Upcoming
LOEWE FOUNDATION CRAFT PRIZE: Madrid
The LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize is an annual international award established by the LOEWE Foundation in 2016 to recognise excellence in craftsmanship. Since its inception, it has gained recognition and grown to become one of the most prestigious awards in the field of craftsmanship. It has attracted attention from both the art world and the public, as it honours artists whose work blends traditional techniques with their own ideas. As of 2025, the foundation has received 4,500 submissions from 132 different countries. The finalists have now been chosen, and Margaret Rarru is among the top 30. The finalists’ works will be exhibited at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid from May 30 to June 29, 2025.
Current
VIVIENNE ANDERSON GALLERY – THE WOMEN’S SHOW : Melbourne
The Women’s Show, established in 2005, celebrates the contributions of Australian First Nations women artists to global art and culture. Now, 20 years later, their work continues to gain recognition. This group exhibition features weavings by Margaret Rarru and Helen Ganalmirriwuy, among other works. The official opening event is on. March 26- April 26, 2025.
SABBIA GALLERY – 20TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION : Sydney
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Sabbia Gallery presents a group exhibition featuring 68 Australian artists, including over 50 newly commissioned works. The exhibition reflects key moments and turning points in the artists’ practices and includes sculpture by Matthew Djipurrtjun. Featuring works in glass, ceramics, and fibre, the exhibition will be accompanied by a publication and public events throughout 2025. The exhibition runs from 8-29 March 2025 at 609 Elizabeth Street, Redfern.
Past
TELSTRA NATIONAL ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER ART AWARDS 2024 –
MUSEUM AND GALLERY OF NORTHERN TERRITORY :Darwin
The Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (Telstra NATSIAA) exhibition showcases the best contemporary art from both emerging and established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. As Australia’s longest-running and most prestigious Indigenous art awards, this exhibition celebrates the strength of culture.
In its 41st year, the event offers a total of $190,000 in prize money, with the major Telstra Art Award prize at $100,000. This exhibition features finalist works by Helen Ganalmirriwuy and Joe Dhamanydj.
THE LADY AND THE UNICORN: NEW TAPESTRY – SALON 94 : New York
The Lady and the Unicorn: New Tapestry brings together eight contemporary artists from six
countries, reimagining the art of tapestry with innovative materials and techniques Inspired by the famed 15th-century Flemish tapestries, the exhibition presents master woven works in materials like wool felt, metal wire, leather, and pandanus. Margaret Rarru Garrawurra’s Dhomala (Sail) (2024) transforms the woven pandanus sail into a powerful
expression of Yolŋu identity, innovation, and deep cultural knowledge. Using her distinctive black dye (mol), the work anchors ancient traditions within a contemporary global context. This exhibition is located at Salon 94, 89th Street, New York, New York from 11.08 – 12.21.2024.
TARIPANG / DHARRIPA / TREPANG – NORTHERN CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
: Darwin 10 August – 5 October 2024
Taripang/Dharripa/Trepang revisits important pre-colonial history from the Top End with a group exhibition featuring both historical and newly commissioned pieces by First Nations and Indonesian artists including Matthew Djipurrtjun, Margaret Rarru, and the artists of Milingimbi Art and Culture. Long before British colonisation, Makassan traders would make regular voyages from Sulawesi to northern Australia, and these journeys fostered shared cultural and economic ideas between Makassans and First Nations peoples. However, this tradition ended abruptly in 1907 due to government regulations. This exhibition explores the ongoing legacy of Makassan and First Nations interactions, showcasing the cultural exchanges between the communities.
WE ARE THE OLD: ḺUKU ŊURRUŊGITJ – SALON ART PROJECTS : Darwin
Joe Dhamanydji and Matthew ‘Teapot’ Djipurrtjun are leading the effort to reclaim and research cultural materials from Milingimbi, working to uncover the knowledge that’s tied to the land. This exhibition showcases bark artworks and sculptures that mix traditional Yolŋu styles with modern twists, creating a conversation between the old and the new. These works are on exhibition at TACTILE ARTS, 19 Conacher Street, The Gardens, Darwin NT, 4:30pm, Friday 21 June.
