast plains and sand hills, country holding secret water holes and 'Mamu Tjina' or scorer footprints. Mick lives a solitary life with a large contingent of dogs that he keeps as company.
Read LessIan Rictor was born at Artulin/Tuwan c1955 and is a custodian and traditional owner of Tuwan a significant site in the heart of Spinifex Country. Ian paints with a quiet reverence for the country that he depicts, from his relatively recent nomadic movements over the endless interior that makes up Spinifex Lands. Ian walked from water source to food source and beyond. This was a cultural and family existence for survival in an arid land before his family were located and 'brought in' by relatives in 1986, and they are the last of the known Aboriginal people to have remained living traditionally in the Great Victoria Desert.
... Read MoreIan's compositions center on the life affirming sites he depicts and each are multi layered with meaning. Many are surrounded with secrecy and only surface details can be recorded. His site of Tuwan is where the Tjulpu Tjuta Tjukurpa (Many Birds Creation Line) manifests. This is an epic Mens’ Creation narrative that follows the journey south of the Wati Nyii Nyii (Zebra Finch Men) where they place their many spears to save the world from being inundated with floodwaters.
In 1997 when the Spinifex Arts Project first began Ian was keen to join the group of painters. He took to the medium of paint on canvas with fluency and has been painting his birthplace and surrounding country since then and has exhibited and been collected in both Australia and overseas. Ian is an impressive and skilled hunter, bush mechanic and craftsman who lives in Tjuntjuntjara Community with his wife Kathleen Donnegan, also an artist and their extended family.
Read LessByron Brooks (cropped image)
Byron was born in the Great Victoria Desert and grew up traversing his parent's country with his extended family. As a child Byron was taught where water was to be found, how to utilise climatic conditions and how to navigate from place to place in order to survive.
with the majority of the Spinifex people Byron's family were pushed towards the SW of their country in the 1950's as a major drought gripped the country and the British began nuclear testing at Maralinga.
... Read MoreTragically some Spinifex people perished during this frightening and confusing time. However, family groups moved to the mission of Cundeelee where they existed for about twenty five years maintaining a semi nomadic lifestyle. In the early 1980's a core group of Spinifex people including Byron moved back west into their country making camp first at Yakatunya north of the Nularbor and later establishing the community of Tjuntjuntjara where the group lives today.
sByron is an enthusiastic member of the Spinifex Arts Project and has been painting since 1997 when the project commenced. Byron is quite an experimental painter and is developing a unique and successful style.
Painting his homeland area which he knows intimately Byron cites the following places; Tjuntjalla, Tjawarr, wawartju, Kulapi, Ilkurlka, Warlpirltjara, Tjukurlpa, Mirramirratjara, Pulitjii, Kanguu, Pina, Amantju, Muyu, Pirarpi, Kulapi, Tjuntala, Wayara, Tuwan, Tarantjara, Ilkaru, Tjimara, Kanmurtja, Paupiyala, Kapi Piti Kutjara, Kuru Ala, Puyu, Minga and Kamantjii. This is an area which covers many hundreds of kilometres in central and northern Spinifex country.
Read Less“We painted before all together, wati tjuta (lots of men) minyma tjuta (lots of women). Sometimes we still paint together. Now I paint self, my place is sacred, nobody else can paint him. That's my country, my painting...”
“We painted before all together, wati tjuta (lots of men) minyma tjuta (lots of women). Sometimes we still paint together. Now I paint self, my place is sacred, nobody else can paint him. That's my country, my painting...”
- Ned Grant, 2025
Spinifex Landscape (cropped image)
Ned Grant was born near Papatatjara a in the north-east quadrant of Spinifex Country in the Great Victoria Desert, WA. During the Aboriginal Evangelical Mission (AEM) sweep through Spinifex in the late 1950’s Ned was taken into Cundeelee Mission with older brother, Ted (dec) and younger brother Fred. Ned was a nyiingka (segregated bush boy) when he came in and was inducted into Men’s Law in the ranges country north-west of Laverton.
Ned, a senior man by the early 1980’s, helped drive the return to Spinifex country. Today Ned is the main ceremonial leader of the Tjintu (sun side) of Spinifex society.
... Read MoreNed has been painting with the Spinifex Art Project since its beginning in 1997. His works have been included in major exhibitions nationally and internationally. Ned was one of 17 men who collaboratively painted their particular estates, which merged together, formed the Men’s Native Title painting. Ned continues to paint his “run” - the area around where he was born and subsequently lost his umbilical cord.
Over the life of the project Ned has not been a prolific individual painter. He has, however, been an integral contributor to various men’s collaborative works. It is the quantum of collaborative works produced which has been a distinguishing feature of the Spinifex Art Project since its beginning.
Read LessNed Grant painting 24-354 (2024) (cropped image)
Roy Underwood was born in the north - western Spinifex area around 1937. Roy’s actual place of birth cannot be recorded, as it is near such a highly sacred place that its name and Tjukurpa cannot be mentioned in hearing of women and children. As a reference Roy would say he was born near Tjutajara with Anpiri and Kunultu as important places within his personal range or area of interest. Roy also had hereditary interests in his mother’s country around Ilkurlka, Kalaya – emu tjukurpa and father’s country from Wartala to the south – east, Waluwaru – eagle-hawk Tjukurpa.
