World-Class Indigenous Art From Australia and Oceania is Featured Across Charlottesville This Spring

From February to July, gallery walls throughout Charlottesville will showcase world-class Indigenous art from Australia and Oceania, and artists are visiting all the way from their homelands to engage with the public. Why? Because Charlottesville’s Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection boasts not only a stellar collection of its own, but also deep local and global partnerships.

Kluge-Ruhe, in collaboration with The Fralin Museum of Art, Second Street Gallery, Les Yeux du Monde, and The Rotunda, presents the Charlottesville Indigenous Art Takeover 2024. For varying periods, overlapping in February and March, each of these sites will exhibit a diverse array of artworks never before seen in Charlottesville. The Fralin is featuring Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala, a major travelling exhibition organized by Kluge-Ruhe with Yolŋu (Aboriginal) artists and curators from northeast Arnhem Land, Australia alongside an exhibition of Slit Drums from New Guinea. A selection of Yolŋu prints and a ceramic pot are on exhibition in the Upper West Oval Room of the Rotunda. Les Yeux du Monde will showcase paintings and prints from the Torres Strait Islands and Second Street Gallery will feature contemporary Yolŋu bark paintings and sculpture. Kluge-Ruhe, the only museum in the United States dedicated to Indigenous Australian art, is showing two exhibitions including the newly opened close to the wind with artworks by Lisa Waup in the focus gallery.

What the Indigenous artists whose work is featured in these exhibitions have in common is their use of art to express the power and beauty of their culture, across cultures. Drawing on their cultural traditions, these artists are innovating with a wide range of materials and ideas in the contemporary world. This ability to speak across cultural borders without losing its distinctive identity makes Indigenous Australian art some of the most powerful art being produced anywhere today.

The Charlottesville public, especially art enthusiasts, won’t want to miss this one-of-a-kind opportunity to engage with one of the world’s most exciting contemporary art movements. A Detailed list of Exhibitions and Events are below.

VENUES PARTICIPATING IN THE CHARLOTTESVILLE INDIGENOUS ART TAKEOVER 2024:

• The Fralin Museum of Art
  • Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala
    February 3, 2024- July 14, 2024
  • Voices of Connection: Garamut Slit Drums of New Guinea
    December 9, 2023- June 2, 2024
• Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia
  • close to the wind: Lisa Waup
    December 16, 2023- June 30, 2024
  • Performing Country
    March 16, 2023- February 26, 2024
• Les Yeux du Monde
  • Ukapalimin: Eti Ko Eti: Resilience: Stories from the Torres Strait
    January 26- February 25, 2024
• Second Street Gallery
  • First Nation Australia: Contemporary Artists from Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala
    February 2- March 22, 2024
• Upper West Oval Room of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia
  • Waŋupini: Clouds of Remembrance and Return
    January 8- July 7, 2024

PUBLIC EVENTS:

• January 30, 2024 | 5- 7pm
  • Opening Reception to welcome the artists from Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala and Moa, Badu and Erub Islands to Charlottesville
  • Kluge Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, 400 Worrell Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22911
     
• February 2, 2024 | 10am- 11:30am
  • Breakfast and conversation with the artists of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala. RSVP Required
  • Second Street Gallery, 115 2nd Street SE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
     
• February 2, 2024 |  3pm
  • Artist led tour of the exhibition Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala. RSVP Required
  • The Fralin Museum of Art, 155 Rugby Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22904
     
• February 2, 2024 | 5pm- 7pm
  • First Friday Reception with the artists of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala
  • The Fralin Museum of Art, 155 Rugby Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22904
     
• February 2, 2024 | 5:30- 7:30pm
  • First Friday Opening with the artists of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala
  • Second Street Gallery, 115 2nd Street SE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
     
• February 3, 2024 |  10am- 12pm
  • Family studio day with the artists of Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala. RSVP Required
  • Second Street Gallery, 115 2nd Street SE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
     
• February 3, 2024 |  1- 3pm
  • Reception with artists Solomon Booth, Laurie Nona, Lavinia Ketchell and Joshua Thalday
  • Les Yeux du Monde, 841 Wolf Trap Road, Charlottesville Virginia, 22911
     
• February 3, 2024 | 4- 6:30pm
  • W. Waṉambi Distinguished Lecture given by Mayatili Marika and opening reception of Waŋupini: Clouds of Remembrance and Return. 
  • The Rotunda, 1826 University Avenue, Charlottesville, VA 22904.

SPONSORS:

MAḎAYIN: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala at The Fralin Museum of Art is presented by the Kluge-Ruhe in partnership with Buku-Larrnggay Mulka. It is supported by National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Australian Government Office of the Arts, Fondation OPALE, The Jefferson Trust, Agency, UVA Arts, Creative Australia, Crozier Fine Arts, UVA Parents Program, Virginia Humanities, Center for Global Inquiry & Innovation, and Australian Capital Equity Pty Limited, Kerry Stokes Collection.

The W. Waṉambi Distinguished Lecture in the Dome Room of The Rotunda is sponsored by the Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation and Virginia Humanities.

Waŋupini: Clouds of Remembrance and Return in the Upper West Oval Room of The Rotunda was curated by Professor Douglas Fordham. It is supported by the UVA Parents Program.

close to the wind: Lisa Waup in the Focus Gallery at Kluge-Ruhe was curated by Hannah Presley. It is supported by Creative Australia in conjunction with Lisa Waup’s artist residency at Kluge-Ruhe March 8 – April 7, 2024.

First Nation Australia: Contemporary Artists from Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre, Yirrkala at Second Street Gallery is sponsored by Pamela Friedman and Ronald Bailey.

THE KLUGE-RUHE ABORIGINAL ART COLLECTION IS THE ONLY MUSEUM OUTSIDE OF AUSTRALIA DEDICATED TO THE EXHIBITION AND STUDY OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN ART.

OUR VISION: A world in which Indigenous peoples are listened to, and their arts and cultures are honored and celebrated.

OUR MISSION: To expand knowledge and understanding of Indigenous Australian arts and cultures to cultivate greater appreciation of human diversity and creativity.

Images Left to Right: Dhambit Munuŋgurr, Ocean, 2019. Natural pigments and acrylic on eucalyptus bark. 78 11/32 x 42 17/32 in. (199 x 108 cm), Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. The 2017-19 Kluge-Ruhe Madayin Commission. Museum purchase, 2020, 2020.0007.001

Narritjin Maymuru, Yiŋapuŋapu, before 1972. Natural pigments on eucalyptus bark. 38 1/4 x21 in. (97.16 x 53.34 cm), Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. Edward L. Ruhe Collection, Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997, 1993.0004.857

Larrtjanŋa Ganambarr, Ŋaymil Djan’kawu Dhäwu, 1996. Natural pigments on eucalyptus bark. 125 3/8 x 31 in. (318.45 x 78.74 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997, 1996.0035.011