TELSTRA NATIONAL ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIGHT ISLANDER ART AWARDS: Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory. The Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) exhibition is Australia’s richest art awards. This exhibition captures the attention of the nation, with an inspiring breadth of work from around Australia. This year, esteemed senior Milingimbi Artist Matthew Teapot Djipurrtjun was a finalist in this years 3D category with his work titled Ḻapakarra ga Boḏuk . On view online here and in person until 18th of February 2024 at the MAGNT, Darwin.
TOGETHER WE TELL OUR STORIES 2023 : Indigenous Glass, Ceramics, Fibre + Sculpture. Sabbia Gallery, Sydney. This exhibition features works by Milingimbi Artists Matthew Teapot Djipurrtjun and Sia Walabanda. The exhibition opens on the 6th of December and runs thru to the 22nd of December.
MAḎAYIN EIGHT DECADES OF ABORIGINAL AUSTRALLIAN BARK PAINTING FROM YIRRIKA: Featuring works on bark by Wilson Ganambarr Manydjarri Guluwu, Madayin is the result of a six-year collaboration between Kluge-Ruhe and Indigenous knowledge holders from the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre in northern Australia. It chronicles the rise of a globally significant art movement as told from the perspective of the Yolŋu people. This nationally touring exhibition presented by the Kluge-Ruhe will be at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia from February 3rd through to July 14th.
ALCHEMY – Light, layers and tactility – Alchemy exhibition uncovers the mysterious processes involved in producing pigments and dyes.
The exhibition displays new commissioned works by First Nations creative practitioners from across Australia, with particularly focus on the Northern Territory. Curated by Coby Edgar, presenting works from Milingimbi master weavers Mandy Batjula, Helen Ganalmirriwuy, and Margaret Rarru.
Powerhouse, Ultimo, Sydney, Dates TBA.
The National 4: Australian Art Now Carriage Works, Sydney. 30 March-25 June 2023.
The National is a biennial survey of contemporary Australian art. The National 4: Australian Art Now brings together 48 new artists projects involving more than 80 artists across Country, generations and communities. A partnership between four leading Sydney cultural institutions: the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Campbelltown Arts Centre (C-A-C), Carriageworks and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia)
LONG WATER: FIBRE STORIES TOURING EXHIBITION. Long water: fibre stories illuminates spiritual, ancestral, and physical connections to water through fibre practices of artists from Yuwaalaraay (North West NSW), Quandamooka (Moreton Bay, South East QLD), Kuku Yalanji (Far North QLD), Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait Islands, QLD), Yurruwi (Milingimbi Island, NT), and surrounding homelands. Together this group—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, spanning different generations and ancestries—share an inseparable relationship to water, be it the vast sea, inland waterways, or expansive river systems.
Charles Darwin University Art Gallery, Darwin, NT, 23 Mar–09 Jul 2022
Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie, Lake Macquarie, NSW, 23 Jul–25 Sep 2022
Ḻuku Gamunuŋgu: Foundations Sabbia Gallery, Sydney. 7-21 December 2022
In Yolŋu languages, Ḻuku means foot or footprint, and by extension, what is left behind by the ancestors – a legacy, a foundation. Gamunuŋgu centrally refers to clay, but also refers to paint, painting and to the making of art generally. This dynamic collection of wood carvings, ochre paintings, and pandanus weavings created by the men and women of Milingimbi Art and Culture represents the unbroken lines of familial and ecological heritage of each artist – who they are and where they have come from, the foundations of all art created on the island
4TH NATIONAL INDIGENOUS ART TRIENNIAL: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Margaret Rarru and Helen Ganalmirriwuy artwork will be presented alongside artworks by 35 leading Australian First Nations artist’s curated by Hetti Perkins. 26 Mar – 31 Jul 2022
YOLNGU/MACASSAR PROJECT – Illustrates the historic cultural, social and spiritual connection between the saltwater Yolngu people of north-eastern Arnhem Land and the Macassan and Bugis boat builders, traders and fishers of south Sulawesi in Indonesia. The exhibition of artworks from Yolngu and Indonesian artists includes Margaret Rarru’s Dhomala (pandanus sail). Australian Pacific Triennial 10 at the Queensland Art Gallery. 04 Dec 2021 – 25 Apr 2022
COLOURS FROM COUNTRY: OCHRE. A collection of works from Top End Art Centres featuring the use of ochre. Showcasing works on paper, bark, canvas, and board this exhibition explores themes of ceremony, ancestral beings, animals and clan patterns and designs. Milingimbi artists include Joe Dhamanydji, Matthew Djipurrtjun, Geraldine Gamiritj, George Milaypuma, Daryl Yatjany, Michael Mungula. Aboriginal Bush Traders. 28 Mar to 8th Apr 2022
KNOW MY NAME: AUSTRALIAN WOMEN ARTISTS 1900 TO NOW. PART 2 – Showcases art made by iconic Australian female artists of all disciplines and backgrounds. Drawn from the National Gallery’s collection and loans from across Australia, it is one of the most comprehensive presentations of art by women assembled in this country to date. Features artwork by Margaret Rarru Garrawurra. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 12 June 2021 – 26 June 2022.
