This presentation of artworks by revered bark painter David Malangi Daymirringu spans 34 years of his professional practice. They follow important sites, ceremonies, waterholes and stories that encompass ancestral knowledge connected to the artist’s Manharrngu clan of central Arnhem Land.

These selected works were part of a significant body of impressive bark paintings acquired by the Arnott’s Biscuits company for the enjoyment of all Australians in 1987 in the lead-up to the 1988 Bicentenary celebrations in Australia. They were later gifted to the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1993, coinciding with the United Nations International Year of the World’s Indigenous People.

Malangi’s artwork is held in numerous state, national and international collections. He has exhibited extensively in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally and was one of the first Aboriginal artists invited to exhibit in the 3rd Biennale of Sydney in 1979. He was the recipient of a major solo retrospective, No ordinary place: the art of David Malangi, at the National Gallery of Australia in 2004.

Included in extended labels throughout the Artist Room are unique family insights. These add a deeper layer of knowledge and greater understanding of the places and stories that have been referenced by the artist.

This is the seventh exhibition in the Artist Room, a series highlighting an artist’s work in the MCA Collection.

Keith Munro Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Programs