QUEENSLAND.- Works by leading Queensland artists Vernon Ah Kee, Richard Bell, Daniel Boyd, Destiny Deacon, Gordon Hookey, Danie Mellor, Dennis Nona, Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jr and Christian Thompson and Judy Watson feature in a nationally touring Indigenous art triennial now showing at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA).

‘Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial’ will be on display at GoMA until May 10, 2009.

Queensland Art Gallery Director Tony Ellwood said the exhibition featured more than 90 works created since 2004 by 30 Indigenous Australian artists from every state and territory, including 10 from Queensland.

GoMA is the fourth venue to stage ‘Culture Warriors’, the inaugural triennial exhibition developed by the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), after its exhibition in Canberra as well as in Adelaide and Perth.

Through this exhibition Queensland audiences can experience the incredible range and diversity of contemporary Indigenous art practice,’ Mr Ellwood said.

Mr Ellwood said the exhibition featured accomplished, majestic and innovative works of art, with some using traditional materials in highly original ways, some revitalising cultural practices, and others employing contemporary technologies and cross cultural references.

‘This exhibition includes a range of visually spectacular works including Queensland artist Dennis Nona’s incredible bronze and pearlshell sculpture of a full-sized crocodile carrying a spirit figure on its back and Doreen Reid Nakamarra’s large-scale optical painting depicting the ridges of shifting sands within her desert country.

‘Also featured is Queensland artist Richard Bell’s large scale painting ‘Australian Art it’s an Aboriginal thing’ which revisits his 2003 Telstra NATSIAA Award winning work ‘Scientia E Metaphysica (Bell’s Theorem)’ aka ‘Aboriginal Art it’s a white thing’.

Paintings on canvas by Daniel Boyd, Turbo Brown, Julie Dowling and Christopher Pease also feature in the exhibition along with a range of fibre work new media, photo media, print making and installation by artists including Destiny Deacon, Treahna Hamm and Ricky Maynard.

The exhibition curated by Brenda L. Croft, Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia, draws inspiration from the 40th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum.

Mr Ellwood said ‘Culture Warriors’ paid specific tribute to a core group of artists whose careers span the four decades since the Referendum including Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, Phillip Gudthaykudthay, John Mawurndjul, Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek AO and Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jr.