Mulka is happy to announce that Rarrirarri is going to be part of this years @illuminateadelaide . Originally exhibited at, and commissioned by, @rising.melbourne in 2023 the work will be on display at @agsa.adelaide and is graciously on loan from @artgalleryofnsw . Can’t wait Adelaide. Here we come.
Students from @dhupuma_barker enjoying the upgrades to the Saltwater Auditorium here at Buku! Did you know there are hundreds of films available to watch at the art centre? The Mulka Archive is home to an incredibly broad collection of materials - from archival footage to feature films and even local footy finals.
Swipe for a snippet of Djeṯ’puy Dhawu, a claymation retelling of the Maḏarrpa clan sea-eagle story made by @mulkaproject and students from Yirrkala Bilingual School.
The upgrades to the Saltwater Auditorium were made possible by @ntgovernment through the Community Benefit Fund.
NOW OPEN: Painting Now 2025 | Until 28 December | Michael Reid Sydney
This week at Michael Reid Sydney, we are thrilled to present the 2025 edition of Painting Now – an expansive group survey assembling significant new bodies of work by five extraordinary artists: JO CHEW, HEATH NOCK, BRENTON DRECHSLER, COLUMBIERE TIPUNGWUTI and DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI.
Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, our annual program spotlights an exciting school of established talents at a moment of creative breakthrough, celebrating the here-and-now of contemporary painting with works that expand the medium’s possibilities and push it into optically charged, conceptually daring and technically dazzling terrain.
Now unfolding across the entire ground-floor gallery at our flagship Eora/Sydney space as the capstone to our 2025 exhibitions program, Painting Now will be celebrated with opening drinks this Saturday, 6 December, and all works are available to explore and acquire online or by contacting curator Dean Phillips-Andersen.
“The calibre of the artists, the ambition of the work, the conversations along the way, and seeing everything come together in the gallery made curating Painting Now 2025 one of my most fulfilling projects to date,” says Phillips-Andersen, who sat down with each of the artists for a series of online profiles – now live on our website.
To enquire about available work or RSVP to this Saturday’s celebration, please email [email protected]@brenton_drechsler@jilamaraartsandcrafts@jochew_@bukuartnow@mulkaproject@heathnock@deanandersen.art
#brentondrechsler #columbieretipungwuti #jochew #dhukumulwanambi #heathnock #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney
YOU’RE INVITED: Painting Now | Opening Drinks this Saturday, 6 December, 2–4pm | Michael Reid Sydney
Our 2025 program at Michael Reid Sydney culminates this week with the latest edition of Painting Now – set to be welcomed with opening drinks this Saturday, 6 December, where many of the artists will be in attendance.
rinks will be served from 2pm and everyone is welcome to join us, experience this dynamic exhibition and hear from the five incredible talents who have joined forces for this year’s show: Columbiere Tipungwuti, Jo Chew, Heath Nock, Dhukumul Waṉambi and Brenton Drechsler.
Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, our annual group survey spotlights an exciting school of established contemporary painters from across Australia whose practices expand the creative possibilities of art’s most storied medium.
Each artist selected for the Painting Now Class of 2025 treats painting as an expanded creative field. With their distinct approaches, perspectives and preoccupations, they push the medium into optically charged, technically dazzling and conceptually daring terrain.
All works from Painting Now 2025 can be previewed and acquired online and by request ahead of this Saturday’s public celebration. For all enquiries and to RSVP to the opening drinks, please email [email protected]
OPENING DRINKS
Painting Now 2025
Saturday, 6 December, 2–4pm
Michael Reid Sydney
109 Shepherd Street
Chippendale NSW 2008
@brenton_drechsler@jilamaraartsandcrafts@jochew_@bukuartnow@heathnock@mulkaproject
#brentondrechsler #columbieretipungwuti #jochew #dhukumulwanambi #heathnock #paintingnow #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney
THIS WEEK: DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI | Painting Now | 4–28 December | Michael Reid Sydney
“‘Marrakulu Monuk’ represents the saltwater at my homeland of Gurka’wuy. This saltwater belongs to my Marrakulu clan,” says Yolŋu artist DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI of the digital painting she will present this week at Michael Reid Sydney as part of our annual survey, Painting Now.
“Instead of painting ‘Marrakulu Monuk’ onto barks with ochres, I wanted to make it digital while staying true to our traditions. Using the ochre colours of my father’s bark paintings, I made a digital brush to be like marwat, the handmade, thin-hair brush Yolŋu artists use. I then animated our minytji using many techniques to show the infinite swirling motion that occurs in our clan’s saltwater at Gurka’wuy.”
By transposing cultural knowledge and a time-honoured visual language into the digital realm, Waṉambi continues the legacy of artistic innovation forged by her father, the late artist and cultural leader Mr Waṉambi – a mantle shared by her sister, acclaimed contemporary artist and 2025 Telstra Art Award-winner Gaypalani Waṉambi.
