SYDNEY.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia has announced a major two-year national tour of its Being Tiwi exhibition. Co-curated by MCA Senior Curator, Natasha Bullock and MCA Curator Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Programs, Keith Munro, the exhibition celebrates the iconography, stories and culture of contemporary art from the Tiwi Islands. It will tour to six regional galleries from across four Australian states, thanks to the generous support of the Australian Government’s Visions regional touring program.

After closing at the MCA on 21 February, the exhibition will open at Artspace Mackay (QLD) on 18 March. Further locations on the touring calendar include: Murray Art Museum Albury (NSW), Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute (SA), Moree Plains Gallery (NSW), Glasshouse Port Macquarie (NSW) and Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery (WA).

Museum of Contemporary Art Director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, commented: “Our Being Tiwi exhibition has been wowing local and international visitors throughout summer. We are very grateful to the Australian Government for their support through the Visions program, and look forward to connecting a broad and diverse public in regional Australia with the dynamic works of these nine contemporary artists.”

Being Tiwi features a range of artworks from print media to painting, and reveals how the expressive and experimental work being produced on the Tiwi Islands continues to realise in different forms the Tiwi traditions of life and culture. The exhibition includes the first prints produced at Tiwi Design, a selection of works on paper newly acquired for the MCA Collection along with works commissioned especially for the exhibition.

Located approximately 100km north of Darwin in the Northern Territory, the Tiwi Islands encompasses Bathurst and Melville Islands. Emerging, established and senior artists from all three art centres are represented through the work of Pedro Wonaeamirri, Timothy Cook, Raelene Kerinauia from Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association; Maria Josette Orsto, Eddie Puruntatameri and Giovanni Tipungwuti from Tiwi Design Aboriginal Corporation; Cornelia Tipuamantumirri, Nina Puruntatameri from Munupi Art & Crafts Association; and senior artist Bede Tungutalum, founding member of Tiwi Design and now working independently on Bathurst Island.

MCA Senior Curator Natasha Bullock and MCA Curator Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Programs, Keith Munro, said: “The selection of artists offers a unique insight into contemporary art practice from the Tiwi Islands. Being Tiwi highlights how these approaches have evolved over time from the earliest work in the MCA Collection to the most recent.”