Each year, the Telstra NATSIAA exhibition captures the attention of the nation with an inspiring breadth of work from emerging and established artists. In 2021, Telstra NATSIAA will see sees an increasing variety of art forms and media, collectively demonstrating the richness and diversity of current contemporary Indigenous artistic practice, and the pre-eminence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, nationwide, within the visual arts. The exhibition will run 7 August 2021 to 6 February 2022 at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) in Darwin, and in the virtual exhibition can be seen from anywhere. Award winners will be announced Friday 6 August 2021.
Artist Finalists based in Queensland featured in this year’s exhibition:
–Based in Brisbane, Dylan Sarra is Taribelang artist from the Bundaberg Burnett region. With a main focus on exploring identity and place, Sarra uses a range of disciplines to capture the Indigenous experience. He has been a Telstra NATSIAA finalist after entering for the first time in 2020 and being selected as a Finalist two consecutive years. For his NATSIAA artwork, the artist explains: the artist investigates archival photographs from the Queensland State Library. From studying various historical images, Sarra has developed a better understanding of how his own arts practice is influenced by traditional methods of cultural practice and the role his work plays in uncovering truths while dismantling myths perpetuated by a colonial mentality.
– Based in Brisbane, Quandamooka woman Elisa Jane Carmichael is a multidisciplinary artist who honours her salt-water heritage by incorporating materials collected from Country, embracing traditional techniques, and expressing contemporary adaptations through painting, weaving, and textiles. She comes from a family of artists and curators, and works closely with her female kin to revive, nurture and preserve cultural knowledge and practice. Elisa is a descendant of the Ngugi people, traditional custodians of Quandamooka, which comprises the lands around Moreton Bay. Using weaving, dyeing and image creating techniques, her art continues the artist’s journey of returning Quandamooka practices to ensure traditions are visible for generations to come.
– Kyra Mancktelow is a Quandamooka, Nughi woman of Moorgumpin, or Moreton Island. An emerging artist, her work traverses painting, print work and sculpturing. Kyra is currently studying a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at QCA, Griffith University. Her Telstra NATSIAA artwork investigates victims of the Myora mission, located on Minjerribah. The work focuses on the uniforms work by the children to assimilate under a strict missionary regime from in the late 1800s.
More details HERE
