‘Kuwarritja Irriitinguru - A way before and a way now’ featuring Candy Nelson Nakamarra & Carbiene McDonald Tjangala

Artist Carbiene McDonald Tjangala has been named a finalist in the 2023 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) for his painting 'Four Dreamings'. The work, which draws on four Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) stories inherited from his father, continues to establish McDonald Tjangala as a compelling story-teller in contemporary Indigenous art.

Now in its 40th year, the Telstra NATSIAA is Australia’s longest running and most prestigious Indigenous art award, celebrating the very best of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artistic practice. Each year, the exhibition showcases an exceptional breadth of work, including painting, sculpture, multimedia, and textile, highlighting both established artists and exciting new talent. The Papunya Tjupi-based artist has been recognised for his commitment to honouring cultural knowledge while developing a distinctly contemporary visual language.

As part of the 2023 awards, audiences can experience the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art making through the finalists’ exhibition at Darwin's Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory.

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Installation image of 2023 Telstra NATSIAA finalists exhibition at the Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory.

Dan Kyle reflects on his time spent visiting Candy Nelson Nakamarra's studio with Edwina Corlette and Miranda Skoczek in preparation for 'On Common Ground' Exhibition. The show is current at Edwina Corlette Gallery 28 June – 16 July, 2022.

Candy’s style is completely unique within her community of artists in Papunya. You can see links with her fellow artists and definitely some direct influence from her father, the renowned Papunya Tula artist Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, but she has created her own visual language. She’s doing something I haven’t seen before, and everyone in the group acknowledges it. “No one is painting like this!” we say, like five times each.

If you look closely at the work, through the layers of intricate motifs, you can see the initial process that Candy uses to start each painting. This is actually what excited me about her in the first place, as this part of her process really sets her apart. Candy starts each work by splashing and pouring watered-down paint over the canvases. She turns them around and around, forcing the drips to run freely. They crisscross and intersect each other over the surface. It’s the landscape from above: watercourses, waterholes, sand dunes.

Dan Kyle, June 2022

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Candy Nelson Nakamarra at Papunya Tjupi Arts, 2022, photographed by Charlie Perry

RAFT artspace has unveiled a new body of work by Western Desert painter Carbiene McDonald Tjangala, highlighting a striking evolution in his practice. Committed to painting the four Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) stories inherited from his father, Snowy McDonald, the artist is known for his unwavering dedication.

Dallas Gold (director of RAFT Artspace) first noticed McDonald’s work through Papunya Tjupi Arts’s Instagram, a moment that led to the artist’s sell-out solo debut at RAFT in 2018. The 2022 exhibition builds on that success, revealing both continuity and experimentation. McDonald’s signature layered paint surfaces and square formations remain, yet the new works introduce subtle shifts in colour and structure that signal growing confidence and playfulness.

The exhibition is current at RAFT Artspace, Alice Springs, 29 April - 21 May, 2022.

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Installation image 'Carbiene McDonald Tjangala' at RAFT Artspace, Northern Territory

Art Guide has published a profile on artist Carbiene McDonald Tjangala from Papunya Tjupi Arts Centre.

'Papunya Tjupi Arts is an Aboriginal owned not-for-profit community art centre based in Papunya—located approximately 240 kilometres northwest of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). It’s also where McDonald first began painting. “All the young fellas were encouraging me to paint,” explains McDonald. “Now I’m painting, I’ve started working.”

With great movement in his practice, McDonald is committed to painting the four Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) stories inherited from his father Snowy McDonald. And this commitment is undeniable: “He’s the first one to arrive at the Papunya Tjupi and then last one to leave each day,” says Dallas Gold, director of RAFT artspace.

It was documentation of McDonald’s earlier work on Papunya Tjupi Arts’s Instagram that grasped the attention of many—including Gold—propelling McDonald’s first solo exhibition at RAFT artspace in 2018. It was a sell-out show. “There’s an inherited visual language in [McDonald’s] work but he’s also inventing a visual language,” explains Gold. “He’s inventing a language that alludes to something that he’s inherited without giving too much away.”

While McDonald’s new work at RAFT still has his signature iterative layers of paint and square formations, it also yields subtle yet meaningful shifts with colour and composition. Gold explains that McDonald is undoubtedly becoming more playful and dynamic within the structures of his work. The paintings demonstrate “strong statements informed by knowledge of Country and about Country—but they’re also inventing a language to allude to these knowledge systems, or they’re trying to reestablish this—so this is something that’s very new,” says Gold. As McDonald has explained, “I only paint my Country. I felt I had to paint this way, paint my homelands…in the future I’m going to keep making artworks of my Country.”'

- Autumn Royal for Art Guide, 2022

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CARBIENE MCDONALD
Four Dreamings 2021
544-21
acrylic on canvas
122 x 181 cm

Desart TV speaks to Carbiene McDonald Tjangala. The film gives insight into Carbiene's life, and tracks the story of how he was introduced to painting at Papunya Tjupi. Carbiene welcomes the viewer into his studio, explaining his father's dreaming site as the inspiration for his 'Four Dreamings' paintings. The short documentary is a great introduction to Carbiene and his work.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

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Still images from video 'Carbiene McDonald Tjangala', posted by Desart TV 17 September 2020. Courtesy Shane Mulcahy, Desart TV, and Papunya Tjupi with support from the Northern Territory Government

Carbiene McDonald Tjangala has been named among the finalists for the 2019 Vincent Lingiari Art Award. Presented jointly by Desart and the Central Land Council (CLC), the award opened on 4 September at Tangentyere Artists Gallery.

This year’s theme, “True Story – My Country,” echoes the Uluru Statement from the Heart and its call for national truth-telling. This year’s award builds on the legacy of the inaugural 2016 Vincent Lingiari Art Award, ‘Our Land Our Life Our Future’, which marked two major milestones: the 50th anniversary of the Wave Hill Walk Off led by Vincent Lingiari and the 40th anniversary of the Land Rights (NT) Act.

Carbiene’s work joins 22 other entries exploring personal and political stories of Country, resilience and history. There is a range of mediums represented in the exhibition - from sculpture and ceramics to video and painting, reflecting themes of reconciliation. The entries are judged by Nhanda and Nyoongar curator Glenn Isegar Pilkington.

The exhibition is current at Tangentyere Artists Gallery until 18 October, 2019.

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Carbiene McDonald Tjangala work 'Four Dreamings', a finalist in the Vincent Lingiari Art Award 2019

Congratulations to Carbiene McDonald Tjangala, who has won the 2019 Hadley’s Art Prize, Australia’s richest landscape art award. Carbiene began painting only a year ago, yet his winning artwork, Four Dreamings, was chosen from more than 600 entries. The piece represents four Tjukurrpa (Dreamtime) stories passed down from his father and reflects his deep connection to Country.

The artist travelled for two days from the remote community of Papunya to Hobart—taking his first-ever flight—to accept the prestigious landscape art prize. His sister Karen, who translated for him, said he felt “really happy and grateful,” moved by the national recognition.

A member of a well-known Central Australian artistic family, McDonald Tjangala quickly became known for his dedication. Papunya art studio facilitator said the artist often paints from opening until closing time: “He’s often there before it opens and paints until we have to kick him out.”

Hadley’s Art Prize judge and MONA curator Jane Clark described Four Dreamings as “exciting and original” with a “universal quality.”

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Carbiene McDonald Tjangala with his painting 'Four Dreamings' which won the Hadley's Art Prize, courtesy Jessica King.