Perhaps the most profound impact of contemporary Indigenous art is in the expression of PLACE, as the hearth, the heartland, and as a spiritual realm that is indivisible from real time.”
— Vivien Anderson
VIVIEN ANDERSON GALLERY REPRESENTS AN EXCEPTIONAL GROUP OF INDIGENOUS ARTISTS, SOME OF WHOM HAVE BEEN WITH THE GALLERY SINCE THE GENESIS OF THEIR CAREERS. THE ARTISTS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED FOR THEIR ORIGINAL VISION, A STRONG COMMITMENT TO THEIR WORK AND CAREERS, AND UNIVERSALLY SHARE A WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK THEIR MINDS AND COMMIT THEIR STRONG IDEAS TO THEIR WORK.
For thirty years plus, the gallery team have been dedicated to ensuring visitors enter a welcoming and supportive environment to experience contemporary Indigenous art, engaging with the curiosity of visitors, and enabling them to gain an insight into the creative inspiration of the exhibiting artists, their culture, and the importance of their professional work in the broader national conversation.
The gallery has a dedicated exhibition calendar for represented and guest artists and provides a thoughtful environment to consider major and emerging artist’s work with the facility to extend knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island visual arts through a wide-ranging stock room and library.
It has been a key initiative for the gallery to maintain presenting the best of Indigenous artists’ practices from remote, rural, and urban centres internationally, through an immersive and extensive series of biennial exhibitions in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. First staged in 2010, the series offers artists the opportunity to travel to the exhibition and related cultural events, and develop relationships with institutional curators, collectors and especially First Nations artists from Canada and the USA.
As I consider the artists and their work that we represent at the gallery, I must also consider what roadblocks and ordeals many have endured. Despite the tremendous obstacles to universal health, education and opportunity, these artists are our nations hugest talent. Their deep honesty and driving commitment to making beautiful art speaks their truth. A truth that as a nation we are starting to embrace.”
— VIVIEN ANDERSON, DIRECTOR
For many, contemporary Indigenous art is their first encounter with our First Nations people. It is a way to begin understanding their stories, their culture, and the vast and complex history of this land. Great artists are great story tellers, and it is a privilege to represent an extraordinary group of artists who generously share their stories with us all.”
— AMY BOYD, GALLERY MANAGER
After three decades the gallery has deep and abiding relationships with clients and museums in Australia and internationally. Having participated in the earliest stages of the national and international awakening to Australian Indigenous art as an artistic force, the gallery recognises the efforts and commitment of the curators; past and present, the institutions and the private collectors that have steadfastly supported the industry as a whole.
Over many years gallery artists have been successfully acquired and are now represented in numerous strategic public collections worldwide and are also held in depth throughout the nation’s public galleries.