Collaboration with JGM Gallery
If you have visited or passed our gallery recently, you will have noticed a vibrant and expressive artwork hanging in our window.
The work is by Maggie Porter and is from the new Exhibition of Aboriginal Art being presented by our neighbours JGM Gallery.
It is a glorious, spacious, light filled contemporary space situated accross the road from us, in Howie Street. The Gallery principal, Jennifer Guerrini Maraldi is a leading specialist in Australian Indigenous art and has over twenty years experience in the field.
With the impressive and innovative Herzog & De Meuron designed flagship development of the Royal College of Art finally nearing completion and with lockdown restrictions behind us, the energy in our area is growing rapidly, leading to the neighbourhood being referred to as the “Battersea Creative District”.
Restaurants, pubs and cafes are bustling again as spring approaches and graduate students, artists, architects and designers from the RCA, Foster and Partners, Vivienne Westwood and others, are all gradually returning to their studios and offices and it feels like a new beginning.
As we have discussed before, we feel there is a valuable and tangible connection between contemporary, modern and historic artworks that warrants more attention, particularly as we recognise that collectors of our historic pieces are increasingly combining and displaying them alongside contemporary art.
We are continuing to explore the work of emerging artists and their responses to and inspiration from the works we handle at RYA and plan to carry on with our Contemporary Collaborations programme, with three annual Window Exhibitions, welcoming three independant curators for 2022, whilst CC Curator Erin Hughes is on away on maternity leave.
We feel that there is a sensitive connection between the pieces we handle and many of the works selected and shown by JGM, so in another innovative collaboration, we have agreed to work on occasional cross pollination with them and plan to show selected works from their inventory. in turn, they will be exhibiting edited pieces from our collection in their contemporary space.
We were drawn to the uninhibited exuberance of this work by Maggie Porter and beguiled by the narrative of her abstract representations of the waterholes, sandhills and rocks from her homeland, which were the inspiration for the work.
We have installed it above a primitive comb back Windsor stick chair and an C18th oak tripod candlestand, with a single shorebird decoy standing alone upon it, beneath the colourful abstracted landscape.
We hope the composition gives some pleasure or offers inspiration to those of you who pass by, and we are delighted to be collaborating with JGM Gallery in this way.
MAGGIE PORTER KURLTKURTA, NT AUSTRALIA, 1961-2021
Maggie Porter was an early member of Tjarlirli art in its founding years. She was born near Kurltkurta out bush before travelling with her family to Papunya. She moved back to Tjukurla when the outstation was first established in 1981.
In bold color, with fresh energy, Porter depict the Kapi (waterholes), Tali (sandhills) and Puli (rocks), of important sites close to Tjukurla and throughout the Ngaanyatjarra lands. Her energetic works are full of colour and movement. They depict observations of landscape - the Kapi (waterholes), Tali (sandhills) and Puli (rocks), of important sites close to Tjukurla and throughout the Ngaanyatjarra lands.
Porter passed away in early 2021. She enjoyed a long relationship with Tjarlirli Arts, as an early member in its founding years, Porter travelled and developed her career, notably, to Papunya an equally dynamic art centre. Porter remained committed to her community and painting throughout her life, JGM are delighted to be able to bring her work to an international audience, giving it the recognition it deserves.
