JGM Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Exhibitions
  • Artists
  • Artworks
  • Press
  • Publications
  • About us
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Current
  • Forthcoming
  • Past

Revelation & Concealment: An exhibition of paintings and prints by 18 Indigenous Australian artists.

Past exhibition
17 July - 31 August 2024
  • Images
  • Overview
  • Selected Works
  • Installation Views
  • Press
Images
Overview
Jennifer Ingkatji, 'Seven Sisters Story', 2023, acrylic on linen, 198cm x 152cm. Image courtesy of Julius Killerby.
Jennifer Ingkatji, 'Seven Sisters Story', 2023, acrylic on linen, 198cm x 152cm. Image courtesy of Julius Killerby.
JGM Gallery presents Revelation & Concealment, an exhibition of paintings and prints by 18 Indigenous Australian artists. The starting points for this exhibition are the dual themes of "revelation and concealment" in Indigenous contemporary art, a dialectic which curator Stephen Gilchrist identifies in his 2016 analysis of Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi's Children's Water Dreaming (1972) (Gilchrist, 2016). 
 
The tension between these polarities is often manifest in the relationship between abstraction and realism. Indeed, a great strength of Revelation & Concealment'sexhibiting artists is their capacity to reconcile these two approaches, which they achieve using a variety of formal innovations.  
 
In Jennifer Ingkatji's Seven Sisters Story, the narrative of its Tjukurpa ("Creation Story"), which tells how the Pleiades cluster came into being, is not articulated sequentially. Instead, the painting gives an impression of creation through Ingkatji's auratic sprays of dotwork. Superimposed over a preliminary layer of paint, these dots dazzle the viewer, suggesting fields of energy emanating from astral beings, or the clarity of constellations against an abyssal night sky. However, this dotwork also slightly obscures the composition below. Thus, while impacting the viewer in a manner akin to the experience of revelation, Ingkatji’s dotwork can also be seen to function as a mask, concealing the forms beneath. 
 
Aerial representations of the land in Revelation & Concealment often feature topographies flattened into two-dimensional motifs. Waterholes and meeting grounds are translated into concentric circles on plane surfaces, and routes between these features are transformed into connective lines. Through a one-point perspectival lens, features of the land may diminish into the distance or evade observation altogether. Though seemingly more abstract, an aerial approach instead allows the viewer to observe the landscape more holistically. 
 
In Untitled II, Marcus 'Double O' Camphoo Kemarre paints blocks of green and white over a discarded mining map, which the artist sourced from the Peko Mines in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory. Though Camphoo Kemarre is concealing information about the mine, this act doubles to reveal Indigenous peoples' land relations, which are often disregarded in mining cartographies. This act of reclamation is thus one which expresses far more than the mining map would in isolation.
 
The artworks in Revelation & Concealment ultimately respond to the question: "How well does an artwork represent or express something, without simply making an illustration of it?" In other words, to what extent does an artist's representational deviation from reality enable them to say something truer about their subject? 
 
Exhibiting artists include: Alair Pambegan, Carissa Gurwalwal, David Bosun, George Cooley, Hubert Pareroultja, Jeanon Bosun, Jennifer Ingkatji, Judith Walkabout, Lily Hargraves, Lindsay Nelson, Marcus Camphoo, Mulkun Wirrpanda, Nyarapayi Giles, Phyllis Thomas, Rosie Tasman, Sally Gabori, Valmai Pollard, Watson Corby.

For further information and press enquiries, please contact the gallery at info@jgmgallery.com or + 44 (0) 207 228 6027.

 

Opening Reception: 

Wednesday, 17 July, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

24 Howie Street, 

London SW11 4AY

Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Download Press Release
Selected Works
  • Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori My Country, 2009 Synthetic polymer paint on linen 136cm x 121cm
    Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori
    My Country, 2009
    Synthetic polymer paint on linen
    136cm x 121cm
  • Hubert Pareroultja Looking towards the James Range, 2023 Acrylic on Belgian linen 76cm x 90cm
    Hubert Pareroultja
    Looking towards the James Range, 2023
    Acrylic on Belgian linen
    76cm x 90cm
  • Phyllis Thomas Gemerre Natural ochre on board 100cm x 80cm
    Phyllis Thomas
    Gemerre
    Natural ochre on board
    100cm x 80cm
  • Marcus Camphoo Untitled I, 2023 Acrylic on transparency (mining map) framed 85cm x 116cm
    Marcus Camphoo
    Untitled I, 2023
    Acrylic on transparency (mining map) framed
    85cm x 116cm
  • Watson Corby Kalipinya Tjukurrpa, 2017 Acrylic on canvas 122cm x 91cm
    Watson Corby
    Kalipinya Tjukurrpa, 2017
    Acrylic on canvas
    122cm x 91cm
  • Nyarapayi Giles Warmurrungu, 2017 Acrylic on canvas 177cm x 148.5cm
    Nyarapayi Giles
    Warmurrungu, 2017
    Acrylic on canvas
    177cm x 148.5cm
Installation Views
  • Hires 11
  • Hires 7
  • Hires 8
  • Hires 4
  • Hires
  • Hires 10
  • Hires 5
  • Hires 12
  • Hires 2
  • Hires 3
  • Hires 9
  • Hires 6
Press
  • OverLaps

    A bi-weekly newsletter spotlighting spatial complexity and diaspora in the arts. A review of 'Revelation & Concealment'
    Camilla Wrabetz, August 30, 2024

Related artists

  • Marcus Camphoo

    Marcus Camphoo

  • George Cooley

    George Cooley

  • Watson Corby

    Watson Corby

  • Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori

    Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori

  • Nyarapayi Giles

    Nyarapayi Giles

  • Carissa Gurwalwal

    Carissa Gurwalwal

  • Jennifer Ingkatji

    Jennifer Ingkatji

  • Lindsay Nelson

    Lindsay Nelson

  • Lily Hargraves Nungarrayi

    Lily Hargraves Nungarrayi

  • Alair Pambegan

    Alair Pambegan

  • Hubert Tjapaltjarri Pareroultja

    Hubert Tjapaltjarri Pareroultja

  • Rosie Murnku Marnku Tasman

    Rosie Murnku Marnku Tasman

  • Phyllis Thomas

    Phyllis Thomas

  • Judith Walkabout

    Judith Walkabout

  • Mulkun Wirrpanda

    Mulkun Wirrpanda

Back to Past exhibitions
Privacy Policy
© 2025 JGM Gallery
Site by Artlogic

24 Howie Street, Battersea, London SW11 4AY

+44 (0) 207 228 6027 | info@jgmgallery.com

JOIN THE MAILING LIST

Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Close

Join our mailing list

Sign up