Exhibition Opening + Panel Discussion
Current / Teho Ropeyarn
Since bipotaim—the Torres Strait Creole word meaning ‘before time’— oral histories have been one of the main ways that Indigenous people have ensured that important traditional knowledge is not lost. For Teho Ropeyarn, of the Angkamuthi and Yadhaykanu clans which settled Injinoo in Western Cape York, that vehicle for the safeguarding of tradition is printmaking.
Ropeyarn’s prints, brought to life with energetic design and colour, demonstrate an intimate understanding of the natural world. They convey a knowledge of specific land and waters, in Ropeyarn’s words ‘from the inside out’. Further, he says ‘the stories embedded in these prints are not just about place—they are about family, belonging, and continuity.
Date
Saturday 15 March
Event
2pm
Smoking Ceremony + Welcome to Country by Bunurong Elder
2.30pm Welcome Lisa Byrne Artistic & Executive Director
2.40pm Critical Perspectives panel discussion with Judith Ryan AM, Teho Ropeyarn + Brian Robinson
McClelland is honoured to showcase the work of two prominent artists from Queensland's far north as part of its series of important First Nations contemporary art exhibitions, Current. Brian Robinson (Kala Lagaw Ya, born 1973) and Teho Ropeyarn (Angkamuthiand Yadhaykana, born 1988) both work in print-making and sculpture and draw upon cultural knowledge handed down through generations of storytelling, as well as bringing vibrant and distinctive creative trademarks to their respective practices. Join them as they discuss their practices in conversation with Judith Ryan AM, one of Australia's foremost authorities on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
Bookings essential
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Judith Ryan AM received a BA Honours in Fine Arts and English Literature at the University of Melbourne, in 1970, and a Certificate in Education at Oxford University, in 1972. In 1977, she began her Art Museum career at the National Gallery of Victoria where she was Senior Curator of Indigenous Art on her retirement in 2021. Judith greatly contributed to planning, initiating, and advancing the NGV’s Indigenous Art collection from 1987 onwards. She has curated over fifty exhibitions, focused on increasing the visibility, accessibility and revealing the magnificence of Indigenous art. She has brokered this unique expression of culture through a period of immense socio-political change. In 2017, Judith Ryan was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division “For significant service to the visual arts, particularly to the museums and galleries sector, as a curator of Indigenous exhibitions and as an author.” Judith’s most recent publication, TIWI Art & Artists (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2020), won GOLD in the “Australia/New Zealand/Pacific Rim – Best Regional Non-Fiction” category at the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Judith is currently Senior Curator, Art Museums at the University of Melbourne and is working with Professor Marcia Langton and Shanysa McConville on the exhibition 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art that will launch the University’s redeveloped Ian Potter Museum of Art in March 2025.