LONG WATER: FIBRE STORIES TOURING EXHIBITION. long water: fibre stories illuminates spiritual, ancestral, and physical connections to water through fibre practices of artists from Yuwaalaraay (North West NSW), Quandamooka (Moreton Bay, South East QLD), Kuku Yalanji (Far North QLD), Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait Islands, QLD), Yurruwi (Milingimbi Island, NT), and surrounding homelands. Together this group—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, spanning different generations and ancestries—share an inseparable relationship to water, be it the vast sea, inland waterways, or expansive river systems.
Milingimbi Art and Culture , Milingimbi, NT. 01 May–15 May 2021.
Northsite Contemporary Arts Cairns, Qld. 27 Aug–23 Oct 2021
Gab Titui Cultural Centre Thursday Island, Qld. 10 Nov–20 Feb 2022
DHOMOLA / MAKASSAN SAIL STORY, The Cross Art Projects, Sydney. Dhomola / Makassan Sail Story crosses the centuries of contact between sea-farers and traders of the great Indonesian archipelago and saltwater people of northern Aboriginal nations. Dhomala is a Djambarpuyŋu word adapted from the Makassan word Dumala, both of which have the dual meaning of sail and cloth. Drawing on research describing Makassan voyages, the exhibition presents a poetic dimension of cultural contact between great civilisations. The focus is on maritime heritage, specifically wooden boat building and sea-farers’ customs. Through the intimate and reflective work of weaving and drawing Ipeh Nur and Margaret Rarru revise and revisit ancient practices—many still in use today—using startling contemporary forms. 4 September to 2 October 2021
Gularri: yothu yindi. Waterscapes from Northern Australia, 22 July to 26 September 2021. Musée du Quai Branly, Paris. Australia is often seen as a vast desert continent. Yet the selection of bark paintings in this display reflect the importance of representations that concern water, whether the sea, wetlands, mangroves or freshwater ecosystems. The term Gularri denotes all these water areas.
Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, online event, 5 to 11 August 2021.
Gululu dhuwala Djalkiri: welcome to the Yolŋu Foundations, Chau Chak Wing Museum,Sydney University. 18 Nov 2020 to August 2021. Representing more than 20 Yolŋu clan groups and 100 artists from eastern Arnhem Land, Gululu dhuwala djalkiri: welcome to the Yolŋu foundations (18 Nov 2020 – August 2021) is one of the major exhibitions for the opening of the University of Sydney’s new Chau Chak Wing Museum. The 350 artworks in Gululu dhuwala djalkiri represent generations of Yolŋu artists and include pieces dating back to the period following the establishment of Methodist missions in Milingimbi and Yirrkala, the late 1920s and 1940s. There anthropologists from the University acquired artworks and objects and took photographs in consultation with Yolŋu as an integral part of their researches. The exhibition also features new work, including a series of hollow logs made by artists of Milingimbi Art and Culture which were a centrepiece of the 2016 Milingimbi Makarraṯa.
Ḻiyagawumirr miny’tji at Outstation Gallery, darwin. Opening 20 March 2021. Ḻiyagawumirr miny’tji is a small but elegant exhibition of bark and fibre works by highly regarded senior artists and accomplished weavers Helen Ganalmirriwuy and Margaret Rarru.
