Kuruṉpa Kuṉpu | Strong Spirit

Kuruṉpa Kuṉpu | Strong Spirit features a collection of award-winning furniture works that resulted from a multi-year cross-cultural design collaboration between First Nations makers Tanya Singer and Errol Evans and designer Trent Jansen. Over three years, Tanya, Errol and Trent spent time in each other’s communities, learning about their unique relationships with Country, family and community. By engaging with their respective cultural practices and traditions, the designers have realised a collection of works that speak to the resilience of both First Nations people and ngura (Country), celebrating the potential for inter-cultural collaboration to embody diverse cultural values and lived experiences. 

Exhibitors: Errol Evans, Trent Jansen, Tanya Singer

Exhibition presented as part of 2025 Tarnanthi Festival, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

Nurnakanha Lyaartinya Urrkaapuntja | Our New Work on Glass

Artists from the lltja Ntjarra Art Centre have partnered with Canberra Glassworks to reinterpret the Hermannsburg School watercolour tradition through the medium of glass. Following a series of collaborative workshops in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), the Canberra Glassworks has created glass ‘blanks’ that were sent to Mparntwe for artists to work on, and these were then returned to CGW for engraving and hand finishing. The result is a spectacular series of blown glass vessels featuring the artists’ landscape paintings in a continuation of Albert Namatjira’s work. The collaboration follows an artist-led approach, focusing on stories and the curatorial rationale at Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre.

Exhibitors: Mona Lisa (Benita) Clements, Carita Coulthard, Dellina Inkamala, Dianne Inkamala, Kathy Inkamala, Raelene Inkamala, Reinhold Inkamala, Vanessa Inkamala, Mandy Malbunka, Betty Namatjira Wheeler, Mervyn Rubuntja, Kumantjai M Wheeler 

Exhibition presented as part of 2025 Tarnanthi Festival, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

Trent Jansen and Tanya Singer, Manta Pilti | Dry Sand Low Chair, 2023, American walnut, photographer: Fiona Susanto

Dellina Inkamlala of Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre, Tjoritja - West MacDonnell Ranges, 2025, Watercolour, Gouache, Glass Paint on Glass Dome, 350 x 200 x 230, Photo: Connor Patterson

Tiarnie Edwards: Good Trouble

Ngarrindjeri emerging artist Tiarnie Edwards presents ‘Good Trouble’ a new solo exhibition of figurative ceramic works exploring community, activism and family. Tiarnie’s characters, while outwardly cute, hold within them a powerful political and social commentary, centred on the Blackfella experience; here cuteness holds space for rage, strength and joy.

Through Tiarnie’s work we see colonial critique balanced with the contemporary subcultural materiality of graffiti, and references to Blak excellence. Tiarnie’s work is timely, responsive and intersectional. We’re reminded that decolonisation, Black deaths in custody and land rights are vastly interconnected issues. They open a lens to the important concerns of our times and remind us that our future depends on the choices we make now. But these characters aren’t passive observers, they’re here to fight back.

In Good Trouble Tiarnie’s unique hand-built clay characters engage in a tableau vivant, allowing audiences a glimpse into their nuanced, vibrant and complex lives. Rather than classic scenes of ‘Nymphs Bathing’ or ‘Diana the huntress’, we see Tiarnie’s Mud Gang getting up to mischief and also supporting and keeping each other safe. This illustrative storytelling style mirrors the linework in linocut political posters, referenced in the exhibition through carved clay tiles. Tiarnie’s hand-cut motifs bring us to the inherent humanity within the work. Their dynamic imperfections invoke energy and agency and likewise share a message of activism — always was, always will be.

Exhibition presented as part of 2025 Tarnanthi Festival, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

 Exhibitor: Tiarnie Edwards

Tiarnie Edwards, Mongrel, 45 x 64 x 22, Photo: Connor Patterson

Rurkuni – Gusting, Revving, Rushing

Using contemporary weaving techniques, the artists of Tjanpi Desert Weavers from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands have worked closely with JamFactory’s Head of Jewellery and Metal Studio Tom Golin to develop a new body of sculptural works inspired by the elements on Country. Tom has fabricated undulating metal frames on which the Tjanpi Desert Weavers have created new and experimental forms.

Exhibitors: Kathy Dodd, Sheena Dodd, Tom Golin, Emma Singer, Pauline Wangin, Pinuka Yai Yai, Julie Yangki, Amy Yilpi, Rhonda Young

Exhibition presented as part of 2025 Tarnanthi Festival, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

Tjanpi Desert Weavers, Rurkuni, 2025. Photo: Connor Patterson