Maningrida

Michael Reid Southern Highlands is honoured to present our first exhibition of works by artists from Maningrida Arts & Culture, a community in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory that has earned a reputation of excellence among collectors both in Australia and internationally.

Maningrida artists live on country and their work explores djang – an eternal, life-giving, transformative power that accounts for every aspect of existence. It also refers to the creation ancestor, the country where spirit resides and to ceremonial designs and songs that represent that being.

The area where the artists live encompasses 7,000 square kilometres of land and sea and the art reflects the diversity of over 100 clan estates and more than a dozen distinct languages.

This exhibition showcases works by a dozen highly skilled Maningrida artists. It includes carved wooden sculptures of tall, slender Mimih Spirits, which taught the first people how to survive in the rocky environment of the Arnhem Land plateau, as well as Warraburnburn, spirits that know the country intimately.

There are six stunning lorrkons, hollow logs decorated with totemic emblems that are used in mortuary rituals, and also seven bark paintings featuring the distinctive cross-hatching technique known as rarrk.

This is a remarkable collection that we are extremely proud to present and we encourage all our followers to grasp this opportunity and visit the gallery to see these wonderful works.