Antoni Tàpies (b. 1923, d. 2012) was born in Barcelona into a family of booksellers and Catalan nationalist politicians. He was an influential catalyst in the global phenomenon of postwar gestural abstraction (named variously ‘abstract expressionism’, ‘tachisme’ or ‘art informel’). He has been called ‘unquestionably the leading figure in [Spain’s] art world of the second half of the twentieth century’ (Manuel Borja-Villel, Antoni Tàpies: the Resources of Rhetoric. Dia Beacon, 2009).

Important solo exhibitions devoted to Tàpies’ have been presented in the Guggenheim Museum, New York (1962 and 1995); Kunsthaus Zürich (1962); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1980); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1991); Serpentine Gallery, London (1992); Jeu de Paume, Paris (1994); Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2000); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2000); MACBA, Barcelona (2004); Dia Beacon (2009), and Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen (2022).

Brook Andrew’s interdisciplinary practice ranges across installation, performance and museum intervention, interweaving Wiradjuri language and actions of memory and history with the imagery and devices of museum practice. neon text. In 2017, Brook’s artistic career was recognised with a large-scale, immersive solo exhibition – Brook Andrew: The Right to Offend is Sacred at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Darcey Bella Arnold (b.1986) works between painting, sculpture and drawing in a research-based practice that anatomises language to annotate its necessity, fallibility and creative potential.

Arnold received her BFA at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne in 2007, and Honours from Monash University, Melbourne in 2009. Arnold’s work has been shown in institutions and museums across Australia including the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne; UNSW Galleries, Sydney; Geelong Gallery, Geelong; La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Western Australia.

Eubena Nampitjin was born in Tjinndjaldpa, south of Jupiter Well in the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia. This area, on the Canning Stock Route and over 350 kilometres inland from Port Hedland, is one of the most remote places in Australia. Nampitjin had little contact with non-Indigenous Australians until the late 1940s, when she travelled to Old Mission with her children and first husband. She moved with the mission in 1963 to its present site at Balgo, or Wirrimanu as it is traditionally known. Nampitjin was an elder of the Wangkajunga people, a custodian of women’s law. While at the mission, she regularly returned to live in her country for extended periods. Nampitjin was awarded the Open Painting prize in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 1998.

Helicopter Joey Tjungurrayi is well recognised as one of Warlayirti Artists’ leading artists and is a great ambassador for the Art Centre, painting with Warlayirti Artists since the early ‘nineties. Born at Nynmi, west of Kiwirrkurra in Western Australia, Helicopter was brought up in a traditional nomadic lifestyle, learning from childhood the location of water sources and how to hunt for bush food. The time spent moving through country as a young boy has had a profound and lasting effect on Helicopter’s artistic process and practice.

Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Hervé Télémaque studied with painter Julien Lévi at the Art Students League in New York, 1957-1960. After moving to Paris in 1961 he met the surrealists and was soon attending their daily meetings and other events. The first reproductions of his works appeared in the fifth issue (October 1963) of the Surrealist Group's La Bréche (The breach) —the same issue that introduced Ted Joans (writing from Timbuktu) and the nascent Surrealist Group in Chicago. He also collaborated on such later surrealist periodicals as L’Archibras and the Bulletin de Liaison Surréaliste.

k

In her formative years Kathleen walked around the country south of Yakka Yakka with her mother, father, brother and uncle. This included Mangkayi, her father’s country, and Ngantalarra and Nakarra Nakarra her mother’s country. They also travelled to Gordon Downs Station for rations of tea, sugar, flour, and tobacco. Kathleen commenced painting in the late 1980s and in 2002 began to emerge as a significant artist gaining recognition for her predominately red and white paintings of Nakarra Nakarra (Seven Sisters’ Tjukurrpa) and the country associated with this story. She was the senior Law woman and custodian of the Nakarra Nakarra (Seven Sisters’ Dreaming) songs and ceremonies from the country south of Yakka Yakka.

Lucy Yukenbarri was a respected senior custodian with a vast knowledge of the waterholes in the Great Sandy Desert.  She began painting in 1989. She concentrated on painting the soaks and rock holes of her country, also the numerous types of bush food including Kantilli (bush raisins) and Pura (bush tomato).  Lucy held many ceremonial responsibilities in the keeping of traditional law.

Marie is the oldest daughter of artist Mati (Bridget) Mudgedell(c.1935-2002). She was born at Sturt Creek Station and later moved to Ruby Plains with her family. Her mother’s country was near Yagga Yagga, Ngarti people’s country. Her father was from Sturt Creek, a place called Killi Killi. Marie left her family to attend the school at Old Balgo Mission. When she finished her schooling, she worked in the laundry of Billiluna Station where she met her husband, fellow artist Patrick (Jupiter) Smith, with whom she moved to Balgo so they could put their children through school. Marie is a highly talented linguist in both Ngardi and Kukatja languages. Marie is one of the last speakers of Ngarti, she and her husband are working on a Ngardi dictionary to ensure the language is not forgotten.

Ningie was born in the Pippar/Kiwirrkurra area. Her mother and father died when she was very young, and she came to the Balgo Mission at the invitation of Aboriginal people living there. Ningie has been a prominent Balgo artist for many years, her bold and dramatic style was highly sought after and her unique application of thick ‘rivers’ of paint result in a highly unique style. In her later year Ningie has developed a ‘loose’ style of painting as a result of her frailty and loss of eyesight, this has developed into a wild and uninhibited style which only comes with age and a deep knowledge of Country. Ningie loves to paint and is a dedicated and prolific artist.

Rowan McNaught is secretary of Darpa, under whose auspices he has produced these works.

Sidney Moody is a Kukutja artist based at Wirrimanu (Balgo) in the Western Desert region. He is married to the renowned artist Madeleine Nowee and they both work through Warlayirti Arts, the Aboriginal owned and managed art centre based in Wirrrimanu. Moody began exhibiting in 2013 and his practice is inspired by both his country, Nyila and that of his wife's father, Truriljarra in the Gibson Desert.

Simon McGlinn (b. 1985) has been exhibiting his work for over a decade, both in Australia and internationally. Through his collaborative partnership with artists Gavin Bell and Jarrah de Kuijer, they have exhibited in New Zealand, the United States, Italy, France, Japan, and Indonesia. From 2017 to 2019, they were Gertrude Contemporary Studio Artists, and in 2022, they were awarded the Stonehouse-Glasshouse Residency in Chenaud, France.

In 2024, McGlinn presented Bones from the Evening Meal an exhibition at Monash University Faculty Gallery, as part of his Doctorate in Fine Art (Philosophy) at Monash University. He is a sessional lecturer in the VCA Painting Department at the University of Melbourne.

Susie Bootja Bootja's painting career followed the establishment of Warlayirti Artists, an Indigenous Art Centre at Balgo. One of the area's strongest artists, her work was characterised by an expressive style, and has been acquired by major Australian galleries, including the Art Galler of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria.

Tate Adams was a key figure in the professionalisation of printmaking in Australia. Soon after emigrating from Northern Ireland, he became a member of the Melbourne Technical College's significant first print collective (established 1952) in the centre of Naarm / Melbourne's CBD. When that institution evolved into the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Adams established the Diploma of Printmaking at in the early 1960s. In 1966, he established the Crossley Gallery, a small but influential venue designed to equally to promote contemporary Australian and Japanese printmakers.