“My father inspired me to make paintings like this,” says Dhukumul, who works as a filmmaker and digital artist with The Mulka Project. “He was the first to take miny’tji that are normally painted onto bark and burial poles, and make them move.”
Reimagining painting as an expanded field and harnessing new technologies to continue an intergenerational transference of traditional stories, Waṉambi embodies the experimental spirit of a new generation of Yolŋu artists working at Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land, and the celebration of painting’s broadened possibilities that sits at the heart of Painting Now.
“I would like to continue doing artwork like this in the future, to show and teach other Yolŋu artists; inspire them to learn and bring their clan’s minytji to life.”
To receive a preview catalogue and discuss works from Painting Now, please email [email protected]@bukuartnow@mulkaproject
#dhukumulwanambi #mulkaproject #digitalpainting #paintingnow #yirrkala #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney
COMING SOON: DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI | Painting Now | 4–28 December | Michael Reid Sydney
Michael Reid Sydney’s 2025 exhibition program will soon culminate with the next edition of Painting Now. Curated by Dean Phillips-Andersen, this annual survey spotlights established contemporary painters from across Australia whose practices expand the creative possibilities of art’s most storied medium. We are delighted to announce that this year’s stellar line-up includes Yolŋu artist DHUKUMUL WAṈAMBI.
The youngest daughter of the late Wukuṉ Waṉambi, esteemed artist and Cultural Director of The Mulka Project, Dhukumul Waṉambi brings ancestral songlines into motion with ‘Marrakulu Monuk’ – an animated digital painting that translates her clan’s sacred saltwater miny’tji into luminous, swirling form.
“Instead of painting ‘Marrakulu Monuk’ onto bark with ochres, I wanted to make it digital while staying true to our traditions,” says the artist, who works as a filmmaker and digital artist with The Mulka Project at Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Using a self-made digital brush that mimics the fine marwat of Yolŋu bark painting, Waṉambi animates the infinite movement of her Marrakulu homeland’s waters at Gurka’wuy.
“My father inspired me to make paintings like this,” says the artist. “He was the first to take miny’tji that are normally painted onto bark and burial poles, and make them move.” By transposing cultural knowledge and a time-honoured visual language into the digital realm, Waṉambi continues her father’s legacy of artistic innovation – a mantle shared by her sister, award-winning contemporary artist Gaypalani Waṉambi – and embodies the experimental spirit of Painting Now.
All works from Painting Now can be previewed and acquired by request in the lead-up to the opening on Thursday, 4 December. For enquiries, please email [email protected].
@bukuartnow@mulkaproject
#dhukumulwanambi #dhukumulwanambiart #mulkaproject #digitalpainting #yolnguart #yolngupower #paintingnow #yirrkala #paintingnow2025 #michaelreidsydney
Tonight at ACMI join Dhukumul Wanambi and Bec Charlesworth from The Mulka Project for screenings of Mulka Films and a conversation with Amanda Haskard.
6–8pm, Wednesday.
@mumamonash@acmionline@bukuartnow
YOLNGU POWER : The Art of Yirrkala … this amazing most powerful exhibition is coming to an end … at the Art Gallery of NSW last day this coming Monday 8th Oct
I was incredibly lucky to be invited to the opening celebrations, even more fortunate to have my partner Lil and our two children both born at Yirrkala our daughter in 1979 our son 3years later at the opening it was like a bit of a homecoming… we lived next door to that little blue building for almost all the 9 and 1/2 years of our time there ❤️
But it is this history of ART some 8 decades of ART from this country in NE Arnhemland that is most powerful it speaks of a rich history and a belonging to country over a very longtime in one oh so wonderful exhibition 👌
There are too many works but it was wonderful to see this small figure by Narritjin my mentor my friend from long ago…. then to see this new work in steel like that of Wurrandan Marawili who talks of being inspired by his father Bakulangay … ah! too many memories … so good to see , so good to catch up with so many old friends, one of the best Naminapu so good to say that last goodbye
Thank you so much Buku-Larrnggay @gmutt and the Art Gallery of NSW Cara Pinchbeck for the invite … don’t miss this one just oh so truely amazing exhibition ❤️💛🖤
#artgalleryofnsw @bukuartnow #yirrkala #aboriginalart @mulkaproject@annakkabbanna@marrathindi@lilian.fox.562@maudpage_
Stop scrolling and experience the colours, sounds and songs of Yolŋu country in ‘Yalu’.
The Mulka Project from Yirrkala, Northern Territory, have created a breathtaking light and sound experience, evoking the shifting cycles of land and sea and the interconnected flow of culture.
Enter the Nelson Packer Tank and immerse yourself in this living audiovisual archive. See ‘Yalu’ before it closes on 20 July and alongside ‘Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala’.
This project is supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund (@copyrightagency_ ).