Bäpurru ga Bäpurru, 26 August 2020 to 10 January 2021, Kluge Ruhe, USA. An exhibition of recent print works from Milingimbi and Yirrkala. Works from Milingimbi will include the Bäpurru Memorial suite created in honour of the late Mrs Gorriyindi who passed sudden shortly after working as follow with the Kluge Ruhe in 2018.
Long Water: fibre stories, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 5 September–19 December 2020. A survey exhibition of Indigenous weavers curated by Freja Carmichael. Susan Balbunga, Ruth Nalmakarra, Helen Ganalmirriwuy and Mandy Batjula have created a series of pieces that express the artists connection to water through their weaving practice.
Tarnanthi: Open Hands 16 Oct 2020 – 31 Jan 2021. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Milingimbi artists; Susan Balbunga,Wilson Manydjarri, Helen Ganalmirriwuy, Margaret Rarru, Mandy Batjula, Ruth Nalmakarra, Paddy Mugabi, Matthew Djipurrtjun, Samual Wumulul and Jacob Ganambarr have created an installation of mindirr, miny’tji, ḏupun ga manikay (weaving, painting, memorial poles and song) that explores the interconnection of these art forms, and the märi gutharra (grandparent and grandchild) relationship of the Garrawurra and Gamalaŋga clans.
Tarnanthi Art Fair, at Lot fourteen, 4 to 6 December 2020. This year’s Art Fair features a curated display of selected works for sale, handpicked by community-run art centres to highlight established and next-generation artists. It also includes shop-style sales of countless works by artists from across Australia. In addition, a program of digital presentations will show artists making their work and discussing their motivations, traditions and environment.
Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion, Bendigo Art Gallery. 31 October to 29 November 2020. Brings together a selection of garments and textiles by First Nations designers and artists from around Australia including Margaret Rarru’s woven pandanus Madonna Bra and Bathi.
Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Darwin Convention Centre, August 2020. (This will be an online event)
Wrapped, Woven & Wound, JamFactory, Adelaide. 15 May to 12 July 2020. Presents work from eight female artists, including a mix of sculptural, decorative and functional pieces that explore the use of interlaced or wrapped components. Including works by Mandy Batjula.
The Magic of Black and White, Siemenstraße 40, 71735 Eberdingen-Nussdorf, 19 January 2019 to 1 March 2020. A group exhibition featuring artworks by Australian and Papua New Guinean First Nations People. With a focus on the reduced palette of ‘black and white’ this exhibition features Helen Ganalmirriwuy’s stunning Mol (black) weaving.
The Alchemists: Weaving Knowledge, The Goods Shed, Perth, 4 October 2019. A survey of recent contemporary fibre art from Aboriginal artists and art centres across the country.
Pandanus Noir; Margaret Rarru and Helen Ganalmirriwuy selected weavings, RAFT Artspace, Alice Springs, 2 October 2019. An exbibition featuring a selection of Margaret Rarru and Helen Ganalmirriwuy’s Mol (black) woven artworks and several other monochrome pieces.
Ngalya (Together), Koskela, Sydney, 28 August to 22 September 2019. The collection of collaborative lighting designs between designers Koskela and six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art centres – Bula’Bula Arts, Durrmu Arts, Milingimbi Art and Culture, Moa Arts, Ngarrindjeri Weavers, and Tjanpi Desert Weavers – highlights the innovation and contemporary transformations taking place in Indigenous fibre arts and cultures across Australia. Also on exhibition at Tarnanthi Festival, from 18 October 2019
Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific: A Selection of works from QAGOMA’s Asia Pacific Triennial’ is at Centro Cultural La Moneda in Santiago, Chile from 22 August – 8 December 2019 Including artworks (paintings on bark, memorial poles and weavings) by Margaret Rarru and Helen Ganalmirriwuy.
The Inside World: Contemporary Aboriginal Memorial Poles, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, United States of America, 31 July 2019. A survey of contemporary memorial poles from Arnhem Land collected by Debra and Denis Scholl.
GOMA Asia Pacific Triennial, 24 Nov 2018 – 28 Apr 2019 . The Asia Pacific Triennial brings significant art from across the Asia Pacific and Australia to GOMA Brisbane. This exhibition includes Margaret Rarru and Helen Ganalmirriwuy master weavers who also paint their clan body designs in minimalist patterns on barks and poles.
ArtKelch, Freiburg, Germany. Exhibition opening 14th September 2019