Utopia in Pittsburgh
October 30th, 2007 Posted in SPACE, Visual Art
“Water Dreaming” by Nora Nangala Watson
As part of the Australia Festival, an extraordinary survey of Aboriginal Australian artists is on display at SPACE (812 Liberty Avenue) through December 31st.
Among the artists included in the exhibition, titled “New Works from Utopia: Paintings by Australian Aboriginal Artists,” are the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who helped pave the way for contemporary Australian Aboriginal art, Gloria Petyarre, Minnie Pwerle and Barbara Weir.
Utopia is located in the Western Desert “bloc” of Australia, next to the traditional land of the Eastern Anmatyarre and Alyawarre people. The work of the artists of Utopia is cutting edge contemporary art. Yet it also depicts the “Dreaming,” a coded culture which tells how the ancestral spirits created—then became the land—and how the land is alive and sacred.
Listen to an interview by Mark Nootbaar of WDUQ with curator Murray Horne.
Read a preview by Mary Thomas in the Post-Gazette.