... Read MoreRoy didn't visit his father’s country since first contact, as it was remote and inaccessible. He tended to paint his own and his mother’s country. Roy was brought in from the Great Victoria Desert to Cundeelee mission in the late 1950s on one of several expeditions mounted by the missionaries. At the time he was a late teenager or nyiingka, in seclusion from Aboriginal society prior to initiation into manhood. He was taken by train to Ooldea in S.A. and walked about 120 km south to a shed tank about 30km north of Yalata. Here people from Yalata, Cundeelee and many from the northern Pitjantjatjara area had gathered for Tjilkatja – men’s initiation ceremonies.
Some time after initiation Roy walked back into the desert and lived there for a while with family yet to move into Cundeelee. He eventually returned to Cundeelee and resided there until the move back into Spinifex in the early 1980s. Roy married and raised his wife’s brother’s two sons. With Kumanara Anderson and other older men and women, Roy was a major driving force in returning the Spinifex people to their country and representing and negotiating the unbroken connection to country which was the key element in the Federal Court decision to grant the Spinifex people exclusive Native Title over 55,000 sq. km. in 2000.
Roy continued to be a venerated Elder and was routinely elected to the boards of the Spinifex Land Council and Tjuntjuntjara Community Council. His unique painting style is somewhat reminiscent of Kiwirkurra mens’ designs from Pintupi country hundreds of kilometres to the northwest and has influenced other artists with his bold and sometimes geometric designs. He was a strong force within the Spinifex Arts Project and a much sought after painter. Roy passed away quietly in the night on 23rd June 2018.
Read LessLawrence was a senior traditional owner who was born in the Great Victoria Desert at a place called Urlu in 1934. During the 1950s, when the British conducted nuclear testing on Australian soil, Lawrence, like many Spinifex people, was affected by the "bomb" and was forced to move west towards Kalgoorlie.
Many people drifted to the mission of Cundeelee, which was set up by an American missionary, Bob Stewart. Lawrence entered the mission with his family as a young man and reunited with many relatives.... Read More
At Cundeelee, Lawrence was introduced to European people who provided clothing and foods such as sugar, flour, and tobacco. In the 1980s, the Spinifex People were relocated from the mission to a cattle station called Coonana, where they established a new base for themselves. A community was set up at Coonana, but most of the elders moved eastward, returning to their homelands.
Lawrence moved between Coonana and Yakatunya for the next 15 years. He began painting with the Spinifex Arts Project in 1999, where his work contributed to the preservation and celebration of Spinifex culture and stories. He spent his later years at Tjuntjuntjara Community with his extended family.
Lawrence's legacy continues to inspire, leaving behind a rich cultural and artistic contribution that reflects the resilience and strength of the Spinifex people. Read Less
Noli Rictor may well be the youngest "first contact" Aboriginal person in Australia. The year was 1986 and Noli was the youngest of three boys in the Rictor family when relatives, having previously seen signs that a group were in the remote area, made contact with them, in the Great Victoria Desert of Western Australia.
They were persuaded to come into the small settlement of Yakaduna to the south, where most of the Spinifex people now resided. This would be a monumental for Noli who was just twenty-one years old at the time and had survived as a traditional hunter – gatherer, in the desert with only his immediate family, as all other people had left 30 years prior with the British atomic testing taking place at Maralinga.
... Read MoreNoli found immediate respect with the older men of the settlement for his vast knowledge of country and Law and this has not changed as time has moved, with Noli still consulted on all things Spinifex. His young life spent roaming the plains and sandhills is now seen as an invaluable education for the young generaons of Spinifex children who have adjusted to sedentary community life. Noli began his painting career with a couple of works in 2004 with Ninuku Artists at Kalka where he was residing.
After his first few works he didn"t pick up a brush again until 2016 in Tjuntjuntjara. He now lives and works at Tjuntjuntjara with the Spinifex Arts Project.
Read LessSpinifex Landscape (cropped image)
Please send us a message if you have any questions about this exhibition.
CONTACT USReDot Fine Art Gallery has a close and treasured working relationship with Spinifex Arts Project, one built on years of mutual shared objectives. In 2025 we will be honouring this relationship with a series of events and exhibitions, across the globe. To kick this ambitious programme off locally in Singapore, we present our first exhibition of 2025, rawa tjunguku - working together a long time; the release of a set of major works (recent and from the archives of the galleries collection) by the community and us.
The exhibition will be held at our old gallery premises Artspace @ Helutrans, in the Tanjong Pagar Distripark at 39 Keppel Road, Singapore 089065. A fitting place to host a show 10+ years on from our 10th anniversary presentation, which was also by the same community art centre.
Much has changed in the transpiring years, the loss of many important senior artist, a period of massive global change and upheaval, BUT what remains consistent and true is the joyous and remarkable resilience and beauty this very remote and isolated community of the south-west of Australia is able to achieve.
A must-see for anyone interested in following the on-going developments in Indigenous art and an opportunity to better understand the amazing evolution and resilience of one of Australia’s finest community based Indigenous art projects.